Jordan’s Female Taxi Drivers Crash Through Stereotypes

This article originally appeared on the Women & Girls Hub of News Deeply, and you can find the original here. For important news about issues that affect women and girls in the developing world, you can sign up to the Women & Girls Hub email list. By Elspeth Dehnert

A group of women in Jordan are defying gender roles for a career on the road. While it’s not easy working in a male-dominated sector, the country’s female taxi drivers are willing to challenge the naysayers in order to do the job they love.

AMMAN, Jordan – The only difference between Hiba al-Sharu and her male counterparts is the color of the sign that sits atop her taxi – hers is pink, a symbol for a woman-friendly service in a country dominated by men. She is one of 10 women who earlier this year became some of the first female taxi drivers in Jordan. They are being hailed as pioneers in a conservative society where jobs are dictated by gender and women often feel uneasy taking taxis driven by men.

“It’s a beautiful job because of the relationships you form and the freedom that comes with it,” says al-Sharu as she swiftly changes lanes in the traffic. Also, she adds, “I have a passion for driving cars.”

Al-Sharu became a taxi driver in March after her friend told her about a new female-driven service being offered by Taxi al-Moumayaz, one of the leading companies of its kind in Jordan. CEO Eid Abu al-Haj says the reason for creating the initiative was twofold: to give women the chance to work in the male-centric transportation sector and to provide female riders with a more comfortable option.

“People think it’s odd,” says al-Haj. “But I try to prove that there’s nothing wrong with it. There’s no difference between a woman driving a normal car or a taxi.”

The opportunity came at the perfect time for al-Sharu. Despite holding a bachelor’s degree in business administration, the divorced mother of one had been struggling to find a decent job with a stable salary, health insurance and social security benefits. Driving for Taxi al-Moumayaz gives her all of that plus the ability to design her own schedule and to earn an additional income in the form of tips. More than six months have passed, and she’s happier than ever about her decision to work on the road.

But not everyone is supportive of al-Sharu’s new career path. “The Middle Eastern mentality doesn’t accept that I’m a taxi driver,” she says while fixing her hair in the rearview mirror.

In addition to working odd hours, taxi drivers must be alone in their cars with strangers – including men – for long periods of time. It’s an uncomfortable combination in a society where, traditionally, women are thought to bring shame to their family and culture if they do something that could be perceived as promiscuous. While Jordan is among the more progressive of the Arab nations – so-called honor killings are rare – harassment of women is commonplace, especially of those who are considered to be engaging in indecent or abnormal behavior.

Al-Sharu recounts one disturbing incident in particular: A couple of months ago, two male passengers refused to pay after instructing her to drive aimlessly around the city. After she realized they were mocking her, a verbal argument ensued. Then the fight turned physical. “The window was open and one of them grabbed a long stick from outside the car, and then he began hitting the meter with it,” she recalls. “It’s because I’m a woman.”

But it’s not only strangers who take issue with her line of work. “My father is still not happy. He is ashamed,” she says. “But I don’t care. This is my life, not his life.”

While al-Sharu is able to defy the men in her family, not all women in Jordan have that option. The country’s patriarchal laws and cultural traditions deny women full equality. Women cannot pass citizenship on to their children, for example, or legally marry without permission from either a male blood relative or the court. The male guardianship system still dictates many aspects of everyday life.

Without full control over their own lives, women in Jordan have a difficult time breaking out of the traditional female role. Salma Nims, secretary general of the Jordanian National Commission for Women, says women in her country are first and foremost mothers, wives and guardians of the domestic sphere. Working outside the home is discouraged in some families, unless it’s a monetary necessity. And for women who do work, being a fully functioning member of the labor force is not easy since they are expected to also continue taking sole responsibility for the household.

Nims believes that one of the best ways to improve the work situation for women in Jordan is to stop the perpetuation of gender stereotypes in the media and school curriculum. “We are raising a generation that sees women with very limited options in terms of jobs,” she says. “These stereotypes and judgments affect how young men and women see themselves and how they perceive the other and the role they play in society.”

But al-Sharu favors a more direct approach: “My advice to women is to break the stereotype.” Her becoming a taxi driver may not seem like much of a revolution, but she thinks it could help inspire a new reality for women in Jordan who want to free themselves from the confines of their gender roles.

“We’re not stealing; we’re not doing anything bad. We’re helping people and providing a service,” she says of herself and her fellow female taxi drivers.

“Try us,” she adds with a smirk, “and then say what you want.”

In Jordan, Women More Vulnerable to Effects of Extremism, Says Report

This article originally appeared on the Women & Girls Hub of News Deeply, and you can find the original here. For important news about issues that affect women and girls in the developing world, you can sign up to the Women & Girls Hub email list. By Flora Bagenal

As Jordan struggles with rising extremism, a new U.N. report suggests women are much more vulnerable than men to the effects of radicalization, such as an increase in domestic violence and being blamed if their children join an extremist group.

