‘Jordan 13th regionally in women’s representation in parliament’

AMMAN — Jordan ranks 141st globally, and 13th in the Arab world, for women’s representation in Parliament, the Sisterhood Is Global Institute (SIGI) said on Sunday. 

SIGI’s “Eye on Women in the Elections” project, which is monitoring the September 20 polls from a gender perspective, said quotas had increased women’s participation in parliaments globally by 10 per cent. 

Regionally, Algeria has the highest ratio of women in parliament, at 31.6 per cent, followed by Tunisia (31.3 per cent), Sudan (30.5 per cent), Iraq (26.5 per cent), the UAE (22.5 per cent) and Saudi Arabia (19.9 per cent).  

Jordan, with a ratio of 12 per cent, also comes below Morocco, Libya, Egypt, Somalia, Syria and Djibouti, SIGI said.  

Jordan scored higher than Bahrain (7.5 per cent), Lebanon (3.1 per cent), Union of the Comoros (3 per cent), Kuwait (1.5 per cent) and Oman (1.2 per cent).

Yemen and Qatar both came last, with no women representatives in their parliaments.

Globally, women’s representation in parliaments rose by 0.5 per cent between 2013 and 2014, from 21.8 per cent to 22.3 per cent, SIGI said citing a UN study. 

In Scandinavian countries, women constitute 41.5 per cent of legislatures, exceeding the 30 per cent critical mass set by the UN.