Jordan urged to stop imprisoning women for defying the wishes of men

Amnesty calls for end to detentions under male ‘guardianship’ system

Saeed Kamali Dehghan
@SaeedKD
Thu 24 Oct 2019 09.00 BST
Last modified on Thu 24 Oct 2019 09.01 BST

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 report accuses the Jordanian state of applying “coercive and penal power to reinforce male guardianship, effectively colluding with male guardians to ensure male control” over women.

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