AMMAN, 27 August 2003 — Jordanian women fighting for greater rights have won a first victory in their battle against a decision to quash a law granting women the right to divorce, with the Senate’s legal committee recommending that the law be upheld, the press reported yesterday.
The committee of the royally appointed senate also recommended on Monday that the upper house uphold another law, which imposes harsher penalties for men who kill women in so-called “honor crimes.”
Jordan’s lower house, in one of its first sessions since its election in June, threw out the two laws earlier this month. Islamists and conservatives said they violated religious traditions and would destroy families and values. These “temporary laws” were among more than 200 adopted by the Cabinet in the two years since the previous Parliament was dissolved. The rapporteur of the legal committee told Al-Dustour newspaper that some unspecified changes were made to the laws, and that the senate will review these amendments and inform the lower house of its position. The deputies will then meet to review the laws and decide whether to accept the senate’s recommendation or stick to their guns and reject the laws, in which case a joint meeting of the two houses will be held to decide their fate.
