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AMMAN — HRH Princess Basma on Tuesday said the development and implementation of Resolution 1325 gives Jordan greater immunity against the dangerous conditions in the region. 

“Peace and security are vital and indispensable for all humanity, women and men alike, and we all have a responsibility to sustain both,” Princess Basma said at an event to celebrate Jordan's role in reactivating UN Resolution 1325 (women, peace and security).

The UN resolution addresses women's safety and security in times of war and conflicts, considering women as an active factor in peace and war, and committing UN member states to take measures to implement the decision.

When the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 was adopted in 2000, it was a major milestone for women the world over, the princess told the gathering. 

“It was the first Security Council resolution to acknowledge that war affects women and men differently, and that peace is inextricably tied to gender equality, and the first to emphasise women’s participation in conflict resolution,” she added. 

However, despite all the good intentions and efforts put forth since then, the requirements of Resolution 1325 have not been met, Princess Basma said. 

“There is still a prevailing impression that women, in situations of warfare, are only seen as victims. Yet many countries’ experiences have shown that when women are involved in peace negotiations, their contributions and perspectives can often guarantee that demands for equality will be incorporated into new constitutional, judicial and electoral structures,” she stressed.  

Princess Basma warned that the Arab world is witnessing immense conflicts, “which have led to forms of violence and suffering that were unheard of before”.

“Our region now has the largest forcibly displaced population in the world, and the situation threatens to deteriorate further. 

"We can anticipate even greater suffering for women in particular, who will be more vulnerable to rape, human trafficking, and other forms of violence that undermine their human rights, including rights to health, education, employment and participation in public life,” she said.  

Giuseppe Belsito, UN Women country representative, who also spoke at the event, commended Jordan’s commitment towards UN Resolution 1325 “because of its importance in relation to the current regional conflicts”.

“Jordan is one of the top 10 peacekeeping troop providers globally, and has long been a leader in providing security expertise and support regionally and globally,” Belsito said.

It is time for Jordan to make its mark as a regional leader also in the inclusion of women in its activities related to peace and security, he added.

The government’s commitment to accelerating the adoption of the National Action Plan (NAP), made in September 2015, was an important step towards this, according to the UN official. 

“The ongoing NAP development process is very promising, and I am looking forward to seeing Jordan adopt the national action plan in December 2016,” Belsito added.

Salma Nims, secretary general of the Jordanian National Commission for Women, said International Women’s Day celebrations came this year to reaffirm the effects of military conflicts, which affect women, children and immigrants the most.

“Women are known to be creators of peace, and while men meet to split the authority, women meet to share the authority,” Nims told the gathering.

Turning to UN Resolution 1325, she said the JNCW is carrying out consultations to prepare a national action plan to implement the resolution and document progress.  

“We are carrying out activities, but without a plan you cannot monitor progress,  assess different needs or change course,” Nims explained.

“The importance of these [consultations] is to build consensus at the local and national levels over the priorities that we need to adopt when we prepare our national action plans,” she asserted.

Some of the priorities based on the consultations, Nims maintained, are to deal with refugee women and girls, prevent gender based violence, confront radicalisation and increase women’s participation in peacekeeping missions.

During the two-hour event, the organisers showed several videos highlighting Jordanian female security officers' role in various peacekeeping missions and the Kingdom's role in implementing Resolution 1325.

The event was organised by the JNCW in coordination with a local coalition and UN Women and supported by the government of Japan. 

AMMAN — The Senate on Tuesday insisted for the second time on its decision of regarding two draft laws deliberated by the two Houses recently.

The two bills are the residency and foreigner affairs and the domanial money collection, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Accordingly, a joint session of Parliament will be scheduled to resolve the issue in accordance with Article 92 of the Constitution. 

Also during Tuesday's Upper House meeting, senators approved the Lower House's decision to pass the 2016 elections law after accepting a simple amendment added by the Senate. 

The issue between the Senate and the House in regard to the 2015 draft domanial money collection law lies in Paragraph A of Article 17. 

The provision imposes an accumulative fine of 9 per cent annually on each unpaid financial claim that was not settled, provided that shall not exceed 50 per cent of the claim value except for claims that have fines under other regulations.

The senators do not want fines to be imposed in the first place. 

The Senate also scrapped an article added by the Lower House to the draft residence and foreigner affairs bill, which allowed the issuance of a residence permit for a foreigner if his/her mother is a Jordanian.

