AMMAN: A pregnant 15-year-old who had been raped by a brother-in-law decided to marry her attacker, hoping this would shield her from other male relatives who might kill her in the name of “family honor.”
A young woman was taken into protective custody after being stabbed 17 times by a brother who accused her of bringing “shame” to the family for running away from an abusive husband.
Jail, forced marriage or the risk of getting killed by family members — these are some of the harsh choices still faced by victims of abuse or sexual violence in Jordan.
In a key step toward reform, the kingdom is now poised to abolish a provision that exempts a rapist from punishment if he marries his victim. Jordan’s parliament is expected to do so in a special session sometime after the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan next week.
Women’s rights advocates say repealing Article 308 would be a victory, but that more work lies ahead in a society with deeply rooted customs of patriarchy and a legal system that often goes easy on the male perpetrators.
“It’s about the patriarchal mentality in a society that never punishes the man or shames him for anything,” said Asma Khader, a lawyer and activist.
The “marry the rapist” provision has been repealed in Egypt and Morocco, but remains on the books in Tunisia, Lebanon, Syria, Libya, Kuwait, Iraq, Bahrain, Algeria and the Palestinian territories, according to the international group Human Rights Watch.
Judge Jehad Al-Duradi, who handles sexual violence cases at Jordan’s main criminal court, said women who agree to marry their attackers often act out of desperation.
The judge cited the case of the 15-year-old who was raped by her sister’s husband. At the pregnant teen’s request, the judge approved a marriage between the rapist and his victim.
The rapist escaped punishment and expelled his new wife from his home on the day of the wedding, leaving her to fend for herself and her child, the judge said.
Several other Jordanian laws allow lenient treatment of those who kill or assault women.
One provision lightens punishment if a man kills his wife or another female relative for allegedly having sex outside marriage. Another article says a convicted killer could receive as little as a year in prison if he acts in a “state of great fury resulting from an unlawful and dangerous act” by the victim.
If the victim’s family drops a complaint, even that one-year minimum can be cut in half. Some perpetrators in Jordan have been jailed for as little as six months for killing a daughter or sister.
Al-Duradi said Jordanian courts have imposed harsher punishment for such crimes in recent years; no convicted killer has received a sentence of less than 10 years in prison since 2010.
“The text of the law hasn’t changed, but the interpretation has,” the judge said.
Jordan’s main criminal court heard 182 rape cases in 2015 and 168 in 2016. It also dealt with 39 slayings of women in 2015, including nine labeled “honor crimes.” In 2016, there were 36 killings, including eight honor cases.
The actual numbers are believed to be higher, with many assaults going unreported, said Samar Muhareb, director of a legal aid group. Communities prefer to handle such crimes in tribal arbitration to avoid public shame.
“Whenever we see informal justice, it’s at the expense of women,” Muhareb said.
Meanwhile, Jordanian authorities often detain at-risk women.
A decision on protective custody can be made by a provincial governor, without court approval. Detention typically continues until the woman’s family promises not to harm her, or until she finds a man to marry her.
Fidaa, 25, has repeatedly ended up in prison, following a chain of events that began with her divorcing an abusive husband when she was just 15 years old.
Angered by the divorce, one of her brothers stabbed and seriously wounded her.
The brother was sentenced to five years in prison, but the then-teen also ended up behind bars. Desperate to get out of protective custody, she married a 27-year-old man, only to be forced into prostitution.
Her new husband threatened to alert her brother to her whereabouts if she refused to work as a prostitute, Fidaa said in an interview at the Juweida women’s prison on the outskirts of the Jordanian capital, Amman.
Fidaa, a petite woman with dark hair and a quiet demeanor, complied for three years. She eventually managed to leave her husband with help from the police’s family protection unit.
Ten years after her first detention, Fidaa is back in prison.
She was arrested in January, during a police raid of a brothel where she said she had found refuge after befriending some of the women there. Fidaa has been cleared of prostitution charges, but is again unable to leave detention without a sponsor.
“If my brothers know about what happened, they will slaughter me,” said Fidaa, who only gave her first name for fear of repercussions.
Sadeq Al-Omari, a senior official in the prison system, said protective custody is often the only solution, adding that “the right to life is more important than the right to freedom.”
Plans to set up shelters with police protection have not materialized so far, he said.
