OK, just a couple quick anecdotes from my last day in Jordan (which seems like around three weeks ago). We've talked before about the unique position of women in Jordan, a mixture of western and traditional. These two things happened to me on my last day there before boarding a plane for Dubai - neither profound, but nevertheless somewhat enlightening.
First off, I had a meeting scheduled with a woman professor from the University of Jordan. We were to be joined by another female professor and then drive for a meet and greet at a nearby private university. The other professor had to drop out at the last minute, leaving the two of us to drive over together. The professor in question is this brilliant scholar with two Ph.D.s. She is in her 50's and dresses in traditional Jordanian attire. As she was firing up the car she was clearly nervous, and I asked her if everything was OK. She asked me what I knew about Jordanian society, to which I replied that some folks might not approve of the two of us being in the car alone together, especially with her driving, and I volunteered to call off the trip. Instead, she simply said, "No, it's a silly rule and silly rules only have power if you let them have power," and she took off. We ended up having a great trip but the whole time I wondered if that was the first time she had ever driven another man alone in a car.
Secondly, I was walking from one meeting to another at the UJ campus on my last day when I walked by a group of four young women in traditional Jordanian wear. One of them was staring at me (think of an Arabic Ricki Lake pre-procedure). As I passed she smiled and said, "very very beautiful." I put my hand to my chest and said shukran (thank you). She immediately blushed beet red and her friends started cackling. Society in Jordan is so much more comlicated than it seems on the surface, especially to a western viewer.
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Hey G -
It's interesting that you mentioned that because I have been getting a lot of questions from folks about the status of women in Jordan. I might write a travel writing piece specifically on that. Also, of all of the options I offered The Current to use as a sidebar to my article - the editors chose a series of postings from students in Jordan about "going out" and the stresses of needing to be with a respectable male. More and more are getting sick and tired of the strikes against reputation... and apparently the men are, too. Then on the other hand you have Queen Rania dressed like a Westerner who represents "Jordanian" women and who traveled to the USA by herself the past couple of weeks while her husband stayed in Jordan.
It's very complex and there certainly is no textbook answer to the question, "what's the status of women in Jordan."
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