Euromed Rights Search

Constitutional amendment to add female noun for ‘Jordanians’ leads to fistfight in parliament

30 Dec 2021

At the end of December 2021, MPs voted on the introduction of the word ‘Jordanian women’ in the constitution, which led to a huge debate and punches thrown by MPs. Before, only the male plural was mentioned, which is also used for mixed groups. Conservative and Islamist MPs were against the change, whereas feminists considered that it did not go far enough.

In the end, the amendment was passed and the constitution now reads ‘Jordanian men and women shall be equal before the law. There shall be no discrimination between them as regards to their rights and duties on grounds of race, language or religion’ (quoted from Deutsche Welle).

see Deutsche Welle, Middle East Eye, The New Arab