A recent survey on democracy in Jordan showed:
81% agreed that the will of the public should be the basis of the government’s authority.
71% believe that the government should be selected through elections in which all citizens can vote
44% of respondents said the will of the public should have a greater influence over the government,
27% […]

A court in Jordan has sentenced a 23-year-old man to 10 years in jail for killing his sister. The man was initially sentenced to death, but this was commuted to give him the chance to repent.
The court heard that he stabbed his sister 14 times and shot her repeatedly after her former husband accused her […]

In the past few months, there has been a campaign, if not a movement, to combat speeding cars and traffic accidents. From the Hikmet-related campaigns of mid-January, to the nation-wide campaign following the Jerash-road bus crash, to the introduction of tough traffic laws and their subsequent legislative rejection a few weeks later. Lately, we’ve seen […]

…flow my tears, the policeman said…
A study released on Thursday revealed that though many Jordanians support media freedoms, a majority support government restrictions when it comes to destabilising issues.
In the study, performed by WorldPublicOpinion.org and supported and coordinated by the Centre for Strategic Studies at the University of Jordan, 78 per cent of respondents agreed […]

A few of my delicious pickings from the past few days. Pay particular attention to the more new-media-meets-real-world articles on Facebook and Flickr. I really found those interesting. Makes the world feel a bit smaller than it is.
Staring Contest: An Italian man was given a suspended jail sentence for staring too intensely at a […]

Today I got to attend the official launch of the Madrasati initiative and I have to admit, for someone who’s not easily impressed by about 98% of the things that happen in this country, I was pretty impressed. Not many people, especially in the media, knew exactly what it entailed so it was quite […]

Let me put aside the obvious shocking factor of being utterly disgusted by the event (is there a way to be shocked and yet not surprised), but there is something that interests me here and that’s the international media’s reaction. Did anyone notice that this crime took place in August of 2007 and is only […]

As most people know by now, there is a massive shortage of bread in Egypt these days with reports of actual deaths as many Egyptians line up in long bread queues. Mubarak has even declared a sort of martial law on subsidized bread, by ordering the army to increase production and aid in the distribution […]

While everyone waits with bated breath the results of today’s deadly primaries in the US, here are a few del.icio.us pickings I’ve been reading these past couple of days:
- A Rose By Any Other Name: An Iranian court has ordered a man to give his wife the 124,000 roses that he promised in her dowry, […]

Following the 9/11 attacks, President Bush claimed that Muslims hate America for its freedoms. Since then, 50,000 Muslims in 35 countries were surveyed by Gallup, the largest poll of Muslims ever. The results represent over 6 years of study and are outlined in a new book by Dalia Mogahed and John L. Esposito entitled “Who […]

There is a social trait in this country to shower people with flattery; it’s known as mujamalat. Most of it is insincere but then again, those being showered are well aware of that and participate in the masquerade. Having not grown up in Jordan, the concept of flattery for flattery’s sake is foreign to me […]

“The organizers of suicide attacks don’t want to jeopardize their missions by recruiting unreliable people. It may be that some psychologically unstable people want to become suicide bombers, but insurgent organizations strongly prefer their cannons fixed.” - Political Sociologist Robert Brym of the University of Toronto, in a paper published in Social Forces. Brym concluded […]

Every honor crime story has something unique about it…
The suspect, who was not identified by officials, reportedly stabbed his 26-year-old sister seven times in the stomach on Tuesday, shortly after signing a guarantee that he would not harm his sibling who was in protective custody, the source said. Immediately after the incident, he went to […]

I.
Tala, the Black Iris reader who sits across from me at work, was telling me about an interesting social observation she noted a while back. People in Jordan like to notice and know other people, so they can say they saw so-and-so the other day, or that they know so-and-so. For example. People seem to […]

I think the only thing possibly worse than that chaos associated with actual snow in the country are those few days leading up to a potential snow fall, when everyone is talking about it. The topic is so dominant in everyday conversation that the war and conflict which surrounds us is rendered insignificant. Weather information […]

The rain. The thunder. The cold. The crying. The quiet. And a whole population mourning. I think the day King Hussein died is a day that is ingrained in my memory. The storm outside was unforgettable and somehow seemed fitting for the moment. I remember that Jordan was so quiet that every drop of rain […]