AMMAN — Tens of citizens gathered in front of the Prime Ministry on Thursday demanding that Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour follow through on remarks he made recently about reconsidering Jordan's reservations on an international convention related to women’s rights.

 

Earlier this month, Ensour said the Kingdom was committed to the full implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

 

“We believe the reservation Jordan has on one article of the treaty does not distract from our respect for the convention. However, we will revise the issue of these reservations, hopefully soon,” the premier said at a human rights conference.

 

Ensour’s address was delivered at the opening of the 11th Conference of the International Coordinating Committee of National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights.

 

“We are here to ask the prime minster to commit to his remarks about lifting these reservations and to apply CEDAW within our Jordanian legislative frame,” Arab Women’s Organisation President Laila Naffa said.

 

Naffa, who organised the event in cooperation with other women’s groups in Jordan, added that the women’s movement wants real application of CEDAW in all walks of life.

 

“We hope that Ensour’s remarks are not just lip service to appease the West,” she told The Jordan Times at the demonstration.

 

Men, women and children carried banners stating: “Yes to CEDAW… No to lifting subsidies, yes to lifting CEDAW reservations”.

 

The Islamic Action Front (IAF), the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, issued a statement last Saturday demanding that Ensour apologise and retract his remarks, claiming that the premier was under pressure by other governments and international organisations whose values “do not comply with our traditions, culture, morals or beliefs”.

 

Moreover, the IAF women’s sector organised a human chain on the capital's Queen Rania Street on Wednesday, demanding that Ensour apologise and retract his statement.

 

They claimed that Article 16 of the convention, which stipulates full equality between men and women in issues related to family and marriage, “is against the Islamic Sharia”.

 

The IAF members charged that CEDAW is “a Western agenda that is enforced on us and women’s civil society in Jordan adopted it to get funding”.

 

But a 48-year-old activist, who requested anonymity, said on Thursday that although some clauses in CEDAW are at odds with Sharia (Islamic law), she was certain that the “government would never apply any provision that contradicts the religion even if CEDAW is effectively applied within our legislation”.

 

Another activist and member of a civil society organisation agreed.

 

“We are aware enough to apply what is in favour of empowering and benefiting our women and families in a manner that does not contradict Sharia.”

 

In July 1992, the Kingdom signed CEDAW, which was ratified and published in the Official Gazette in August 2007 with three reservations related to the citizenship, housing and women’s mobility clauses in the Personal Status Law.

 

In February 2009, the government decided to lift its reservations on paragraph four of Article 15 of the convention, which gives women freedom of mobility and choice of residence without the consent of their husbands or other male family members, a move that was approved by a Royal Decree.

 

In April 2009, the IAF called on the government to withdraw from CEDAW, alleging that the convention will undermine family values and lead to a wide range of social problems in the country.

 

"Families in Jordan face the threat of total collapse under CEDAW," the IAF warned.

 

According to Islamists, the clause contradicts the teachings of Islam, under which authority over women's mobility is in the hands of their husbands if they are married, and their brothers or fathers if they are single.

 

"The agreement is not consistent with our religion and traditions and it will change our national identity," the Islamists said, adding that CEDAW adopts the views of liberals who do not represent Arab Muslim communities.