Maybe some kind of insentives can be found to give running platforms that have women in order to encourage them to have women run for elections, at the same time without giving anyone a free ticket to parliament.

What’s really strange is how some women are not helping much improve the woman’s situation in Jordan. some women in the Parliament voted AGAINST changing the honor killing law. Others have not gone to colege which is not always necessary but there’s nothing else impressive onn their CV.

It’s harsh to say that but it looks like women in Arab Palrimants are used as a decoration to give a better look to the whole picture of democracy.

Lina, khalida, apologies if this sounds harsh but you are taking a very naive approach, if a women (or a supposedly well qualified person) is finding it hard to get elected then its their role and responsibility to work hard at ensuring his/her point of view comes across, in the end of the day they need to convince the electorate that their interests are served by him being elected, Full stop.

Yes at this moment in time a lot of people have their alliances, but that should change through hard work, education and offering an alternative and not to mention delivering.

If we allow our arrogance which leads us to believe that we know better (i.e. I could choose a better parliament, and god knows I am guilty as charged) to over shadow or influence the electoral process then we have already given up!. And quotas or even pre-qualifications are only a method for doing exactly that.

A nation is only as strong as its foundations, any shortcuts taken today we will pay for them down the line.

Nidal

A low quota system does help woman representation, it helps women feel there is a chance for them to be elected and thus have more candidates so hopefully there will be some candidates that are better. Ofcourse, it is also possible that those who got in are not all that qualified, and I’m not in a position to compare their qualifications to those of their male counterparts.

Having no quota at all can cause women to say from the get-go that they have no chance so why waste time and money on getting elected. And this way you lose the candidacy of qualified women who want to be elected.

The low quota part is important because it means that there is some chance but you don’t give 50% of the parliament to women who have no qualification and might not even run if there was no such high quota.

It’s a balance game.

And a data point about Israel, the parliament itself doesn’t have any quota, but most of the parties do have an internal quota for women, Labour and Likud has for all I know. Meretz also. Other parties didn’t have internal elections that I know of.

Interestingly enough, the arab parties do not have a women in them in a real position. One party had a women, the communist party, but she quit (I think).

1- Head of a tribe and he ran because it is “wajaha” to be in the parliment. He has no politics background and some of them don’t even know how to read, they just happen to be the Sheikh or that tribe and got there because of his people.

2- Ministers wanna-be’s: those are the worst – they pull all strings and do whatever they can to get a large number of voters on their sides. We all have heard about buying votes and “manasef” for this specific purpose, and since our people are not educated enough to elect only those who represent their needs and deliver their voice, they fall for this trap. What is even worse is that a large percentage of the educated community have lost hope and confidence in the whole thing and would not even participate in the elections which is a very negative thing to do, because they have allowed the incompetent to take the places of competent worthy individuals.

3- Members of the Muslims Brotherhood: need I say how organized their tactics are? I remember some years ago, there were 2 tribe heads running against each other in our city, and there was a member of the muslim brotherhood running against them. At that time, people got to vote for 2 candidates (before the law on one candidate per voter). Members of each family wanted their own to win, so they would vote for him and the for the member of the muslim brotherhood, guess who won? both tribe heads lost and the other one won; how ironic.

4- Members of political groups or “a7zab” and those have the support of their own people, but the strange thing is that a lot of men join these groups for the sole purpose of getting elected and becoming a member of the parliment.

5- Members of the “khilf khlaf” group; they are against everything or at least that’s what they show

6- Politicians who want to make a difference; errrr; where are they?

So if you ask me; the whole system needs revamping and only competent people need to be there to make informed calculated well studied decisions, and when they state their opinions in any matter, to be one of value and not just following the crowds. I am a member of the community and I tell you that none of these people represent me as a Jordanian citizen and a very patriotic one for that matter. So before we talk about women in the parliment and their percentage and how they reach there; lets look at the big picture, because if the big picture is out of place, no matter how hard you try to fit smaller items in it, they will still look out of place and order

The community shows little to no respect to women who speak their minds and who want to make a change. They are marked and classified as misfits, so I don’t find it that strange if such women did not put themselves through such agony. We need a lot of time to overcome our internal dificiencies and implement positive changes for the following generations ..

Sorry for the long comment

we might as well call it appointment.

all societies are historically male dominant.

this reminds me of my high school, in the 12th grade they decided to make student council elections “fair” and have a female and male student from every class. it was practically forced on everyone. what we had was the council doubling in size and nothing getting done.

there’s nothing that i’ve seen which does not grant full access to a woman in jordan to run and get elected…the only that gets in her way are the people who vote for her

or rather, those that dont

thank you for your comment

I definitely agree, but the current system totally enforces the tribal mentality and approach, which tends to make it a tad more difficult for women to make it – even if they were superbly qualified. The people who are making it are getting there for reasons other than merit, so we might as well have it as accessible for women as it is for men.. so to speak.

Anyways, I’m not that fond of the quota system, but I don’t think it’s right to be too idealistic in this regard.. because each place has its own circumstances and governing environment

ironically when it comes to the muslim brotherhood in jordan, the only parts of the quran they choose to ignore just so happen to be the parts that seek the protection of women (which is pretty much the biggest chunk of it). I’m guessing when they read the quran it involves a lot of white-out.

thanks for the comment

I hope it would not necessarily take the participation of women in parliament to deal with issues like honor killings, though.