the AMMAN — According to the Independent Election Commission (IEC), 4,213 candidates
registered to run for municipal and governorate councils elections; of these
17.96 percent were women, but none had registered to run for mayoral positions.
اضافة اعلان
This electoral year, 2.4 million voters were women, and 2.2 million were men.
IEC spokesperson Mohammad Al-Rawashdeh said “We
noticed that no woman is running for mayor in any of the Kingdom’s
municipalities. We hope that analysts will study the reason and try to find an
explanation. Are there barriers for entry this electoral year? The
participation rate in this year’s election comes to us as odd.”
The IEC said it had hoped that the women quota would
be higher than 25 percent in 2022.
According to Jordanian human’s rights expert Buthaina
Freihat, “women are expected to take care of children, raise them, care for the
family home, run errands. This weakens women’s willingness to get involved in
politics. These are tasks that both spouses ought to be involved in.”
“In our society, a lot more is required of women
than of men,” Freihat said, adding that she hoped There would not be a need for quota for women in future elections.
“It is not enough to tell women that they have the
right to run for local elections, we need to encourage women’s participation in
politics. There is a dire need to introduce programs that involve women
specifically, that will motivate and inspire them to run for elections; they
will, in turn, inspire the women around them,” Freihat said.
Emy Dawud, founder of the community organization
Feminist Movement Jo, said that many women are discouraged from entering the
field of politics in Jordan.
“Jordanian women are taught from a young age that
their opinions are not as important as men’s opinions. Also, women face many
issues at the workplace that men do not, such as harassment and sexism, that
end up deterring women from entering the workplace,” Dawud said in an interview
with
Jordan News.
She added that there are no equal opportunities for
men and women, especially when it comes to politics.
“Tribes will almost always stand behind a male
candidate and will discourage women from running for a political position. Had
there not been a quota for women, I doubt they would have won an election of
any sort,” she said, adding that this culture must change.
In line with the quota system, out of 28 individuals, six
women will gain seats in this year local elections. While the number of
candidates is lower than it was in 2017, COVID-19 circumstances and changes to
the voting locations makes it difficult to come up with a fair comparison.
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