Jordan's parliament keeps its marriage and inheritance laws unchanged
On 8 April 2019, Jordan's parliament debated the laws on marriage and inheritance. The vote left both laws unchanged.
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The proposals
It was a busy day at the Senate and the House of Representatives in Amman. The joint session focused on two issues: the age of marriage and inheritance for grandchildren.
The proposals were to raise the youngest possible age of marriage from 15 to 16, and to give grandchildren equal rights to inheritance. The MPs voted to keep the laws as they were.
The age of marriage
The legal age of marriage in Jordan is 18 for both men and women. But the law allows some exceptions for girls aged 15 to 17, if a judge decides it is in their interest.
Supporters of the current laws welcomed the result. "My personal opinion is also with the House of Parliament that there should be an exception in the age of marriage that takes into consideration all the different aspects in society, the different needs and it should be decided by a judge and not open for only personal and individual opinions," said MP Dima Tahboub.
Inheritance
On the second issue, the children of daughters do not have the same rights as the children of sons when they inherit from their grandparents.
"Thank God today, the Parliament decided that according to the Islamic sharia and according to our environment and circumstances, what was already in the personal status law," said Abd Al Kareem Al Khasawneh, Chief Justice of the Supreme Sharia Court Department.
Outside parliament
A women's movement organised a sit-in in front of parliament. Women both for and against the amendments took part.
"Here we are standing to say to the whole world that we won't, we don't want to change our legislation system," said one protester. "This legislation system is the family, it's one of the pillars of the family," she said, "and if it's changed it will be good to the enemies of the Islam."
Nuha Zaideh, a member of the Jordanian National Commission for Women, said she was disappointed with parliament's decisions. In her view, the amendments do not go against Islamic law.
"This is unfortunate that they got misled like this," she said. "The dispute between them is not based on any ideology that goes against the sharia law because the age of 15 years-old didn't come from the sharia but was put in the law."