Representin'

…well.

Today we visited Parliament and spoke with an MP who had occupied that position for twenty years. He was an old man whose head was bald, save for a white fringe above the ears, two very curved black eyebrows, and a bony chin whose firm effect was mitigated by the sagging, bullfrog-like double chin beneath it. He looked like an aged, benevolent sprite, and a little like Robert Prosky.

The MP listened attentively to our brief introductions (name, state, and studies) before launching into the long history of Jordan’s constitution and government. I admit that I listened less attentively than he had . In fact, I dozed off, not because I wasn’t interested but because my body has a tendency to shut down when inactive for a long period of time. This works very well on airplanes and very poorly in the classroom - hence my constant desire to travel.

Then it was question time. He’d discussed the sad state of affairs for female representatives in Jordan – although seven were in the Parliament of 100-plus, only one of them had actually been elected; all the others had been appointed by the king, who is more progressive on these matters than his subjects. I asked what I thought was a safe enough question:

“Are you taking any steps to encourage voters to elect women in the next election?”

I expected an answer along the lines of: “Why, yes, actually we are. We’re distributing posters and erecting billboards that picture Queen Rania with her thumb up over the caption, ‘Vote for Boobs!’”

What I got was a heated lecture on the following:

• 1. The progressiveness of the Royal Family

• 2. The extremely low percentage of women in the Congress of the United States.

• 3. How women don’t vote for women because they’re jealous.

• 4. Something I didn’t catch about him not being able to give birth.

• 5. How women are unfortunately second-class citizens in Jordan, and if there was a third class they would be third.

• 6. How over fifty percent of university students are women, and almost all teachers are women, and the men still won’t accept the idea of a woman representing them.

• 7. The fact that even in the most progressive countries, women don’t represent in proportion to the population, and this is the same the world over…

• 8. …so maybe it’s you women, and not us.

The last was clearly intended humorously, which makes it a little bit better. A little bit. Sort of.

I wasn’t even trying to pick a fight. It’s common knowledge that Jordan has a better record for women’s rights than most other Middle Eastern countries. And even making allowances for my badly phrased question or an inadvertently hostile tone, his response was not only sexist but unnecessarily defensive.

The best part is, he went on a few minutes later to speak cheerfully about how areas with high populations of Christians or Russians are required to elect MPs that proportionally represent those populations. So…ethnic and religious minorities are reserved seats according to their population numbers, but there are only six seats reserved for women. Maybe the MP was right to feel defensive.

Next up: hijab!