MPs insisted during a previous session that foreigners have to pay JD50 annually to renew their residency permits and pay JD15 to issue a new permit in case they lost the one they have, under their amendments to the Residency and Foreigner Affairs Law.

Nonetheless, the Senate did not agree to that and insisted that a by-law must be drafted to detail cases when fees for visas and residency permits are waivered.

Ensour agreed with the Senate on this decision, stressing that fees are covered in by-laws, while taxes are governed by laws. 

During the session, the Senate also endorsed draft amendments to the 2016 Sharia Courts Procedural Law as sent from the Lower House.

The articles of the draft law, based on its mandating reasons, are compatible with the law on the formation of Sharia Courts.

Moreover, the Senate endorsed the draft higher education institutions accreditation law for 2015.

ZAATARI REFUGEE CAMP/AMMAN –– When Mohammad Krad and his wife received their first baby in the Zaatari Refugee Camp, the joy of having their first son turned into a major concern as the Syrian crises dragged on. 

Krad, who has been in the camp for four years, said that months before the beginning of the turbulence, he decided to get married for the second time because he wanted to have children. 

"My son was born here and he is two years old now. I was so happy to have him at first, but now I am concerned about his future," Krad, a former wrestler, told The Jordan Times in a recent interview at the camp. 

Krad's concern is how to ensure that his son, who is among a new Syrian generation that was born in Jordan, develop a sense of belonging to the homeland, a country he has never seen and has zero memories there. 

Daniel Baker, regional humanitarian coordinator at the UNFPA and the head of the agency's country office in Jordan, said in a recent interview with The Jordan Times that the number of babies born in Jordan's largest camp, some 90km northeast of Amman, stands at around 10,000 since the inception of the camp. 

The number of registered Syrian children who are aged not more than four years old is 102,655 while Syrians aged between five and 11 are numbered at 139,492, according to UNHCR figures. 

Alyaa Al Ansaary, RH programme manager at Jordan Health Aid Society, said there are many reasons why women give birth in the camp. 

"Sometime it is for the sake of compensation for offspring lost in Syria war. And given that we face a problem of early marriage, we need to convince them to postpone pregnancy, but this is not an easy task," she told The Jordan Times in a recent interview.  

As the Syrian conflict turns five this year, refugees interviewed by The Jordan Times echoed Krad’s concerns. 

Amal Hoshan, a 42-year-old mother of five, said when she arrived in the camp three years ago, her daughter Farah was only one-year-and-a-half.   

Parents resort to simple techniques to establish a connection between their children and the motherland. “We show them photos of the good old days, for example,” said Hoshan, a football coach.  

It is not easy to skip war details when you talk to a five or six-year-old child living in a camp amid a crowd of refugees and a never-stopping talk about their tragedy, let alone news , she said. 

“When we see wounded people on TV, we change the channel.” 

Farah’s older sisters are helping by telling her nice stories about the village and the house across the border. 

Krad is aware of this. As a wrestling coach, “I keep telling them details about the Syrian cities I visited during the competitions I took part in to make them curious, hoping that one day they will be visiting these places,” he added.  

Mohammad Mansour sees the issue from another angle and he is not worried. 

“Jordan and Syria have the same language and traditions so I do not see any difference here and there and they will get adapted to the lifestyle in Syria easily,” the 36-year-old told The Jordan Times his caravan. 

Krad stressed that just in case, all families need psychological support once they return to Syria. They need to erase the traces of war from their minds and communities, he explained.

UNICEF Representative to Jordan Robert Jenkins agreed, stressing on the importance of effective psychosocial support. 

Such a programme, he said, should include “interaction with children in a way that enables them to deal with any trauma they have experienced in order to positively engage in their environment. However, many of those tools, such as art and music, includ engaging with history and original culture,” he told The Jordan Times at his office in Amman.  

UNFPA’s Baker said there are several such programmes under implementation in the camp, employing songs and other forms of art to teach children. 

“If we want a good future for Syria, we need healthy babies right now and that’s what we are trying to do, so when they go home they can rebuild Syria,” he added.  

For Krad, “the problem is not to survive the war any more; it is how to survive the impact of the war”.  

IRBID — Intensive efforts are being exerted in Irbid Governorate, some 80km north of Amman, to empower local communities and better improve social solidarity. 

The northern governorate is one of the regions that witnessed a "huge" influx of Syrian refugees, a reality that prompted donors and UN agencies to ramp up their activities there.