In the meantime, authorities imprison the female victim rather than potential perpetrators because there are too many male relatives who might hurt her, he said. “Should I put 20 people in prison for one person’s protection?” Al-Omari said.
Legislator Wafa Bani Mustafa said change begins with legal reform.
“If we can change the law so that it’s no longer a solution to get rid of the girl this way, we can encourage families to treat their daughters as victims, not as a source of shame,” he said. “If we cancel the legal umbrella, society will follow.”
Jordan to cancel 'marry the victim' clause shielding rapists
Jordan to cancel 'marry the victim' clause shielding rapists
Iran to hold nuclear talks with 3 European powers Jan. 13: local media
- Iran insists on its right to nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and has consistently denied any ambition of developing nuclear weapons capability
Tehran: Iran will hold nuclear talks with France, Britain, and Germany on Jan. 13 in Switzerland, local media reported on Wednesday, quoting a foreign ministry official.
“The new round of talks between Iran and three European countries will be held in Geneva on January 13,” said Kazem Gharibabadi, Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs, according to ISNA news agency.
He added the talks were only “consultations, not negotiations.”
The three European countries had on Dec. 17 accused Iran of growing its stockpile of high-enriched uranium to “unprecedented levels” without “any credible civilian justification.”
They have also raised the possibility of restoring sanctions against Iran to keep it from developing its nuclear program.
Iran has in recent years increased its manufacturing of enriched uranium such that it is the only non-nuclear weapons state to possess uranium enriched to 60 percent, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) nuclear watchdog said.
That level is well on the way to the 90 percent required for an atomic bomb.
On November 29, Iran held a discreet meeting with the three European powers in Geneva which Gharibabadi at the time described as “candid.”
Iran insists on its right to nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and has consistently denied any ambition of developing nuclear weapons capability.
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say in all state matters, has long issued a religious decree, or fatwa, prohibiting atomic weapons.
Late Monday, Iran’s security chief Ali Akbar Ahmadian maintained that Iran has “not changed” its nuclear doctrine against pursuing atomic weapons.
The January 13 talks will take place one week before Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
In 2015, Iran and world powers — including France, Britain and Germany — reached an agreement that saw the easing of international sanctions on Tehran in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program.
But the United States, during Trump’s first term in office, unilaterally withdrew from the accord in 2018 and reimposed biting economic sanctions.
Tehran adhered to the deal until Washington’s withdrawal, and then began rolling back on its commitments.
Gaza babies die from winter cold say medics and families
- Yahya Al-Batran clutched the tiny clothes of his dead newborn son Jumaa, just days after the baby died from the cold in their tent in war-torn Gaza
DEIR EL BALAH: Yahya Al-Batran clutched the tiny clothes of his dead newborn son Jumaa, just days after the baby died from the cold in their tent in war-torn Gaza.
“We are watching our children die before our eyes,” said the 44-year-old.
Their baby was one of the seven children who died from the cold within the span of a week, the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry said on Monday.
“We fled the bombing from Beit Lahia, only for them to die from the cold here?” said the child’s mother Noura Al-Batran, referring to their hometown in northern Gaza.
The 38-year-old is still recovering from giving birth prematurely to Jumaa and his surviving twin brother, Ali, who is being treated in an intensive care unit at a hospital in southern Gaza.
Completely destitute and repeatedly displaced by the Israel aggression on Gaza, the Batran family live in a makeshift tent in Deir el-Balah made of worn-out blankets and fabric.
Like hundreds of others now living in a date palm orchard, they have struggled to keep warm and dry amid heavy rains and temperatures that have dropped as low as eight degrees Celsius (46 degrees Fahrenheit).
“We don’t have enough blankets or suitable clothing. I saw my baby start to freeze, his skin turned blue and then he died,” she cried.
The twins were born prematurely and she said the doctor decided to take the babies out of the incubator despite the family not having access to heating.
On a rain-soaked mat, the father hugged his older children tight with blankets and worn-out cloth in a corner of their tent.
He then placed a small pot of water on the stove to make tea, which he then mixed with dry bread to make a meagre lunch for his family with a little cheese and the thyme-based spice blend called zaatar.
Like thousands of other families enduring dire conditions, they face shortages of food, fuel, and medicine, with the United Nations warning of an imminent collapse of the health care system.
