Gendered Politics and Law in Jordan

Guardianship over Women

Afaf Jabiri

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9783319326429
• eBook ISBN: 9783319326436
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Middle Eastern Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This book analyzes how the state constructs and reproduces gender identities in the context and geopolitics of Jordan. Guardianship over women is examined as not only the basis of women's legal and social subordination, but also a key factor in the construction and reproduction of a gender hierarchy system. Afaf Jabiri probes how a masculine state gives power and legitimacy through guardianship to institutions—including family, religion, and tribe—in managing, producing, and constructing gender identity. Does the masculine institution succeed in imposing a dominant form of femininity? Or are there ways by which women escape and resist the social and legal construction of femininity? Based on over 60 case studies of contemporary women in Jordan, the book additionally examines how the resultant strategies and tactics developed by women in Jordan are influenced by and affect their status within the guardianship system.

© The Author(s) 2016

Afaf JabiriGendered Politics and Law in Jordan10.1007/978-3-319-32643-6_1

Begin Abstract

1. Introduction: Gender, Law, and Politics in Jordan

Afaf Jabiri¹

(1)

School of Oriental and African Studies, London, UK

Keywords

Colonial legacyWomenMasculine stateGenderHierarchyJordan

End Abstract

Introduction

Between 2011 and 2013, the Jordanian Parliament was in a state of chaos. King Abdullah II dissolved the Parliament twice, and within the two years, parliamentary elections were held twice in the country. The conduct of Members of Parliament (MPs) was characterized by regular violent acts against each other. It became commonplace for some MPs to openly carry guns when attending Parliament’s sessions. One of the fights broadcast worldwide involved one of the MPs firing three shots at another. While no one was harmed, the incident certainly changed the image of Jordan as a “modern” and “model” state in the region, particularly as no legal case or procedures were taken against the MPs involved in the fight.

One of the widely distributed YouTube videos of the Parliament’s sessions was of the fight that took place between a Senator and MPs in one of the sessions of the Majlis al-Ummah (the General Assembly, which includes both senators and MPs) in July 2013. The Senator provoked the row when he suggested that the session should be comprised of two speaking MPs and one speaking Senator because “[t]he male has a portion of two females.” ¹ Very critical of the MPs, the Senator meant by this statement to degrade the Parliament’s status to a state of femininity, while assigning masculinity to the Senate House. MPs angrily responded to his suggestion with statements such as that of one MP, who declared: the “Jordanian Parliament has no females in it and female MPs are men in their political stands.” ² The MPs wrote a joint statement requesting the head of Majlis al-Ummah to restore dignity to the Parliament and its members.

Apart from distributing the video to mock MPs, the news media paid no particular attention to how, in a house that legislates people’s rights, women are seen as weak and were used to degrade the status of MPs, especially by a senator who served two terms as Jordan’s Prime Minister. Furthermore, MPs who tried to defend themselves did so through statements akin to: women MPs are masculine in their political dealings. I went to Jordan a few weeks after this incident and was particularly interested to learn how women in the Majlis and women activists responded to this incident. Several conversations took place, but here I want to address two particular discussions: one with a senator and another with an activist. In my discussion with the senator, I asked about her reaction to what has been said, and she stated: “When I heard what he said, I laughed, shockingly, maybe.” I then asked if she had responded, or if any woman in the Parliament or the House of Senators had taken any action. She told me:

There are so many issues facing us [women senators and MPs] in the Majlis. We usually pick our fights in accordance to our priorities. If I want to engage in a dispute in the Majlis I would prefer to have it about something with more substance, not a jerk like this. In addition, this discussion will be useless.

In my discussion with an activist, she stated:

We hear such statements from male writers, journalists, poets, and activists every day. I am not surprised, and you should not be surprised either. We do not engage in such discussions because it is not going to have any significant results.

Neither the activist nor the senator—both of whom are undoubtedly committed to women’s issues—considered this incident to hold any substantial meaning, pointing to the prevalence of sexist statements in general and this incident’s insignificance compared to issues of law reform and rights for women in public spaces.

