Excerpts Status of women. Palestinian culture. US' mistaken response to 11
September 6 January 2002

+++JORDAN TIMES 3 Jan. '02:"Women activists set their eyes on 2002 polls
after positive legislative changes" By Rana Husseini

QUOTES FROM TEXT: "They attributed their defeat to the one-person, one-vote
system, tribalism, lack of financial resources and a dearth of public trust
in women's political capabilities."

"King Abdullah appointed three women to serve next to 37 male senators in
the Upper House"

"the government rewrote a 1976 Personal Status Law in a form of a temporary
law to ease procedures for women in Sharia Courts by allowing them the
right to divorce and be informed by court if their husbands decide to take
more than one wife."

"The citizenship law remains a major concern for Jordanian women married to
non-Jordanian men with its discriminatory articles that prohibit Jordanian
women to pass on their citizenship to their husbands or children, while
Jordanian men who marry foreign wives enjoy full rights."
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EXCERPTS: AMMAN "The major event in 2002 will be the parliamentary
elections, and given the setbacks of the past elections for women, much
needs to be done to ensure women's representation," said Secretary General
of the Jordanian National Commission for Women (JNCW) Amal Sabbagh. . . .
More than 30 women tried unsuccessfully to reach the Lower House in two of
the three previous elections. They attributed their defeat to the
one-person, one-vote system, tribalism, lack of financial resources and a
dearth of public trust in women's political capabilities.

[IMRA: One person-one vote is generally considered a democratic objective.
However, in Jordan it results in the automatic election of tribal
favorites. But, there is no assurance that a second vote would not also go
to the tribe or other socially obligatory candidates.]

Toujan Faisal was the only woman to be elected to the 1993 Parliament. She
was defeated in her reelection bid in 1997. Following the death of Deputy
Lutfi Barghouthi in January this year, deputies voted in a woman colleague.
Nuha Maaytah had 20 years experience in public work. But under the
circumstances, some activists saw her election as a display of tokenism.
[IMRA: The Lower House has 80 members.]

Meanwhile, proposals submitted by women's groups to the government back in
the fall of 2000 to increase their legislative representation were brushed
aside when the government issued a new Elections Law. . . . ... rights
activists were also disappointed that the number of women in the Senate
remained the same... .

In November, His Majesty King Abdullah appointed three women to serve next
to 37 male senators in the Upper House, the same ratio as in 1997. Their
number decreased to two women following Senator Rima Khalaf's resignation.
... feminists welcomed the appointment this year of two women as envoys to
Belgium and France. . . . But the biggest breakthrough for women were
amendments made to laws they long sought to change such as the Personal and
Civil Status Laws.

Based on recommendations by the Royal Commission for Human Rights, the
government rewrote a 1976 Personal Status Law in a form of a temporary law
to ease procedures for women in Sharia Courts by allowing them the right to
divorce and to be informed by court if their husband decide to take more
than one wife.
Most importantly the government raised the legal age of marriage from 15
for women and 16 for men to 18 for both.

The Civil Status Law was amended in March. It allowed women the right to
report births and deaths in the family, a privilege that was only granted to
men under the old law. Another liberalising amendment allowed women to
obtain their own family registration book if their husbands are dead or
reported missing, or if they are divorced. . . . The citizenship law
remains a major concern for Jordanian women married to non-Jordanian men
with its discriminatory articles that prohibit Jordanian women to pass on
their citizenship to their husbands or children, while Jordanian men who
marry foreign wives enjoy full rights.

"Many women, married to foreign men, are suffering because their children
and husbands are not considered citizens, especially ones who are either
divorced or deserted by their husbands, and are left with little financial
resources, or none, and have to raise their children alone," explained
Khader, an attorney in practice. . . . Article 52 of that law [IMRA:
Pension Law.] still stipulates that a man whose wife was employed cannot
receive any of her benefits after her death unless he is totally disabled.
. . . On the judicial front, women activists hailed the appointment of five
new female judges, including one to handle juvenile cases, bringing the
overall number of women judges to 12, since the appointment of the first
female judge, Taghreed Hikmat, in 1996. There are 470... . . . . The
government cancelled a part of article 340 of the Penal Code which exempts
punishment for males who kill their wives or female relatives found
committing adultery. But at the same time, it kept the clause which allows
for a reduction in sentence for the killers in such crimes. . . . "We are
optimistic that after Article 340, the government will start thinking of
altering Articles 98 and 97 so that men who kill their female relatives will
no longer benefit from a reduction in penalty," said Khader.

