Grasping gender roles in Jordan

To see another country is to see another way of life, to stay is to gain a part of it, that is true wherever you go whether it be a nation across the sea or just our neighbors to the north.  This truth was also the case in Jordan where long-held tradition fights against modern idealism in the backdrop of Roman and Greek Temples and fortresses broken up only by the desert sands. These traditions while not inconsolable bring much strafe to an otherwise calm and silent desert sands a contrast felt across the country.

When you arrive, you see a culture that while different in environment, still shows many similarities to the ones you left behind. Traditions about the role of family and the treatment of guests speak to a society where family and appearances are critical to your status and appearance to the wider community. Growing up in the Midwest these cultural aspects were nothing new, often family would meet to catch up celebrate holidays or just get to gather. Furthermore, it was always expected that company could stay for dinner without being considered intruding or interrupting family ordeals. What was new, however, was the number of family that lived close by and the frequency they visited. To emphasize this point, it would not be uncommon to have at least one family member over every night of the week. To at very least talk and have tea and every time this occurred it was always expected that the matriarch of the house would prepare tea and snacks at a minimum.

This occurrence speaks to another major difference in cultural focus while in the U.S. we have begun to see some families move back from the traditional beliefs of women's gender roles. Jordan, from what I experienced, seemed to be just beginning this process it was as if I went back to the 1980s in the U.S. when it came to that field. These experiences while concerning were not as concerning as learning of another practice I had assumed had been banned and exiled since at the very latest the 1920s. That practice was the barbaric honor killings tradition that spans most nations' dark pasts but continues in Jordan against women who date or have sex before they are engaged. This barbaric tool is used to keep women from dating men and to police themselves against dating men as there is no punishment for males.

These socially held beliefs made me uneasy with the question of what I could do as a guest in a country, do I have the right to yell fire at what the nation deems acceptable, and to what extent is my assessment biased by my own upbringing. What I concluded was there is no correct answer the world and nations especially are a mixed bag of good and bad usually so close together you can't separate them. So, all you can do is grapple with both understanding that beauty and pain are what make culture and nations then push for human rights because we can all do something better.   

Name: Wesley Welt
Status: Junior
Major: International Relations
Hometown: Saline, Michigan
Program: Arabic in Jordan