In southern Gaza’s Khan Yunis, Mahmoud Al-Fasih said he found his infant daughter, Seela, “frozen from the cold” in their small tent near Al-Mawasi beach, where they were displaced from Gaza City.
He rushed her to the hospital in the area that Israel has designated a “humanitarian zone,” but she was already dead.
Ahmad Al-Farra, a doctor and director of the emergency and children’s department at Nasser Hospital, told AFP that the three-week-old baby arrived at the hospital with “severe hypothermia, without vital signs, in cardiac arrest that led to her death.”
Another 20-day-old baby, Aisha Al-Qassas, also died of cold in the area, according to her family.
“In Gaza, everything leads to death,” said the baby’s uncle, Mohamed Al-Qassas. “Those who do not die under Israeli bombardments succumb to hunger or cold.”
The Hamas government press office in Gaza warned on Monday of the impact of more harsh weather expected in the coming days, saying it posed a “real threat to two million displaced people,” the majority of whom live in tents.
Farra warned that this would likely be accompanied by “the death of greater numbers of children, infants, and the elderly.”
“Life in tents is dangerous due to the cold and the scarcity of energy and heating sources,” he said.
Israeli strikes kill 12 in Gaza as war grinds into the new year with no end in sight
- A strike a home in northern Gaza killed seven people, including a woman and four children
- Another on Bureij refugee camp killed a woman and a child
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza: Israeli strikes killed at least 12 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, mostly women and children, officials said Wednesday, as the nearly 15-month war ground on into the new year with no end in sight.
One strike hit a home in the Jabaliya area of northern Gaza, the most isolated and heavily destroyed part of the territory, where Israel has been waging a major operation since early October. Gaza’s Health Ministry said seven people were killed, including a woman and four children, and at least a dozen other people were wounded.
Another strike overnight in the built-up Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza killed a woman and a child, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which received the bodies.
The military said militants fired rockets at Israel from the Bureij area overnight and that its forces responded with a strike targeting a militant. The military also issued evacuation orders for the area that were posted online.
A third strike early Wednesday in the southern city of Khan Younis killed three people, according to the nearby Nasser Hospital and the European Hospital, which received the bodies.
Opinion
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The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and abducting around 250. About 100 hostages are still held in Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel’s air and ground offensive has killed over 45,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. It says women and children make up more than half the fatalities but does not say how many of those killed were militants.
The Israeli military says it only targets militants and blames Hamas for civilian deaths because its fighters operate in dense residential areas. The army says it has killed 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
The war has caused widespread destruction and displaced some 90 percent of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, many of them multiple times.
Hundreds of thousands are living in tents on the coast as winter brings frequent rainstorms and temperatures drop below 10 degrees Celsius (50 F) at night. At least six infants and another person have died of hypothermia, according to the Health Ministry.
American and Arab mediators have spent nearly a year trying to broker a ceasefire and hostage release, but those efforts have repeatedly stalled. Hamas has demanded a lasting truce, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayhu has vowed to keep fighting until “total victory” over the militants.
Israel sees net departure of citizens for a second year
More than 82,000 Israelis moved abroad in 2024 and only 33,000 people immigrated to the country, Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics said. Another 23,000 Israelis returned after long periods abroad.
It was the second year in a row of net departures, a rare occurrence in the history of the country, which was founded by immigrants from Europe and actively encourages Jewish immigration. Many Israelis, looking for a break from the war, have moved abroad, leading to concern about whether it will drive a “brain drain” in sectors like medicine and technology.
Last year, 15,000 fewer people immigrated to Israel than in 2023. The Bureau of Statistics changed its reporting methods in mid-2022 to better track the number of Israelis moving abroad.
Military blames ‘weakening of discipline’ in death of archaeologist who entered Lebanon with troops
In a separate development, the Israeli military blamed “operational burnout” and a “weakening of discipline and safety” in the death of a 70-year-old archaeologist who was killed in southern Lebanon in November along with a soldier while visiting a combat zone.
According to Israeli media reports, Zeev Erlich was not on active duty when he was shot, but was wearing a military uniform and had a weapon. The army said he was a reservist with the rank of major and identified him as a “fallen soldier” when it announced his death.
