Electing Women to Office in Jordan

Amman, Jordan – When asked what she hopes is the state of women 10 years from now, AWLI member Hiyam Fdayyan Mahmud Al-Amr is very clear.  “I hope women would be able to make it to the parliament by competition rather than quota.  And I hope by then to see a female Prime Minister.”

Al-Amr has been working for the past decade to make that dream a reality but she knows that is still a long time away. 

An administrative assistant at Al-Balqa Applied University, Al-Amr had her first experience in helping a woman get elected in Jordan in 2007 when she went to work for former Member of Parliament (MP) Tharwat Al-Amr.  As Jordanian men and women begin preparing for the upcoming municipal elections in December, Al-Amr wrote about her experiences then, how AWLI has helped and what she plans to do this time around.  Below is her story.

I started to work as an aide to former MP Tharwat Al-Amr the moment she decided to run for office during the 2007 parliamentary elections.

A family meeting was convened to discuss the matter; some expressed their agreement while others rejected the idea completely – it should be noted that their refusal had nothing to do with the MP’s character, for she had the knowledge, disposition and skills to enable her to run.

Some refused simply because such an idea was new to the community where she lives.  Traditionally, a man would always run for office, but she was the very first woman to consider going through such an experience.  Faced with her persistence, everyone agreed and supported her. 

The first thing we did was to pay field visits to households to meet people – with a little bit more emphasis on meeting women to be frank.  Since a woman representing them was a concern, we managed to win their support and convince them that a female MP would be more capable to voice women and family issues than a male counterpart. 

Yet it was not an easy ride.  We faced many troubles and obstacles such as the following:

* Men were despotic and tried to intervene on women opinions simply because they see them as their subordinates.  Men would decide on women’s behalf whom to vote for, yet there were exceptions of course.

* The incorrect notion of having to vote for men because men are more capable of solving women issues.

When the field visits were over, we coordinated many public gatherings and rallies to address the women quota question.  She took part as well in a TV show that toured the governorates to solicit views about the quota and the MP people want.  Thank God, the results were splendid, and we managed to win the highest percentage of votes in the governorate.

My experience with AWLI was yet a more thrilling one.  They embraced us and tried to offer us the best through the training courses and workshops they organized.  In 2009, I attended an AWLI workshop for aides to female MPs.  The workshop helped me learn many ideas and provided me with information that enriched my knowledge and experience.  I also got to learn about new methods of communicating messages to the local community. 

Another AWLI workshop was on the legal challenges Arab women face, and the challenges that female decision-makers can help remove.  The workshop came as a completion of the work we had started during the one on Arab women in parties and elections.

My experience with AWLI helped me develop a sense of women reality and the need to integrate them in politics, economy and decision making.

I had a short-lived idea to run for office myself, but I decide to put it off for a while – our community still needs a lot of work and our strife must continue.