Jordan’s newly elected parliament recently rejected two temporary laws that gave women additional rights. Chamber of Deputies member Mahmoud Kharabsheh explained the temporary bills were “contradictory to our traditions and Islamic teachings,” reported the Associated Press.
According to the BBC, conservatives in Jordan claim that allowing women the right to divorce without their husband’s consent is destroying families. Parliament also rejected a law backed by King Abdullah II and Prime Minister Ali Abu Ragheb that provided harsher sentences for men guilty of honor killing female relatives.
A prominent women’s rights activist in Jordan, Sae’da Kilani, told the AP that the parliament’s decisions “[send] us back to square one in our battle for wider freedoms for women in Jordan.”