Erlich was a well-known West Bank settler and researcher of Jewish history. Media reports at the time of his death said he entered Lebanon to explore an archaeological site. The family of the soldier who was killed with him has expressed anger over the circumstances of his death.
The military launched an investigation after the two were killed in a Hezbollah ambush. A separate probe is looking into who allowed Erlich to enter.
The military said the entry of civilians who are not military contractors or journalists into combat zones is not widespread. Still, there have been multiple reports of Israeli civilians who support a permanent Israeli presence in Gaza or Lebanon entering those areas.
A new year dawns on a Middle East torn by conflict and change
- Last year was a dramatic one in the Middle East, bringing calamity to some and hope to others
- War-weary Palestinians in Gaza say they see little hope 2025 will bring an end to their suffering
DAMASCUS: In Damascus, the streets were buzzing with excitement Tuesday as Syrians welcomed in a new year that seemed to many to bring a promise of a brighter future after the unexpected fall of Bashar Assad’s government weeks earlier.
While Syrians in the capital looked forward to a new beginning after the ousting of Assad, the mood was more somber along Beirut’s Mediterranean promenade, where residents shared cautious hopes for the new year, reflecting on a country still reeling from war and ongoing crises.
War-weary Palestinians in Gaza who lost their homes and loved ones in 2024 saw little hope that 2025 would bring an end to their suffering.
The last year was a dramatic one in the Middle East, bringing calamity to some and hope to others. Across the region, it felt foolish to many to attempt to predict what the next year might bring.
In Damascus, Abir Homsi said she is optimistic about a future for her country that would include peace, security and freedom of expression and would bring Syrian communities previously divided by battle lines back together.
“We will return to how we once were, when people loved each other, celebrated together whether it is Ramadan or Christmas or any other holiday — no restricted areas for anyone,” she said.
But for many, the new year and new reality carried with it reminders of the painful years that came before.
Abdulrahman Al-Habib, from the eastern Syrian city of Deir Ezzor, had come to Damascus in hopes of finding relatives who disappeared after being arrested under Assad’s rule. He was at the capital’s Marjeh Square, where relatives of the missing have taken to posting photos of their loved ones in search of any clue to their whereabouts.
“We hope that in the new year, our status will be better ... and peace will prevail in the whole Arab world,” he said.
In Lebanon, a tenuous ceasefire brought a halt to fighting between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group a little over a month ago. The country battered by years of economic collapse, political instability and a series of calamities since 2019, continues to grapple with uncertainty, but the truce has brought at least a temporary return to normal life.
Some families flocked to the Mzaar Ski Resort in the mountains northeast of Beirut on Tuesday to enjoy the day in the snow even though the resort had not officially opened.
“What happened and what’s still happening in the region, especially in Lebanon recently, has been very painful,” said Youssef Haddad, who came to ski with his family. “We have great hope that everything will get better.”
On Beirut’s seaside corniche, Mohammad Mohammad from the village of Marwahin in southern Lebanon was strolling with his three children.
“I hope peace and love prevail next year, but it feels like more (challenges) await us,” he said.
Mohammad was among the tens of thousands displaced during more than a year of conflict between Hezbollah and Israel. Now living in Jadra, a town that was also bombarded during the conflict, he awaits the end of a 60-day period, after which the Israeli army is required to withdraw under the conditions of a French and US-brokered ceasefire.
“Our village was completely destroyed,” Mohammad said. His family would spend a quiet evening at home, he said. This year “was very hard on us. I hope 2025 is better than all the years that passed.”
In Gaza, where the war between Hamas and Israel has killed more than 45,500 Palestinians, brought massive destruction and displaced most of the enclave’s population, few saw cause for optimism in the new year.
“The year 2024 was one of the worst years for all Palestinian people. It was a year of hunger, displacement, suffering and poverty,” said Nour Abu Obaid, a displaced woman from northern Gaza.
Obaid, whose 10-year-old child was killed in a strike in the so-called “humanitarian zone” in Muwasi, said she didn’t expect anything good in 2025. “The world is dead,” she said. “We do not expect anything, we expect the worst.”
The war was sparked by the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel in which militants killed around 1,200 people and abducted some 250 others.
Ismail Salih, who lost his home and livelihood, expressed hopes for an end to the war in 2025 so that Gaza’s people can start rebuilding their lives.
