Women to march for equality on Thursday

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AMMAN — The women’s movement in Jordan will organise a march on May 3 to demand more equality for women in all fields on the occasion of International Labour Day.

The march, called by “Coalition Rights”, will take place in Jabal Lu-weibdeh at 2:30pm and take participants on a walk to Parliament to call for equality in all laws regulating and affecting women’s economic participation, said Sadaqa executive board member Sahar Aloul.

“The idea behind this march is to highlight the latest amendments that the women’s movement managed to introduce to the draft Labour Law and to lobby the MPs to endorse the suggestions,” Aloul told The Jordan Times.

Comprised of nine women organisations, unions and labour entities, “Coalition Rights” was launched earlier this month with the aim of lobbying parliamentarians and the government to amend certain articles of the Labour Law.

The coalition aims to eliminate discrimination against women and boost their participation in the labour market, according to its representatives.

Jordan was ranked 142 out of 144 countries in women’s economic participation in the Gender Gap Index published by the World Economic Forum 2017. The index highlighted that most women in the Kingdom do not enter the job market or pull out for varied periods of time due to the barriers posed by the lack of daycares, access to transportation and pay inequity.

In February, the Lower House’s labour committee amended provisions in the draft Labour Law that ensured pay equity, the presence of daycare centres at workplaces and the introduction of paternity leave.

Aloul called on anyone interested to join the march on Thursday.