The recent killing of Iman Irsheid, a 21-year-old university
student, has once again brought attention to the harsh reality that
gender-based violence remains a shameful and entrenched problem in Jordan and
other parts of the Middle East.
اضافة اعلان
Her attacker, 37-year-old Oday Hassan, shot her at
least five times on the university campus in Irbid. A few days later, the
perpetrator shot himself dead after he was asked by the police to surrender.
Iman’s murder came days after a similar crime in
Egypt where Nayera Ashraf, a 21-year-old university student in Mansoura, was
stabbed to death after she declined a marriage proposal from her attacker.
While social media have played a role in exposing
such gruesome crimes against women, sadly many cases of gender-based violence
in Jordan and beyond remain underreported. Violence against women is so
pervasive that physically harming a spouse is relatively common. Most alarming,
it is widely accepted. A government survey published in 2019 found that 69
percent of men and 46 percent of women agreed that wife beating could be
justified.
According to UN Women, 37 percent of women in the
Arab world have experienced some form of violence in their lifetime, although
indicators suggest the figure could be higher. This compares to 21 percent in
Western Europe and 25 percent in North America, both regions where the
situation is far from perfect.
Unfortunately, women in Jordan are often reluctant
to report male abusers. They fear they will retaliate and remain skeptical that
the systems and institutions in their patriarchal society will protect them.
Besides, a rhetoric that blames the victim rather
than the perpetrator for sexual assault persists.
Jordan has one of the world’s lowest women labor
force participation rates, at 13 percent, meaning that most women rely on their
spouses for financial support. This leaves them with limited options if they
want to leave an abusive partner.
Social stigma does not help either. Few families are
keen on having their divorced daughters return home. They often ask them to
leave the children with the father so he provides for them.
That is why the vast majority of battered women
continue to suffer in silence. This obscures their plight and encourages men to
push, shove and slap their wives, sisters or daughters, or even kill them.
When the pandemic hit Jordan, in March 2020, there
was a surge in domestic violence cases, like in many other countries. The
Family Protection Department, a police unit working to combat domestic and
sexual violence, reported 1,534 cases of domestic abuse, a 33 percent increase
during the first month of lockdown.
But few women had the courage to make their voices
heard. One was Iman Al Khateeb, a 36-year-old single mother who shared
harrowing details of abuse at the hands of her brother and mother. She was
forced to flee home with her 13-year-old son in April 2020 and was later
relocated to a safe house.
Even before the pandemic, the 2017-18 Population and
Family Health Survey showed that 26 percent of married women aged between 15
and 49 were exposed to physical or verbal abuse and sexual violence at least
once by their spouses. But the attacks are also coming from other male family
members.
Two years ago, Ahlam, a 40-year-old woman, was
killed by her father with a brick in broad daylight. Local media reports said
he smoked a cigarette and drank tea next to her body as he waited for the
police to arrive.
In another horrific incident in 2019, a 31-year-old
man blinded his wife by gouging her eyes.
To combat gender-based violence Jordan and the wider Middle East, social norms and attitudes need to change and laws need to be reformed. Mothers need to teach their sons that it is not acceptable to hurt women. Perhaps, most importantly, women must strive to be financially independent.
These high profile cases sparked outcry and prompted
Jordan to take action.
The Family Protection Department has beefed up its
efforts to provide stronger protection for abused women. In addition to its
24-hour hotline, it made it easier for victims to file complaints through
social media and a police app.
But efforts to stem gender-based violence have not
gone far enough.
The Domestic Violence Protection Act that was
adopted in 2017 does not have a definition of what constitutes violence against
women. Marital rape is not even considered a crime.
NGOs provide legal aid and support, but they
continue to struggle with limited resources. There are several economic
empowerment programs to equip women with skills, but they are not enough to
help them pay the bills or take care of children.
Besides, couples are encouraged by the Family
Protection Department to settle disputes if the abuse was not a criminal
offense. Some men who learn that hurting a woman is not OK may stop, but others
continue, particularly if the woman has no family to support her. Since most
women report abuse as the final straw, reconciling with the attacker seems at
best unlikely to succeed and at worst extremely dangerous.
Some abused women I talked to wished their husbands
dead. Others who managed to leave are staying in shelters, facing a bleak
future. I met some women who struggled at first, but thanks to support from
their families and NGOs were able to stand on their own feet.
To combat gender-based violence Jordan and the wider
Middle East, social norms and attitudes need to change and laws need to be
reformed. Mothers need to teach their sons that it is not acceptable to hurt
women. Perhaps, most importantly, women must strive to be financially
independent. Until that is the case, tragic cases like that of Iman Irsheid will
remain all too common.
Suha Ma'ayeh is a journalist based in Amman. Her work has
been published in Foreign Policy and CTC Sentinel. She also reports for The
Wall Street Journal and other publications on Jordan and southern Syria.
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