More women in Jordan poll fray

Scores of women are running for Tuesday's parliamentary elections like in the previous elections. But this time, it is different. The hope and confidence of winning is bigger as a result of the latest amendment to the election law which introduced quota for women for the first time in Jordan's history.

Last February, King Abdullah II, issued a decree approving a government decision to allocate six seats for women in the parliament to boost women's political role. The royal decree also raised the number of seats in the Lower House of parliament from 80 to 110. Jordan has also a 40-seat Senate whose members are chosen by the king.

Women activists said the new law had encouraged many women to join the race. 54 women have applied to run for the elections along with 770 men.

The Quota system, is "the only way to give women a push forward, and God willing it (quota) will be a transitional move," Wejdan Talhoni-Saket, one of the female candidates, told Gulf News.
"We don't want it forever. But let we, the women, enter the parliament and prove ourselves (first)," added Talhoni-Saket, who hoped that more than six women would win. Talhoni-Saket, who headed the Business and Professional Women club in Amman, pointed out that she decided to run for elections before the quota system was introduced.

"Of course the high number of female candidates is a result of (introducing) quota," said Naela Rashdan, a lawyer and former senator.

After the revival of the parliamentary system in Jordan in late eighties, there were 12, 3, and 17 women candidates in the elections of 1989, 1993 and 1997 respectively. In 1993, Toujan Faisal became the first woman in Jordan's history to win a seat in the parliament. Another female parliamentarian, Nuha Maayteh, won a seat in the parliament in 1997 though an internal parliamentary election.

Under the new law, women have two chances to reach the Lower House of parliament: with and without quota.

If a woman candidate wins more votes than her male competitors in their respective district, she wins the seat without a quota. If not, the government will count the ballots of other women candidates running in various districts, calculate the cast ballots in accordance with the percentage of voters. Then, based on the percentages, a decision on who will take the quota seats will be taken.

The High number of female candidates "is a major evidence that the most qualified women will sit under the dome of the parliament" said Mahasen Imam, head Arab Women Media Center in Amman. The centre had prepared and produced recently a 60-page guide to help female candidates in addressing the media.

Entitled "Let your voice be heard"; the guide provides basic guidelines on issues including how to arrange for press interviews and conferences.

While some Jordanians opposed the women quota saying it is treating women as a minority, some analysts and women activists believed the quota was essential to pave the way for women to take part in the parliament and public arenas."Without quota, women chances in reaching the parliament are "almost nil", lawyer Samira Zaitoon, one of the candidates, told Gulf News.

"Quota is a positive discrimination" against women, said Nuha Maayteh, former MP and another female candidate.

According to women activists, the one-person, one-vote election system, lack of financial resources to support campaigns, and negative social and cultural attitudes towards women's participation in the political life are among the main factors behind the failure of women to win seats in the past.

Women's share in the public sphere is also limited, official statistics show. Though they constitute nearly half of Jordanian population, women's participation in labour force is only 14.6 per cent. Their percentage in parliament (both upper and lower houses), and in the judiciary is 2.5 per cent and 1.4 per cent respectively.

"The decision (quota) is aimed at favouring equality between men and women," Mohamed Udwan, Government spokesman and minister of information said in announcing the royal decree earlier this year.

Meanwhile, female candidates' opinions reflect their desire to take part in dealing with society's problems and not only women's problems. Among their priorities are health insurance to all Jordanians, helping students from families unable to send them to colleges fo higher education and taking part in the upcoming discussion in the parliament-in-waiting of the temporary laws that were introduced during the past two years.

" God willing we (women) will be efficient in the parliament" Zaitoon said.