The lower house of the Jordanian parliament voted Tuesday to repeal a law that exonerated rapists if they married their victims.
The repeal of the law, Article 308, should easily pass the Jordanian Senate and King Abdullah II, according to a New York Times report. Women’s rights groups said that Jordan has more work to do in establishing legal protection for women, but applauded the move to repeal the law as a step in the right direction.
“Jordan is now setting a very good example for other countries in the region that still have these discriminatory legal provisions,” Saud Abu-Dayyeh, Middle East expert for Equality Now, said in a statement.
Women in Jordan have faced jail time, murder, and forced marriage as punishments for being subjected to sexual abuse, according to an Associated Press report. Those who support the law claim that it protects raped women from shameful stigma, but Judge Jehad al-Duradi told the AP that it was not a shield at all.
Jehad said that female victims of rape in Jordan often feel forced to marry their rapists to protect themselves. Jehad told the AP of the case of a 15-year-old girl who was raped and impregnated by her brother-in-law, who was married to her sister. The girl requested to marry her rapist, hoping that she would escape any potential legal penalty and that the man would provide for her. Instead, the rapist married her to avoid jail time and then forced her out of his house the same day. The girl is one of many rape victims in Jordan who have suffered similar fates.
Jordan will become the third country in the Middle East to strike down their rapist-protecting law if the repeal is successful. Morocco, Egypt, and Tunisia have already abandoned their marry-your-rapist laws, and the movement to repeal a similar law in Lebanon has gained momentum, according to TheNYT.
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