Amman, Nov 04: Jordanian women will have better rights
regarding passing on citizenship to their children and other
family matters under amendments designed to improve equality
of the sexes.
The changes were announced by Queen Rania to applause at
yesterday's opening session of an Arab women's summit in
Amman. The amendments had been passed recently by the cabinet,
but not yet publicized.
The changes are seen as a significant step for women's
rights in Jordan, a relatively liberal Arab state but still a
male-dominated society where wives were legally required to
defer to their husbands or daughters to their fathers in many
family matters.
Many women considered it humiliating, for example, that
they could not legally obtain a passport or decide on an
operation for a child without their husband's consent. For
unmarried women, the father was legally responsible. Those
requirements have now been dropped.
The Queen said the changes were intended "to give the
Jordanian woman her rights and equality which are guaranteed
to her by the Jordanian constitution."
Under the changes to civil, labour and social security
laws, the children of Jordanian women married to foreigners
will also receive more benefits. However, a Jordanian woman's
foreign husband is still not entitled to Jordanian
citizenship, as is the foreign-born life of a Jordanian man.
The cabinet will be authorized to grant Jordanian
citizenship to children of a Jordanian woman married to a
non-Jordanian if it finds the request "appropriate,"
government spokesman Mohammad Affash Adwan told the official
Petra news agency.
Bureau Report