The year 2001 witnessed the murder of 19 women in reported "crimes of
honour", much like previous years.
Another government promise to fall between the cracks was the construction
of a women's shelter, Khader said... .

+++AL-AHRAM WEEKLY 3-9 Jan.'01:"See no evil, hear no evil" HEADING:
"Palestine... YOUSSEF RAKHA offers his impressions of the cultural year"

QUOTES FROM TEXT: "May brought the Intifada back to the forefront... with
playwright Ali Salem, the literary world's most outspoken champion of
normalisation with Israel, expelled from the Writers' Union."

"Through June and July, another Intifada-related issue dominated...:should
contemporary Arabic novels be translated into Hebrew? What prompted the
debate was an initiative undertaken by a Paris-residing Israeli, Yael Lerar,
a friend of Moroccan critic Mohamed Berrada and a pro-Palestinian activist."

"It was in the culture scene's response to the 11 September attacks,
however, that the Palestinian cause...was brought into focus most forcibly"

"While acknowledging that the murder of thousands of innocent civilians
[IMRA: 11 Sept.] could not be sensibly condoned, critic Gaber Asfour, in
common with many other commentators, declared,'Can we blame the dead man if
he scratches the cheek of the murderer?'
=======================================================================
EXCERPTS: May brought the Intifada back to the forefront ... with playwright
Ali Salem, the literary world's most outspoken champion of normalisation
with Israel, expelled from the Writers' Union ... however, a perfectly
justified response to Salem's most recent "normalising activities" -- the
playwright had ludicrously called for a halt to the Intifada -- was
misconstrued in the international press as a blow to human rights. Although
Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz expressed sympathy for Salem, affirming his
right to a hearing at the Union ... a "no normalisation" policy had been
passed by the general assembly every year since1995, spokespeople for the
Union pointed out -- the catalyst for Salem's expulsion, which had after all
been postponed for six years, was undoubtedly his recently publicised stance
on the Intifada. And it is the Intifada that set the tone for the next two
months of cultural debate, too, conditioning not only intellectuals'
behaviour but how fellow intellectuals responded to it.

Through June and July, another Intifada-related issue dominated the culture
scene: should contemporary Arabic novels be translated into Hebrew? What
prompted the debate was an initiative undertaken by a Paris-residing
Israeli, Yael Lerar, a friend of Moroccan critic Mohamed Berrada and a
pro-Palestinian activist. By founding a publishing house specialising in
contemporary Arabic literature in Hebrew translation, Andalus, Lerar hoped
to promote understanding across difference. Contemporary Arabic novels in
Hebrew, she maintained, could contribute to providing Israelis with an
"opening to understand an Arab perspective." The intention, she would
subsequently explain, was for all the proceeds from the sale of Andalus
publications to be donated to Palestinians fighting the occupation in Gaza
and the West Bank. When Berrada began to contact Egyptian novelists about
securing their permission to translate and publish their works, however,
many refused, their ideologically sensitive nostrils detecting a whiff of
normalisation. Akhbar Al-Adab typically honed in on these suspicions,
declaring Andalus a fraudulent trick and launching yet another campaign
aimed specifically at the project of translating Arabic literature into
Hebrew, a project that had admittedly stumbled into ideological and moral
difficulties in the past. Berrada wrote an open letter to the newspaper in
which he explained the purpose of the project and elucidated Larer's stance
on the Intifada. And though Edward Said ... declared the campaign against
Andalus "a sorry spetcacle," many commentators, including high- ranking
literati like Mahmoud Amin El-Alim, persisted in their censure of Andalus. .
. . The summer ended with 500 Palestinian intellectuals staging a sit-in in
protest against Sharon's brutality outside the UNESCO headquarters in
Ramallah. It was in the culture scene's response to the 11 September
attacks, however, that the Palestinian cause... was brought into focus most
forcibly in cultural discourse. Focusing on the New World Order as the
framework within which the attacks occurred, Arab intellectuals discussed
issues of injustice and militancy, explaining the spread of violence as a
decline in the principles of morality. While acknowledging that the murder
of thousands of innocent civilians [IMRA: 11 Sept.] could not be sensibly
condoned, critic Gaber Asfour, in common with many other commentators,
declared, "Can we blame the dead man if he scratches the cheek of his
murderer? Terrorism is ugly, it is true, and the souls of innocent victims
are dear, no doubt. But before blaming the victim," Asfour concluded
provocatively, "we should prevent his oppressor." ...

