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Bridges Between Women
 The Jordanian women the US delegation met were educated, articulate, accomplished, well-traveled - and opinionated. There was much to share, and much to debate, especially over meals when the conversation veered into the complex politics of the Middle East and Israeli-Arab relations.
At an Amman restaurant one memorable evening, our group of 21 joined 21 professional Jordanian women for dinner. The conversation was open and stimulating. Only three of the Jordanians wore headscarves (hejabs). Most of the women were practicing Muslims but with different interpretations of how to best express their religion.
These Jordanians were mostly mothers, wives and fully employed, facing the same life-balance issues as the Americans. The head mistress of a famously successful girls school didn't want an alcoholic beverage but thoroughly enjoyed puffing on the mixture of tobacco and apple in the Hookah (water pipe). The evening was enlightening and stimulating.
But these women represented a minority in Jordan, where less than 13 percent of the workforce is female. Some of the career women we met expressed frustration with Arab peers wearing hejabs, yet 90 percent of university women in the country now wear the head scarf.
 Suhair Al-Ali, the nation's Minister of Planning and International Cooperation and Jordan's only female minister, told the delegation that gender equality will make the economy more competitive - a theme echoed by Queen Rania. But, she added, progress on this front faces enormous cultural barriers. In a question-and-answer session with the delegation, she described a nascent and passive civil society that lacks any concerted effort by women to support other women. |
