Amman, Jordan – Although a significant minority, the women elected to Jordan’s Chamber of Deputies, in November 2010 are focused on serving constituents and carrying out their legislative duties. These were the topics of two workshops hosted by the Women’s Democracy Network (WDN) along with the WDN Jordan chapter.

The first workshop, held on May 21, was led by Dr. Eman Al Hussein a leader of the WDN Jordan chapter, Dr. Ali Dabbas from the National Center for Human Rights and Dr. Mohammad Hammoury a former government minister. The meeting provided participants the opportunity to discuss constituent services and legislative duties.

Ten days later the women met again to further discuss constituent relations and advocacy, specifically the responsibilities and obligations of an elected official to their constituency. The workshop again featured Dr. Hammoury and Dr. Dabbas, as well as Dr. Sabri Rbaihat, a former government minister. During the workshop, the deputies discussed presenting important issues to their male counterparts. In response, the trainers discussed various advocacy tactics that could be useful when female deputies approached their male colleagues. As a result of the workshop, the deputies acquired valuable strategies to ensure that women play an active role in parliament.

In addition to these workshops, the WDN Jordan chapter is focused on increasing the numbers of women competing in local elections scheduled for October 2011. In meetings with women interested in running for municipal council, Dr. Hussein and several WDN chapter members have stressed the importance of increasing women’s political involvement in local governance and increasing women’s political participation in order to ensure their roles in the social, economic and political spheres of the nation.

WDN’s ongoing work with women in Jordan focuses on increasing women’s political participation across the country. Women were not able to run for parliament until 1989, and during the 2007 elections only six women won seats through a quota system. During the November 2010 parliamentary elections 13 women were elected to represent their given constituencies.