Jordan urged to stop imprisoning women for defying wishes of men

◗ Report accuses Jordan of applying ‘coercive power to reinforce male guardianship, colluding with males to ensure male control’ over women ◗ In Jordan, women require permission from a male guardian to get married if they are under 30 and sex outside mar

London: Amnesty International has called on Jordan to end what it has described as an abusive system that jails women if they disobey their male “guardians” or have relationships deemed inappropriate.

Despite recent efforts to give women better protections, Amnesty said in a new report published on Wednesday that Jordan still allows the arbitrary detention of women, including when male family members — usually fathers or brothers — complain to the authorities that they have been absent without permission.

Under the male “guardianship” system, which Amnesty said is at the centre of a web of discriminatory provisions, men are empowered to control “women’s lives and limit their personal freedoms”, while women could be subjected to degrading practices such as “virginity tests”, aimed

at determining whether they’ve had sex outside marriage, the Guardian reported.

The report accuses Jordan of applying “coercive and penal power to reinforce male guardianship, effectively colluding with male guardians to ensure male control” over women. Women can also be forcibly separated from their children if their babies are seen as “illegal”, when they are the result of an unsanctioned relationship.

In Jordan, women require permission from a male guardian to get married if they are under 30 and sex outside marriage is punishable by up to 3 years in prison. Similar practices are prevalent across Middle East, but Amnesty’s 64-page report — which interviewed 121 people, including women held in Juwaideh prison, the country’s main women’s jail — shows they are also taking place in Jordan.