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7 - In Circles We Go

A Historical Overview of the Jordanian Personal Status Law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 May 2023

Adrien K. Wing
Affiliation:
University of Iowa
Hisham A. Kassim
Affiliation:
Kassim Legal, PLLC, Washington, DC
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Summary

This chapter examines the development of the Jordanian Personal Status Law (JPSL) from the Ottoman Family Rights Law (1917) to the 2019 reforms. It provides an overview of the main changes which the JPSL has undergone. Centrally, the chapter argues that most changes have not been progressive in terms of leading to greater gender equality or justice. In addition to being discriminatory in terms of sex, the JPSL also enshrines class hierarchies. Where alterations have been made, they have not touched the overall rationale of the law. There were no efforts to revisit the sources of the law, to rethink certain assumptions which were based on seventh-century Arabian society, or stem from conservative colonial European jurisprudence, or to think of alternative "Islamic versions." Unlike their Ottoman predecessors, Jordanian legislators have stayed clear from rethinking the JPSL in terms of current times and requirements.

Type
Chapter
Information
Family Law and Gender in the Middle East and North Africa
Change and Stasis since the Arab Spring
, pp. 127 - 148
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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