The general public’s lack of interest in this incident, women’s rights activists in particular, raises a question about whether the dominant norms of femininity have been unquestionably internalized, resulting in the “common sense” of normative femininity as “self-evident.” The treatment of the statement as not posing a threat to women—dismissing it as a “regular” comment by a “jerk”—is striking, particularly from those who legislate or defend women’s rights, as such does not take the intertwined relationship between how women are commonly viewed, what legal rights they enjoy, and the positions they occupy in the family and wider society into account. Such treatment underlines a naturalization of normative femininity, whereby women are conceptualized as weak, dependent, and unreasonable human beings. The fact that raising a discussion about how women are perceived in the Majlis al-Ummah is seen as “useless” suggests that an established set of norms, perceived to be facts, exist about women and changing the mentality that constantly enforces these perceptions would be impossible or unimportant compared to other gains or rights. This also raises questions about how women react to statements that conceptualize them as the Other, as the “weak, minor, dependent subjects,” leading them to consider which “battle to pick.”

This book is about the construction of normative femininity in Jordan, a context where the state adopts and enforces the system of wilaya (guardianship) over women in family laws. It investigates the ways in which the state’s adopted policy of men’s wilaya over women contributes to constructing women’s sense of femininity, and hence influences women’s conceptions of the Self and everyday practices. It examines wilaya over women, which is one of the core legal provisions in the Arab states’ Muslim family laws, to analyze the intersectional nature of women’s subordination in the law, religion, tribe, and family relationships. The book posits that wilaya over women, which designates a legal minority status to women, not only forms the very basis of women’s legal and social subordination but also plays a key role in the construction and reproduction of a gender hierarchy system.

Muslim family laws in the Arab region routinely include provisions that grant a wali (usually a male blood relative), the right to wilaya over women. A basic definition of wilaya over women is that it grants the father or another male relative the right to act on behalf of his daughter, or female relative, in matters of marriage. ³ The definition of wilaya in most of fiqh literature is: “The legal authority vested in a person who is fully qualified and competent to safeguard the interests and rights of another who is incapable of doing so independently.” ⁴ In holding such a meaning of legal authority, wilaya notably signifies the power of someone over another without the consent of those who must submit.

However, there are two types of wilaya provisions in interpretations of Muslim family laws: the first pertains specifically to a woman’s choice of marriage partner, and the second applies in general terms. The general provisions place women under the guardianship of a man either until they reach a certain age (e.g., in Jordan, women are placed under wilaya until the age of 30) or for their lifetime (for instance, in Yemen and Saudi Arabia). By this, wilaya provisions define women as legal minors and dependent subjects.

Although Muslim family laws have been studied extensively in various contexts, the linkages between how laws operate not only to organize women’s lives but also to construct and reproduce norms about women, and how women perceive these norms, have been infrequently addressed. This book, therefore, presumes that provisions of wilaya encapsulate the knowledge that women internalize about themselves, are co-opted by, or challenge. By investigating a set of questions in relation to wilaya provisions and their relationship to women’s perceptions of the Self and their everyday practices, my research interlinks law and anthropology. The questions include: how is the idealized image of femininity constituted in the provisions of wilaya over women in Jordan? How do women respond to this idealization, and is the law capable of producing one fixed type of femininity? Is such a model of femininity contested, negotiated, or challenged by women, and, in turn, how would this internalization and contestation impact women’s lived realities? What are the mechanisms of control and disciplinary measures of normative femininity, and can women escape these techniques of control by developing their own ways of operating? If so, what are the consequences for women, and how do their class and tribal affiliations ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Frontmatter
• 1. Introduction: Gender, Law, and Politics in Jordan
• 2. Constructing Normative Femininity: The Engagement of Law and Religious Interpretations
• 3. Women’s Alternative Forms of Femininity: Compliant, Pragmatic, and Exceptional Selves
• 4. Women’s Everyday Tactics of Defiance and Compliance
• 5. Rebelling Against the System of Wilaya: Women “in Need of Correction and Rehabilitation”
• 6. Conclusion: State, Gendered Power of Guardianship, and the Potential for Change
• Backmatter