The year that passed “was all war and all destruction,” he said. “Our homes are gone, our trees are gone, our livelihood is lost.”
In the coming year, Salih said he hopes that Palestinians can “live like the rest of the people of the world, in security, reassurance and peace.”
‘Like a dream’: Photographer’s return to Syria
- AFP photographer Sameer Al-Doumy never dreamed he would be able to return to the hometown in Syria that he escaped through a tunnel seven years ago after it was besieged by Bashar Assad’s forces
DOUMA: AFP photographer Sameer Al-Doumy never dreamed he would be able to return to the hometown in Syria that he escaped through a tunnel seven years ago after it was besieged by Bashar Assad’s forces.
Douma, once a rebel stronghold near Damascus, suffered terribly for its defiance of the former regime, and was the victim of a particularly horrific chemical weapons attack in 2018.
“It is like a dream for me today to find myself back here,” he said.
“The revolution was a dream, getting out of a besieged town and of Syria was a dream, as it is now being able to go back.
“We didn’t dare to imagine that Assad could fall because his presence was so anchored in us,” said the 26-year-old.
“My biggest dream was to return to Syria at a moment like this after 13 years of war, just as it was my biggest dream in 2017 to leave for a new life,” said the award-winning photographer who has spent the last few years covering the migrant crisis for AFP’s Lille bureau in northern France.
“I left when I was 19,” said Sameer, all of whose immediate family are in exile, apart from his sister.
“This is my home, all my memories are here, my childhood, my adolescence. I spent my life in Douma in this house my family had to flee and where my cousin now lives.
“The house hasn’t changed, although the top floor was destroyed in the bombardments.
“The sitting room is still the same, my father’s beloved library hasn’t changed. He would settle down there every morning to read the books that he had collected over the years — it was more important to him than his children.
“I went looking for my childhood stuff that my mother kept for me but I could not find it. I don’t know if it exists anymore.
“I haven’t found any comfort here, perhaps because I haven’t found anyone from my family or people I was close to. Some have left the country and others were killed or have disappeared.
“People have been through so much over the last 13 years, from the peaceful protests of the revolution, to the war and the siege and then being forced into exile.
“My memories are here but they are associated with the war which started when I was 13. What I lived through was hard, and what got me through was my family and friends, and they are no longer here.
“The town has changed. I remember the bombed buildings, the rubble. Today life has gone back to a kind of normal as the town waits for people to return.”
Douma was besieged by Assad’s forces from the end of 2012, with Washington blaming his forces for a chemical attack in the region that left more than 1,400 people dead the following year.
Sameer’s career as a photojournalist began when he and his brothers began taking photos of what was happening around them.
“After the schools closed I started to go out filming the protests with my brothers here in front of the main mosque, where the first demonstration in Douma was held after Friday prayers, and where the first funerals of the victims were also held.
“I set up my camera on the first floor of a building which overlooks the mosque and then changed my clothes afterwards so I would not be recognized and arrested. Filming the protests was banned.
“When the security forces attacked, I would take the SIM card out of my phone and the memory card out of my camera and put them in my mouth.”
That way he could swallow them if he was caught.
In May 2017, Sameer fled through a tunnel dug by the rebels and eventually found himself in the northern rebel enclave of Idlib with former fighters and their families.
“I took the name Sameer Al-Doumy (Sameer from Douma) to affirm that I belonged somewhere,” even though he was exiled, he said. “I stopped using my first name, Motassem, to protect my family living in Damascus.
“In France I have a happy and stable life. I have a family, friends and a job. But I am not rooted to any particular place. When I went back to Syria, I felt I had a country.
“When you are abroad, you get used to the word ‘refugee’ and you get on with your life and make a big effort to integrate in a new society. But your country remains the place that accepts you as you are. You don’t have to prove anything.
“When I left Syria, I never thought one day I would be able to return. When the news broke, I couldn’t believe it. It was impossible Assad could fall. Lots of people are still in shock and are afraid. It is hard to get your head around how a regime that filled people with so much fear could collapse.
“When I returned to the Al-Midan district of Damascus (which had long resisted the regime), I could not stop myself crying.
“I am sad not to be with my loved ones. But I know they will return, even if it takes a while.
“My dream now is that one day we will all come together again in Syria.”
