As I conclude six years as a member of the Constitutional Court of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, I find myself thinking less about the cases I sat on and more about the road that led to that bench, and about the road that lies ahead for my country. I write not to mark a personal ending, but to record what this experience has meant for Jordan, and what it should mean for the generation of women and men who will carry our institutions forward.
اضافة اعلان
When I was appointed in 1996 as the first woman judge in Jordan, I had already spent some fifteen years as a lawyer before our courts. The appointment was not welcomed by everyone. There were voices who believed that a woman could not, or should not, sit in judgment, particularly in criminal matters. I did not answer those voices with argument. I answered them with work. Today, women make up roughly a quarter of Jordan's judiciary, and no one asks any longer whether a woman can be a judge. That question has been settled, not by me alone, but by every woman who walked through the door after me and proved her competence case by case.
My years on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, from 2003 to 2011, taught me what happens when the rule of law collapses: when institutions fail, the most vulnerable pay first, and women and children pay the most. I returned home convinced that strong, independent courts are not a luxury of advanced nations. They are the foundation on which every nation is built. That conviction was deepened by my service as a member of the Jordanian Senate, which gave me an experience of justice from its political side. In the Upper House, I saw how laws are drafted, debated and amended before they ever reach a courtroom. I learned that justice begins in the legislature, in the quality and fairness of the laws themselves, long before a judge is asked to apply them. My appointment to the Constitutional Court in 2020, as its first woman member, gave me the privilege of serving that conviction at the highest level of our constitutional order.
A Court Born of Reform
The Constitutional Court itself is a product of His Majesty King Abdullah II's reform path. Established following the constitutional amendments of 2011, it gave Jordan, for the first time, a dedicated guardian of the Constitution: a court able to review whether laws and regulations conform to the supreme law of the land, and to interpret its provisions. Its existence sends a simple message to every citizen: no authority stands above the Constitution, and your rights are not a favour granted by anyone, but a guarantee written into the foundation of the state.
Sitting on that court, one comes to understand that constitutional justice is not an abstract exercise. Every ruling touches the daily life of citizens: their freedoms, their property, their equality before the law. To serve there is to be reminded constantly that the legitimacy of the state rests on the confidence of its people that the law will be applied to all, equally and without exception.
The Royal Discussion Papers: A Roadmap, Not a Slogan
Between 2012 and 2017, His Majesty published a series of Discussion Papers setting out his vision for Jordan's political and institutional development. Taken together, they form one of the clearest statements of national direction in our modern history. They speak of active citizenship, of parliamentary government built on programmatic parties, of accountability, and of an education system that prepares young Jordanians to think rather than merely to memorise.
For a judge, the Sixth Discussion Paper, issued in 2016 under the title "Rule of Law and Civil State," carries special weight. In it, His Majesty describes the rule of law as the foundation of good governance and the true expression of a modern state, and he defines the civil state as a state governed by law and institutions, one that protects pluralism, respects diversity, and treats all citizens as equal in rights and duties. He was clear that applying the law equally is the responsibility of every official and every citizen, not of the courts alone, and that no one may stand above it.
A civil state is not defined by the absence of faith or tradition, but by the presence of law: a law that sees every citizen, man or woman, as equal before it.
That vision did not remain on paper. It was followed by the Royal Committee for Developing the Judiciary and Enhancing the Rule of Law, and later by the Royal Committee to Modernise the Political System, whose work led to the constitutional amendments of 2022. Those amendments recognised Jordanian women explicitly in the title of the chapter on the rights and duties of citizens, and committed the state to empowering women and protecting them from discrimination. Accompanying electoral and party laws opened wider doors for women's participation in political life. For those of us who spent decades arguing that equality must be written into the law before it can be lived in society, this was a moment of profound significance.
What Empowerment Has Meant in Practice
Empowerment is measured in numbers as well as in principles. In 2007, women made up only about five percent of Jordan's judges. Within roughly a decade that share had more than quadrupled, the result of deliberate policy: admission targets for women at the Judicial Institute, training programmes for future judges in which young women took an equal share, and the appointment of women to the Judicial Council and to the Court of Cassation. Each of these steps reflected a decision, taken at the highest level, that the judiciary should look like the nation it serves.
But the deeper change is cultural. A young woman who appears before a Jordanian court today may well find a woman on the bench, and she will think nothing of it. A young law graduate considering a judicial career no longer wonders whether the door is open to her. That quiet normality is the true achievement. It is what the first generation of women in public life worked for, and it is what His Majesty's vision has made possible.
Building On What We Have Achieved
Gratitude for what has been achieved must not become complacency. If we are to build the modern, civilised state that His Majesty has described, I believe our next steps should include the following.
First, women must move from presence to leadership. Having women in the judiciary is no longer the goal; having women preside over courts, lead judicial institutions, and shape judicial policy must be. The same is true across ministries, regulators, boards and parliament.
Second, equality in law must become equality in life. Constitutional guarantees mean little to a woman who cannot access justice because of cost, distance, or fear. Legal aid, specialised family and juvenile justice, and firm protection against domestic violence are where constitutional principles meet real people.
Third, economic participation is the next frontier. Jordanian women are among the most educated in the region, yet their participation in the labour market remains far too low. A modern state cannot afford to leave half of its talent at home. Laws on flexible work, childcare, equal pay and access to finance are as much a matter of national development as any infrastructure project.
Fourth, the rule of law must be taught, not only enforced. As the Seventh Discussion Paper on education reminds us, the future of the nation depends on how we raise our children. Civic and legal education, beginning in school, will produce citizens who respect the law because they understand it, and who defend the rights of others as they would their own.
Fifth, our institutions must keep modernising. Digital courts, transparent procedures, and timely judgments strengthen public trust and make justice more accessible, especially for women and those far from the capital.
A Closing Word
I leave the Constitutional Court with deep gratitude to His Majesty King Abdullah II, whose confidence placed me there and whose vision gave meaning to the work; to my colleagues on the bench, from whom I learned a great deal; and to the people of Jordan, in whose name every judgment is pronounced.
To the young women of Jordan who will one day sit where I sat, and higher, I say this: you owe no one an apology for your ambition. The door was opened for you by a vision that believes in equal citizenship. Walk through it with competence, integrity and courage, and hold it open for those who come after you.
Justice has no gender. A nation that understands this has already taken the most important step towards becoming the modern, civil state that Jordan deserves to be.
