Jordan Times
Saturday, May 15, 1999
Women and democracy: Tradition has kept women 'shadows' of men
By Rana Husseini
AMMAN — Former Information Minister Mahmoud Sharif said last week that to improve women's social status-efforts should be geared towards changing traditional attitudes that discriminate against women and not only discriminatory laws.
“Women's problem in our society is not the law as much as traditions, embedded through centuries which made women shadows of their men folk. We need to work towards highlighting equality between the two,” said Sharif, who is also responsible editor of Al Dustour Arabic daily newspaper.
Sharif was speaking at a one-day lecture entitled “Women and Democracy,” organised by the National Society for Freedom and Democracy and The Cultural Society for Youth and Children, on Thursday.
“Although women were able to accomplish much, more still needs to be done to fill gaps in legislation; that discriminates against women,” he added.
President of the CSYC Adnan Tobasi said, “It is known that women's road to democracy and equality is long, but it will eventually become bright, whereby men and women will work together towards ensuring their rights.”
President of the Jordanian Society for Human Rights Nadia Aloul, also a columnist at Al Ra'i newspaper, said women are subjected to discrimination from the day they are born — discrimination which encroaches on their right to education, health care, decision-making, food, and other aspects granted by Islam.
She attributed the high rate of illiteracy among women to the fact that men are given the priority in education and to women's lack of financial resources.
“Democracy is the key to raising women's awareness of the injustices to which they are subjected, and is a way of opening the door of equality in all fields for women,” Aloul said.
Several other papers were presented during the event.
Professor Suleiman Arabiat presented a paper on “Women's Democracy Through the Centuries.” In his paper, he stated that the change of women's status was clear throughout the centuries. Arabiat added that change from old times was positive, especially in advanced, economically sound societies.
Nawal Faouri, a member of the Islamic Action Front, said that Islam's stand is clear in terms of women's involvement in political work and her participation in the democratic Shura process.
She added in her paper titled “Women's Democracy in Islam,” that women are also required to promote democratic political work among both men and women by highlighting women's rights in Islam.
Lawyer and human rights activist Rihab Kadoumi in her paper on “Women's Democracy in Jordanian Legislation,” remarked that many changes in legislation favoured women.
However, she maintained that more needs to be accomplished to eliminate laws hindering women's advancement, such as civil law, the citizenship law, the retirement law and the penal code.