[IMRA: So Asfour says the US is not entitled to complain.]
+++ AL-AHRAM WEEKLY 3 - 9 January 2002:"Torment and transformation"

HEADING:"The writing was already on the wall last year: the turmoil that
marks the end of 2001 is extraordinary in scale, but not in essence, argues
Gamil Mattar ...director of theArab Centre for Development and Futuristic
Research."

QUOTES FROM TEXT: "the astounding thing about this year was that there was
nothing truly astounding about it."

"In the aftermath of 11 September, the United States, particularly
intellectuals and opinion makers, engaged in some soul searching and
objective criticism. But in days, attempts at a sober assessment of the
situation had screeched to a halt."

"the gates of American revenge, once opened, will be hard to close."

"Key commentators have accused Islam of providing fertile soil for terror.
Others, seemingly unaware of the enormity of their suggestions, proposed
changing Islamic `texts'."
=======================================================================
EXCERPTS: This is it: the end of 2001. It has brought to the fore all the
contradictions of our modern history. It has laid them bare for all to see.
This was the year when political and intellectual elites fumbled, cracks
riddled doctrinal facades, and a flurry of antiquated ideologies -- fascism,
racism, religious fanaticism, nihilism and opportunism -- took centre stage
in international politics. Panic was rampant everywhere.

And yet the astounding thing about this year was that there was nothing
truly astounding about it. Yes, some brainwashed, or perhaps brain-dead,
individuals committed one memorable atrocity. But even then, the one
surprising thing about the 11 September crime was not its occurrence but its
incredible scale. Some act of tremendous evil was bound to happen: that much
was fairly predictable. Since last year, observers and officials, including
friends of America and the West, spoke of pent-up anger, and warned In the
aftermath of 11 September, the United States, particularly intellectuals and
opinion makers, engaged in some soul searching and objective criticism. But
in days, attempts at a sober assessment of the situation had screeched to a
halt. Perhaps fear for national unity or for the morale of troops getting
ready for a war in Afghanistan was the cause of this reversal. Perhaps US
public opinion was growing wary of a long, complex, and costly war effort.
Soon enough, US analysts began focusing on glamourising the war. US Writers
emphasised the growing schism between the United States and Arab and Muslim
societies. And US commentators gave their stamp of approval to Ariel
Sharon's twisted version of Middle East reality. . . . The past year started
in anger, and ended in more of the same. Nowhere is this more true than in
the Middle East, where the US has failed to do anything to make Israel
withdraw -- a mission it can accomplish without firing a single shot -- from
all the occupied territories. ... Anger is likely to increase in the Middle
East; and the gates of American revenge, once opened, will be hard to close.

Anger is also likely to rise if Americans, and Westerners in general, insist
on "modernising" Islam. Key commentators have accused Islam of providing
fertile soil for terror. Others, seemingly unaware of the enormity of their
suggestion, proposed changing Islamic "texts." Other writers and politicians
have made the mistake of reducing the problem of terror to a formula for
updating Islam. That these discussions are even taking place betrays a
deep-seated ignorance of Islam, at best. At worst, it is an expression of a
more hideous reality, which could be the harbinger of a religious war as
merciless as it is unnecessary -- a war that can be in no one's interest.

The continued assault on human rights in the United States and other Western
nations is another cause of concern. The emerging picture of detentions
without trial and military courts is hardly reassuring. Nor is America's new
image as a country that discriminates against people on the basis of their
ethnicity, opinion, and creed.

Many still entertain hopes that security and justice will prevail, that
America's constitutional principles and basic values will remain in force,
or be restored. Even those who once felt that the universality of values
could jeopardise their power are realising that humanism, transparency and
freedom of expression are ultimately less costly than the ongoing US war
against terror.

Dr. Joseph Lerner, Co-Director IMRA