Posted on 08/04/2003 12:30:16 PM PDT by Nachum
Jordan's new parliament has rejected two proposals giving women more rights because, some deputies say, they contradict Islamic teachings.
While parliament was dormant in 2001, the government amended the two bills to allow women to file for divorce and to give courts the leeway to impose harsh punishment on what has become known as honor killings—men who kill women relatives who are perceived to have shamed family honor.
Sunday, in just its third session since the June 17 parliamentary elections, the 110-seat Chamber of Deputies rejected the amendments to the Civil Status Law and the Penal Code by acclamation. The bills still have a chance to become law, but only after what could be protracted negotiations with the royal-appointed Senate.
Most of the 60 some speakers who took the floor Sunday spoke against both provisional bills.
Deputy Mahmoud Kharabsheh told The Associated Press that both temporary bills were "contradictory to our traditions and Islamic teachings.
"We rejected both legislation to protect the souls of our people, their homes and their lives. If it was up to me, women should remain at home to raise their children."
Even Hayat al-Museimi, one of six women who won seats in parliament designated under a state-imposed quota, said the state proposed amendments "encouraged family disintegration."
Human rights activist Sae'da Kilani said the rejection "sends us back to square one in our battle for wider freedoms for women in Jordan."
Government officials said the Senate, a 55-seat Chamber appointed by the king and whose legislative duties include liaising between the government and Chamber of Deputies, will debate both amendments and make its ruling later this month.
If the Senate endorses the amendments, both laws will be sent back to the Chamber of Deputies for another vote. If again rejected, the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate will meet in a joint session in which both bills could pass with a two-thirds majority vote, said Ghaleb al-Zou'bi, a deputy who heads parliament's Legal Committee.
The amendment to the penal code was rejected twice in the previous parliament—in 1999 and 2000—on grounds that a lenient punishment for male killers of female relatives deterred women from sin. Women died in "honor crimes" for having sex outside marriage or even after being raped.
The state was pressured to change the laws by local women rights organizations and international groups, including the European Parliament.
In June 2001, King Abdullah dissolved the previous parliament and enacted a temporary bill, which imposed capital punishment, as opposed to a prison term of up to six months in jail, for honor killings.
The Civil Status Law raised the age of marriage for both women and men to 18 from 15 and 16 respectively and allowed women to file for divorce.
And wacko feminists (a.k.a. Hirsute Dykes) still whine and bitch about Western society's "glass ceiling."
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!
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