While there are many achievements on women’s empowerment that the United Nations would like to celebrate on the occasion of the International Women’s Day, there are still some obstacles preventing Jordanian women from fully participating in the country’s development process.
 
“It is a day to celebrate the gains Jordanian women have made over the years but also to bring attention to the obstacles they still face”, UN Resident Coordinator in Jordan, Luc Stevens, said.
 
“Building up on those accomplishments is needed in order for women to become active players in the development process”, Stevens added.
 
The UN’s first Arab Human Development Report (AHDR) released in 2002, identified women’s disempowerment as one of three critical deficits crippling Arab nations, including Jordan, in their quest to return to the first rank of world leaders of commerce, learning and culture.
 
Despite the positive fact that most Arab countries have now a parliament, a cabinet or a local council in which at least one woman participates effectively, the most recent AHDR titled ‘Towards Rise of Women in the Arab World’ warns that political reform, at every level, must go beyond the cosmetic and the symbolic.
 
The report also concludes that re-evaluating the position of Arab women today is a precondition for a stronger civil society.
 
Such a fact, reflected in current obstacles and challenges faced by Jordanian parliamentary women, has also been addressed in a report by UNIFEM to be released later in the month. The study analyses the role of the parliament, the current electoral system rules and quotas affecting the selection of women candidates.
 
The United Nations declared March 8 as the International Women’s Day in 1975. Since then, all UN agencies in Jordan have been supporting the country’s efforts to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment within their respective fields of mandate.
 
The UN agencies present in Jordan are FAO, UN HABITAT, UNDP, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNHCR, UNICEF, UNIFEM, UNRWA, WFP, WHO and UNU-ILI in addition to those with a regional and global mandate.