Female MPs to lobby colleagues for Personal Status Law amendments

AMMAN — Female MPs on Wednesday said they will start lobbying their colleagues in the Lower House to approve  several amendments adopted by Senators to the draft personal status law (PSL). 

Included in the amendments were changes increasing the age of marriage for women in exceptional cases to 16-years old.

The senators also amended a clause related to the “mandated will” or “wasiya wajiba”, by giving inheritance rights to grandchildren born to female children equally with male children, as this right is currently given only to male children.

“We will lobby our colleagues to accept the two amendments that were endorsed today by the Upper House, as coordinated with the women’s movement,” MP Wafa Bani Mustafa said.

Bani Mustafa told The Jordan Times that she has “formulated a lobbying strategy in cooperation with other female MPs and some male deputies who are already in favour of the changes”.

“I am optimistic that these two articles, which we have constantly called for amending, will pass during our session without having to hold a joint session between the two Houses,” Bani Mustafa added.

The 2010 temporary PSL allowed marriage exceptions for minors who had completed the age of 15, while the amended version endorsed by the MPs earlier this week allows those who “turned 16” to tie the knot. A change in terminology which meant that, in reality, turning 16 means that the law can be applied only one day after the completion of age 15, critics have said.

The legal age of marriage in Jordan is 18 for men and women, but the law allows for several exceptions for girls aged 15 and above, if a judge deems it in their best interest.

According to the Chief Islamic Justice Department’s official statistics, there were 77,700 marriage contracts issued in 2017, of which 10,434 (around 30 a day) involved marriages in which the wife was under the age of 18.

The statistics also showed that divorce cases amounted to 5,335 in 2017, of which 413 cases involved wives under the age of 18.

Advocates have welcomed the recommendations adopted by the Senate’s Legal Committee last week, which hailed the two amendments as an “important step to ensuring more equality for women in the PSL”.