Aydoun, a small town in the northern governorate, hosts the Princess Basma Development Centre, which currently implements programmes in cooperation with Care, USAID, UNHCR, UNICEF and Mercy Corps.

Mohammad Jamous, a young man from Syria, said he was "afraid of loneliness" when he first arrived to Jordan.

"I lost my left leg in the war in Syria and I was terrified of the idea to come to a new country without knowing anyone. But that has changed now," said Jamous. 

After registering at the Princess Basma centre, he was enrolled in a UNHCR programme that seeks to integrate Syrian refugees into the local community in order to help them overcome the social and psychological obstacles they face in a new environment.

Jamous is now member in the centre's youth committees and assistant to a local football referee.

"We at the UNHCR truly value the efforts put forward by non-government organisations, especially JOHUD [Jordanian Hashemite Fund for Human Development] and other Jordanian partners in developing initiatives that target Syrians and their capabilities," Andrew Harper, the UNHCR representative to Jordan, told The Jordan Times on Sunday.

HRH Princess Basma, along with representatives of several international organisations, visited the centre on Sunday and listened to briefings by Jordanian and Syrian beneficiaries on projects implemented in Irbid. 

Princess Basma distributed financial support to 35 students to continue their university studies and inaugurated a women's gym at the centre funded by Mercy Corps.

AMMAN — A group of volunteers on Monday launched Amman’s unofficial transport map that seeks to make travelling in the city's public transportation system easier for residents and visitors. 

The map was launched by Maan Nasel (Together We Reach), which is a national advocacy group calling for better organised and safer public transportation in the capital. 

In a statement e-mailed to The Jordan Times, Maan Nasel said the map is the first of its kind in Jordan, as it shows most of the routes used by large and small buses and some service taxi routes in Amman and the suburbs, adding that the citizen-led initiative enables commuters to plan their trips efficiently. 

Hazem Zureiqat, founding member of Maan Nasel, said the main aim of the map was to highlight the need to offer residents accurate and easy to use information on transport routes in Amman, noting that the challenges facing commuters were the main motive to prepare the map. 

The statement said a group of volunteers, students and commuters, used public transportation for six months from May 2015 to November 2015 to track its routes and stations and documented them via Google Maps.

Hana Belbeisi, another founding member of the project, said that volunteers talked to bus drivers and discovered that they were unaware of all routes, while passengers who talked to the volunteers said they needed such a map to help plan their trips. 

The map is available on Maan Nasel website (http://maannasel.net/map) and as an app downloadable for Android and iOS, in addition to print versions.

The Maan Nasel website described the map as a readable, user-friendly format that would facilitate and encourage its use by residents and visitors. 

On details of how to use it, the website said the map shows the public transport network in the city of Amman and some of its suburbs. 

It covers a total of 76 large buses, small buses and service taxi routes, but does not reflect the actual distances between various points in the city. 

The colour coding is based on the general direction of each group of routes. It is used to track routes across the map, the website said.

The letter B refers to large buses, C for coaster buses or small buses and S for service taxis. 

As public transportation in the capital has often been criticised as inadequate, the map project was welcomed by many social media users. 

"Thank you for your great efforts. Would it be available in bookstores?" asked Tuqa Akef Albdour on Facebook. 

Waseem Al Alwan commented on Facebook that the Greater Amman Municipality should follow suit by issuing a map for tourist sites in the capital. 

Ayah Alfawaris wrote that local community is doing the job the government has failed to do.

The Maan Nasel team describes the projects as a "map by people for the people", as hundreds of thousands of Amman residents use public transportation to go to work, university, hospital or to the market.

AMMAN — The Kingdom marks International Women's Day on Tuesday with several activities highlighting the achievements made to boost women's participation in all fields.

Rights groups will also use this occasion to highlight the economic, political, legal and social challenges that are still facing women and hindering their advancement.

One of the main events to take place on Tuesday is an activity to celebrate Jordan's role in reactivating UN Resolution 1325 (women, peace and security) that will be organised by the Jordanian National Commission for Women (JNCW) in coordination with a local coalition and UN Women. 

The event, scheduled to be held under the patronage of HRH Princess Basma, will be held at the King Hussein Business Park.

The UN resolution addresses women's safety and security in times of war and conflicts, considering women as an active factor in peace and war, and committing UN member states to take measures to implement the decision.

Meanwhile, Basil Tarawneh, the government's coordinator on human rights, issued a statement to mark the occasion, stressing the government's commitment to empowering women and ensuring equal rights as stipulated in the Constitution and international conventions.