Since the war started in Syria in 2011, neighboring Jordan has shouldered the burden that comes with being one of the countries closest to the crisis. Over 635,000 Syrian refugees have settled in Jordan since the conflict started, putting enormous strain on its resources and infrastructure.

Jordan is also the third-largest contributor of fighters to ISIS, the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, after Tunisia and Saudi Arabia, and the country has seen a significant rise in support for the group back home. In early 2015, researchers estimated ISIS and other jihadi groups had about 9,000 to 10,000 Jordanian supporters.

As in many other countries facing the threat of radicalization, Jordan’s government has announced plans to tackle violent ideology, putting in place increased security measures and launching a nationwide counter-extremism project that targets radical preachers and young men thought to be at risk of indoctrination.

But research published by U.N. Women in July suggests women could be equally or even more affected by radicalization than men in Jordan, both as victims and perpetrators. The report, based on 47 interviews and focus-group discussions with a cross-section of Jordanian society, calls for more research into the role of women in radicalization. It says much more needs to be done to include them in counter-extremism work.

“People of all different beliefs overwhelmingly said that while men get radicalized, women are more at risk of the effects of radicalization,” says Rachel Dore-Weeks, a peacebuilding expert for U.N. Women in Jordan who coordinated the research. The effects include a rise in violence at home, increased restrictions on women’s movements and a greater risk of being coerced into sharing or spreading radicalized views.

Dore-Weeks says 87 percent of those surveyed said women are at risk of suffering the effects of radicalization, with 71 percent saying women face a bigger risk than men. Until now radicalization has been framed much more in terms of the security implications and the risk it poses to young men, rather than the wider effect it can have on communities in general.

“People said when they had experienced living in communities where there was a rise in radicalization, either via people in Jordan or people going to fight in Syria and Iraq and coming home, they saw those communities getting much more conservative and much more insular,” says Dore-Weeks. “As a result, where women had been eking out freedoms and breaking gender norms little by little, they were really pushed back.”

In cases where fighters have returned from the front line, respondents reported a rise in incidents of domestic abuse at home and said women could be banned from leaving the house, taking public transport or voicing opinions in public.

It was also reported that when young men or women become radicalized, their mothers are often blamed by society and feel more responsible for their children’s behavior, putting them under more pressure from their communities.

Several women interviewed for the report admitted they feared they could be unwittingly pushing their children to become radicalized. “I always encourage my son to pray, because I believe … religion makes you able to differentiate right from wrong,” one unnamed woman said. “However, even though I respect being religiously committed, lately my son has been taking things a bit too far.” The woman told researchers she saw changes in her son’s behavior, including a new, more extremist attitude toward his sisters, that made her think he might be joining ISIS.

While researchers for the report were unable to speak to women who had been radicalized themselves, several respondents reported knowing women who had been radicalized or targeted by extremists. Often, they said, women were recruited because of their role as “influencers” in the home. While some reported women being targeted online, others said women could be targeted at female-only religious study groups.

The reasons respondents gave for women potentially becoming radicalized were similar to those for men, including financial pressures, lack of prospects, and religious conviction. It was also said women could be persuaded to join ISIS or other radical groups as a way to escape domestic abuse or because of a divorce or other difficult situation at home.

Nikita Malik, head of research at the U.K.-based counter-extremism think tank the Quilliam Foundation, (which was not involved in the report) says counter-radicalization experts have in the past overlooked how important women are to groups like ISIS, reducing their role to that of wife or mother when, in fact, they are highly valuable to recruiters.

“Islamic extremist groups like ISIS are effective because they are made up of a web of networks and women play a key role in that network,” she says, adding that women are needed to bring up children already indoctrinated into the group, to communicate messages within the community, and to uphold a sense of sisterhood, adding legitimacy to the idea of an Islamic caliphate.

Malik says understanding this is key to involving women in de-radicalization work. “In Jordan, we need to see women deployed more as agents of change,” she says. “When a young person is at risk of being radicalized, they won’t turn to an M.P. or an academic – they will turn to a neighbor or a mother or a friend.

“We have to train this level of potentially powerful women to enact de-radicalization.”

Some of that work is already underway, triggered by the U.N. Women report, including a pilot project in universities to create safe spaces for young men and women to talk about radicalization and voice concerns about people they know.

U.N. Women is also in talks with the Jordanian government about approaching female imams to work with the community on countering violent extremism.

And Dore-Weeks says the organization hopes to carry out more detailed research on what drives both men and women into the arms of extremists.

“It’s much more complex than saying it is angry young men who don’t have jobs,” she says. “For the most part it appears to be middle-class people who are being targeted or traveling to [Syria and Iraq] to fight. For them, it is about ideology, it is about fighting a sense of injustice.”