| A Postfeminist Era? Not in Jordan! | ||||
| by Elayne Clift | ||||
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They sit in a semicircle, fully attentive. Some wear hijab, looking like Botticelli-painted nuns. Others reveal their hair, perhaps a headscarf wrapped loosely around their necks. Some are married and mothers; some are single. One is a foreign student earning her PhD studying art as social commentary among Middle Eastern women. A few are struggling to find their way to feminism in a Middle East context, while others celebrate their arrival into the world of like-minded women. They are studying for master’s degrees at the University of Jordan in Amman, where I was invited to speak last November about the history of the women’s movement in America and beyond. The young women gazing at me remind me of something I have known since I became engaged in, and committed to, feminism: the world is full of feminists, fledging or fully developed. They reside in every continent and community and likely have been there for a long time, although we may not have called them that in their day. They remind me, too, of women I met in Nairobi at the final UN Decade for Women conference in 1985, some who came knowing they would be severely punished when they returned home, and yet they came, 14,000 strong. They also remind me of women I met in Beijing 10 years later at the Fourth World Conference on Women, some of whom came with male chaperones, and yet they came, 40,000 strong. They remind me of women who came to give testimony, to offer analysis through the lens of gender, to speak truth to power, to inspire and advise others. |
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Women in the thousands—each representing many more from their communities—came to these places far away from home to address issues of poverty, violence, human rights, the environment, economic security, peace, justice, and more. They came because, as one feminist said, “It is clear that the world we live in is driving us mad by limiting our possibilities and insisting on our second-class status.” They came to declare that “we are here, there and everywhere, and we are not going away.” The women I met in Jordan reminded me of the diversity of feminists and “feminisms,” and of the ways in which all feminists make a difference. Laila al-Atrash, for example, is a novelist and media figure recognized by the Arab Human Report as a writer who has influenced her society in meaningful ways. Her works have been incorporated into university curricula and adapted as movies. She is also a well-known and respected TV journalist and commentator in the Middle East region. |
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Rula Quawas, the professor of American literature and feminist theory who invited me to Jordan, founded the Women’s Studies Center at the university in 2006 and served as its director for two years. “I look at the classroom as a site of resistance,” she told Vermont Woman when I interviewed her in early 2014 while she was teaching as a Fulbright Scholar at Champlain College (“Rula Quawas and Her Weapon of the Mind,” Feb/March 2014). “We discuss, debate, raise awareness. We need to ensure that grassroots women know what is going on and that they are no longer silent or silenced. It is essential they be part of the fabric of society,” the beloved teacher said then. Quawas’s impact is notable in Jordan and beyond. Published internationally and in demand as a lecturer, she is recognized as a Middle East scholar and leading feminist thinker from the region known as MENA (Midde East North Africa). Among her awards are one for Meritorious Leadership and Dedication to the Empowerment of Jordanian Women presented by Princess Basra. She was also nominated by the US State Department for its International Women of Courage Award. An ever-smiling and very busy risk-taker, Quawas is not averse to taking on controversial issues, which may be why she encouraged and supported four of her students who wanted to produce a short video for social media about their experience of sexual harassment on campus. It’s probably why she founded the Knowledge Production Unit at the University of Jordan in 2009. |
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She is also vice president of Forward Global Women, an international NGO launched in 2011 to “foster the development of nonviolent peacemakers by providing women leaders and activists with the opportunity to study peacemaking and co-existence and to put nonviolence into practice,” according to its website (www.forwardglobalwomen.org). Last spring team members from Palestine and Israel organized 1,000 Palestinian women and 1,000 Israeli women to meet at a checkpoint in Israel in order to demand that their leaders restart the peace process with women at the table. Their current project is “a joint effort of women from countries in the MENA region from various social positions to come together to understand what ‘security’ means to women in their respective countries and in their joint region.” The goal is to create space for women to voice their concerns and share their stories, including those of security breaching. To date, the organization has convened four peacemaking trainings for MENA and US women leaders in political and civil life. The fifth convening is scheduled to be in Cyprus in late July. |
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Rawan Ibrahim, an academic and social worker who attended high school at Vermont Academy in Saxtons River, is researching the stigmatization that many orphans face in Jordan, especially the circumstances of those born out of wedlock. She works to change attitudes and provide social services to this vulnerable population. She also works to support the Jordanian government’s effort to deinstitutionalize children through the development of the first formal foster care program in the region. Ibrahim’s work and commitment to social justice were inspired by her Palestinian family’s history and experience and by having attended one of the first schools in Amman to include children with special needs, where she protected kids from bullying. She also remembers coming home one cold night in Amman and seeing a little girl sleeping on a highway island. She was a Roma child being exploited by her grandmother who sent her out to beg. Ibrahim and her mother took the child home for the night. Later, she was placed in inadequate care facilities until Ibrahim complained to authorities. The child was then put in a decent care home, and Ibrahim began working there. “Her name was Hasnah,” she recalls. “It means ‘fine lady.’” Today, there are two kinds of orphans in Jordan: those who have lost one or both parents and live with extended family, and those who live in care homes like the one Hasnah lived in. Some may be adopted or placed into foster care. “These children are considered outcasts because they are linked to what is considered to be the height of immorality,” Ibrahim explains. “Many consider them a bad seed. They pay the price of their father’s sins, suffering the pervasive stigma attached to anyone who does not fit within the patriarchal structure of Jordanian society.” Children born out of wedlock are automatically separated from their birth mothers, some of whom could be at risk of honor crimes, Ibrahim says. Historically, many of these children remained in a residential care system that was underdeveloped and generally failed to prepare them for adult life. They continued to be stigmatized and were unable to fully engage socially or economically. Later, when the Jordanian adoption system was developed, many were adopted. More recently with the development of the foster program, many are placed into long-term care with a family. Ibrahim works to further develop Jordan’s foster care program so that the government can move away from institutionalizing these children. The program allows birth mothers and birth families to continue a relationship with the children, a right formerly denied to them. It’s a good start, but there is more to be done. “The state of global humanity is still in the dark ages in most countries,” Ibrahim says. “Jordan is in a better position than other Middle Eastern countries, but there are complex influences on society that still exacerbate conservatism. Certain members of society who don’t fit into this narrowly constructed perspective are marginalized.” Abeer Alshroof, a young woman who with her husband is active in an initiative designed to help orphans and underprivileged families secure basic necessities, understands exactly where Ibrahim is coming from. “One of our main purposes is to see that the children continue their education instead of having to work in order to help their families,” Alshroof says. “We want the children to know that they can be whatever they want and that poverty will not stand in their way.”
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That’s why one of them, Leen Arkhagha, wrote a poem encouraging other young women to resist oppression and to embrace a vision of what their future can be instead of yielding to tradition. It includes these lines:
It’s a sentiment that every woman in Nairobi or Beijing would understand. It’s also a call to budding feminists everywhere, especially those in a classroom it was my privilege to visit in Jordan.
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Elayne Clift, a writer, workshop leader, and lecturer, visited Jordan in November 2015. She lives in Saxtons River, Vermont (www.elayne-clift.com) |
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