"We need to get outside the box and reject the stereotyping of women by implementing plans that could be applied within all sectors of society and would eventually boost women's political participation," Tarawneh said.

At the same time, he added, "women bear the responsibility to become more involved in the efforts that are being exerted to empower them".  

On the occasion, the Sisterhood is Global Institute (SIGI) said that improving women's status will automatically lead to better development and improving the lives of men and children. 

The group said there are 89,000 families that are being supported by women in Jordan. 

SIGI added that the ratio of early marriage among women ranges between 12 and 14 per cent, noting that eliminating this percentage will lead to more women getting better education and becoming pioneers of the future.

The institute also called for scrapping Article 308 of the Penal Code that allows sexual offenders to avoid punishment if they marry their victims. 

Other activities scheduled to take place in the Kingdom include an event organised by the Jordanian Women Association (RAMA) at the Professional Associations Complex in Shmeisani that includes a book exhibition, bazaar and highlighting the most 100 important women as well as a panel discussion with head of the Jordanian Women's Union, Tahani Shakhshir; activist Laila Khaled; Saeed Diab, the secretary general of the Jordanian Democratic Popular Party; and Rania Laswi from RAMA.

In a statement also released on the occasion, the Jordan Human Rights Society (JHRS) said customs and traditions — not the law — are governing women's lives in Jordan.  

The society said there is an urgent need to amend the Personal Status Law when it comes to women and inheritance.  

The JHRS stressed that women should be granted more time to decide if they want to maintain what they should inherit or want to give it up for a male relative.  

"Many relatives in the family take advantage of the short period of mourning and convince their female relatives to waive their inheritance rights in favour of their male relatives," the JHRS said.  

These individuals exert social pressure on women and "try to convince them that it is a shame to inherit, taking advantage of "the time when women are vulnerable the most", the society added.

Figures from 2015 census

The number of men in Jordan is more than women by around half a million. Men are 5,046,612, while women are 4,485,100

There are 100 females to every 113 males in Jordan's entire population 

Among Jordanians, there are 104 males to each 100 females

The ratio of women-led households has increased by 3% since 1979, from 8.8% to 11.8% in 2015

Divorce among women is 1.7%, compared with 0.6% among men

Average marriage age among women in 21.2, compared with 25.5 among men

Illiteracy among women is double than that for men, with 8.9% of females illiterate compared with 4.6% of males

55% of females are covered by health insurance, compared with 50% of males

Source: Department of Statistics

IRBID — The Kingdom’s “bride of the north” was the latest venue for the Goodwill Campaign’s activities this week.

Arriving at Azmi Mufti Refugee Camp, home to 21,500 Palestinian refugees, on Sunday, HRH Princess Basma, president of the campaign’s higher committee, presented urgent assistance to 250 families, clothes and school supplies to 150 students and financial support to 14 students to continue their university education.

In addition, two societies and a women’s centre in the camp received support to implement much-needed projects.

With the poverty rate at the camp reaching 11.3 per cent, around 788 residents receive support from the National Aid Fund.

Princess Basma noted that the campaign is cooperating with stakeholders to empower people, especially women and children, to serve the sustainable development process.

She also underlined the campaign’s commitment to reaching out to people in need across the Kingdom, commending the role the private sector and donors play in supporting the initiative’s programmes.

Palestinian Affairs Department Director General Mahmoud Aqrabawi highlighted projects implemented in the refugee camp by the Goodwill Campaign and their impact on mitigating the hardships of refugees.

Launched by the Jordanian Hashemite Fund for Human Development, the Goodwill Campaign has grown over the years to become synonymous with support for the poor and the marginalised.

AMMAN — Despite the harsh desert climate, the Nabataean inhabitants of ancient Petra were capable of growing different kinds of agricultural products, and even making wine, according to researcher and archaeologist Ulrich Bellwald.

In a lecture late last week at the German Protestant Institute of Archaeology in Amman on agriculture and wine making in the area, Bellwald presented a winery located in a valley west of “Little Petra” as a model for the Nabataeans’ agricultural production units.

“The existence of a dam at the southern outlet of the wadi proves [it] to be a completely artificial, man-made landscape,” added the scholar, who has published several works on Petra and its hydraulic systems that enabled Nabataeans to develop agriculture in the arid desert.

After the construction of the dam, the valley was backfilled with debris swept in by winter floods, and with time, areas for planting the vines came to existence, he noted.

