It’s becoming old news; another newborn was found in a pool of her blood, in the WC of Al Basheer Hospital. Apparently her mother came to the hospital seeking pain killers for cramps. Doctors suspected she was pregnant and she denied it, so they asked her to take a urine test. She went to the toilets, delivered the baby, cut the umbilical cord with some sharp device, left the baby there, and escaped.
The baby is recovering in hospital before being handed over to the Ministry of Social Development. The 24-year-old mother was found an hour after the baby was discovered, and she admitted that she was pregnant out of wedlock. The newspaper report says she is now being hospitalized for excessive blood loss, and will be later handed over to police for further investigation.
It is obvious why that young woman would want to get rid of the baby and hide what had happened. Some people comment on such news and say “how could a mother be so cold-hearted and throw away her baby?”, but the law does not allow an unmarried mother to keep the baby anyway, and the family and society do not provide any support network or backup in such cases. On the contrary, this woman probably fears for her life. This is a survival tactic. Anyways, I didn’t start this post to talk about crimes in the name of so-called-honor.
Social pressure and fear of family “honor cleansing mechanisms” aside, this news got me wondering about the nature of the “police investigation” and whether that young woman should fear being punished by the law. In the first case that took place in September, we read that the parents of the newborn that was found in some trash bin were facing charges of adultery (rather than attempted murder, read Naseem’s post here). I used to know that adultery is a crime in Jordanian Law, but then lately I’ve been hearing conflicting views on it. So I decided to check for myself. Did you know that every single Jordanian Law, whether temporary or approved by parliament, and whether active or not, is available online (click here).
I spent a good two hours reading different legislations just out of curiosity, the Personal Status Law, the Juvenile Law, the Civil Law, and – what I was looking for - the Criminal Law. Legal terminology is sometimes complicated and there were moments where I felt I was reading Chinese. But I did find some interesting and intriguing stuff.
So… the verdict: Article 282 of the Criminal Law states that the man and woman who commit adultery together by consent are punished by one to three years of prison. The sentence is no less than two years if either one of them is married.
Then you have article 284, which states:
… which roughly means that adulterers cannot be persecuted unless a complaint is filed against one or both of them by their spouse (as long as the marriage is still valid), or by the woman’s custodian (or guardian, whatever the translation is for “waliyy”), which means her father or whoever is in his place (grandfather, brother, uncle…).
A complaint cannot be filed against only one of the partners in adultery; it’s either the two of them, or no one is persecuted.
I wonder how many times it actually happened for a woman’s father to file a complaint and press adultery charges against his daughter and her partner, rather than, say, have them both shot, by an underage son preferably. Just curious. But then again, it is the law itself that has loopholes to allow people to take the law into their own hands. If a young man knew he would spend a lifetime in prison for killing his sister, would he still do it?
Did I say I don’t want to talk about killing in the name of honor?? Well… I guess I couldn’t help it. It really is not about the 20 murders that take place every year, it’s about society burying its head in the sand about certain ‘taboo’ issues and not wanting to have a civilized and open debate about them so that babies in trash bins and sewage pipes and hospital toilets don’t become habitual news for us. I remember a few years ago at the University of Jordan, there was an awareness campaign on AIDS, and most students were passing by the posters and going like "efft, this is an issue alien to our society, can't they waste campaign resources on something more relevant?" It's that kind of denial our society wraps itself with, but alarm bells are ringing!
On a brighter note (for myself at least), I guess I’m back from my blogging hiatus :) happy belated Eid and Merry Christmas to those of you celebrating, and to those of you who aren't, I hope you're enjoying the season anyway.
The baby is recovering in hospital before being handed over to the Ministry of Social Development. The 24-year-old mother was found an hour after the baby was discovered, and she admitted that she was pregnant out of wedlock. The newspaper report says she is now being hospitalized for excessive blood loss, and will be later handed over to police for further investigation.
It is obvious why that young woman would want to get rid of the baby and hide what had happened. Some people comment on such news and say “how could a mother be so cold-hearted and throw away her baby?”, but the law does not allow an unmarried mother to keep the baby anyway, and the family and society do not provide any support network or backup in such cases. On the contrary, this woman probably fears for her life. This is a survival tactic. Anyways, I didn’t start this post to talk about crimes in the name of so-called-honor.
Social pressure and fear of family “honor cleansing mechanisms” aside, this news got me wondering about the nature of the “police investigation” and whether that young woman should fear being punished by the law. In the first case that took place in September, we read that the parents of the newborn that was found in some trash bin were facing charges of adultery (rather than attempted murder, read Naseem’s post here). I used to know that adultery is a crime in Jordanian Law, but then lately I’ve been hearing conflicting views on it. So I decided to check for myself. Did you know that every single Jordanian Law, whether temporary or approved by parliament, and whether active or not, is available online (click here).
I spent a good two hours reading different legislations just out of curiosity, the Personal Status Law, the Juvenile Law, the Civil Law, and – what I was looking for - the Criminal Law. Legal terminology is sometimes complicated and there were moments where I felt I was reading Chinese. But I did find some interesting and intriguing stuff.
So… the verdict: Article 282 of the Criminal Law states that the man and woman who commit adultery together by consent are punished by one to three years of prison. The sentence is no less than two years if either one of them is married.
Then you have article 284, which states:
لايجـوز ملاحقة الزاني او الزانية الا بشكوى الزوج او الزوجة ، مادامت الزوجية قائمة بينهما ، وكذلك بشكوى ولي الزانية ، وفي حال الشكوى ضد احدهما او كليهما يلاحـق الاثنان معاً بالاضافة الى الشريك والمحرض والمتدخل في فعل الزنا ان وجدوا، وتسقط الشكوى والعقوبة بالاسقاط.
… which roughly means that adulterers cannot be persecuted unless a complaint is filed against one or both of them by their spouse (as long as the marriage is still valid), or by the woman’s custodian (or guardian, whatever the translation is for “waliyy”), which means her father or whoever is in his place (grandfather, brother, uncle…).
A complaint cannot be filed against only one of the partners in adultery; it’s either the two of them, or no one is persecuted.
I wonder how many times it actually happened for a woman’s father to file a complaint and press adultery charges against his daughter and her partner, rather than, say, have them both shot, by an underage son preferably. Just curious. But then again, it is the law itself that has loopholes to allow people to take the law into their own hands. If a young man knew he would spend a lifetime in prison for killing his sister, would he still do it?
Did I say I don’t want to talk about killing in the name of honor?? Well… I guess I couldn’t help it. It really is not about the 20 murders that take place every year, it’s about society burying its head in the sand about certain ‘taboo’ issues and not wanting to have a civilized and open debate about them so that babies in trash bins and sewage pipes and hospital toilets don’t become habitual news for us. I remember a few years ago at the University of Jordan, there was an awareness campaign on AIDS, and most students were passing by the posters and going like "efft, this is an issue alien to our society, can't they waste campaign resources on something more relevant?" It's that kind of denial our society wraps itself with, but alarm bells are ringing!
On a brighter note (for myself at least), I guess I’m back from my blogging hiatus :) happy belated Eid and Merry Christmas to those of you celebrating, and to those of you who aren't, I hope you're enjoying the season anyway.
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