Ancient Nabataeans had an “advanced system of irrigation”, and each area of Petra, some 235km south of Amman, yielded different types of agricultural produce, the Swiss architect and art historian noted. 

In the wider Beida area, scholars found wine presses, while in other areas around Petra, olives were cultivated along with other crops for human and animal consumption, he explained.

“All over the wider Beida area, wine presses are cut into rock outcrops, such as the ones opposite the Beida Neolithic village and at the western embankment of the road to Um Sayhun. [In total], more than 50 wine presses... [have been] found until now,” Bellwald elaborated.

“The different shapes of the treading platforms prove that both red and white wine were produced,” he added.

“As no shards from terracotta amphorae were found so far, it may be presumed that the Nabataean wineries used most probably skins from goats and sheep for transporting and storing the wine,” Bellwald, the author and co-author of seven books about the archaeology and hydrology of Petra, speculated.

There is evidence that Nabateans kept wine in dark caves in order to keep it in cool locations before consumption, he added.

As the main Nabataean trade route with Rome ended at Portus Julius near Naples, it may be assumed that at least part of their knowledge about wine making came from the Roman wineries in Campania, the researcher suggested.

“It is well testified that since the first half of the 1st century BC a Nabataean colony existed at Portus Julius in the Vicus Lartidianus,” Bellwald said.

Citing the Roman historian and geographer Strabo (64BC-24AD), Bellwald said Nabataeans used to organise symposia for religious, ritual, social or business events, similar to the ceremonial guest meals common in the Greek and Roman eras.

MAFRAQ — Eleven ambassadors of EU member states in Jordan visited the Mafraq Development Zone on Monday to see how much it is ready to host investments in the future. 

Thabet Al Wir, chairman of the Jordan Investment Commission, said based on the outcomes of the London donor conference, the industrial sector is a major investment target in the Kingdom, and Mafraq, some 80km northeast of Amman, is among the areas targeted to host investments from EU countries.

“The industrial sector includes textiles and ICT. We believe that Mafraq has the potential to be a place of employment, and storing and reshipping many products to countries in the region,” Wir told The Jordan Times during the visit.   

EU Ambassador to Jordan Andrea Matteo Fontana said the visit was “important”. 

“We have seen real Jordanian businesses which are already producing today for the world market and which already have the technology. I think this shows that there is a concrete opportunity to increase the scale of production and exports particularly to the European Union,” he told The Jordan Times.   

The ambassador noted that there is a lot of potential to tap into European Union markets, which is important for Jordan today. 

Fontana stressed the need for economic development to address unemployment problems, noting that “it would be good” for Syrian refugees who are still depending on humanitarian aid to become more independent by obtaining a job to feed their families.

The EU official said Jordan’s holistic approach to the refugee crisis, outlined at the London conference, is “visionary”.

“It is a new approach because it moves the management of the Syrian refugees from [the] humanitarian to [the] development [perspective] so it does not see them as a cost for the economy but as an opportunity,” he added. 

Fontana said the EU is also looking at the possibility of enhancing the skills of both Jordanians and Syrians so that they can match the needs of the labour market.

“When we match them we will produce economic development and job opportunities,” he added.  

AMMAN — The Health Ministry said Monday it will implement a free nationwide vaccination campaign against polio between March 27 and 31.

Speaking to the Jordan News Agency, Petra, Mohammad Abdallat, director of the ministry’s department of communicable diseases control, said the campaign targets all children under five years old living in the Kingdom.

The polio immunisation drive, he added, is the sixth to be implemented nationwide, noting that five previous campaigns were implemented between 2013 and 2015.

The goal, according to Abdallat, is to ensure that Jordan remains polio-free and to prevent the transmission of the disease from countries where it is still common.

Vaccinations will be given from 8am to 3pm every day of the campaign to children under five years old regardless of their nationality or previous vaccinations, he added, stressing that no official documents or IDs will be requested.

Abdallat said polio is caused by poliovirus, and is transmitted through the respiratory or digestive systems by exposure to the faeces of an infected patient.

It is most common among children under five.

The vaccine will be available at all health centres, UNRWA centres, some malls and a number of public hospitals, Petra reported.

Roaming medical teams will also be administering the vaccine at public kindergartens.

The World Health Organisation, UNICEF, the Royal Medical Services, UNRWA, the Private Hospitals Association, the Jordan Medical Association and a number of civil society organisations are supporting the Health Ministry in this campaign, according to Petra.