Jordanian Personal Status Law
When legislation turns into a tool for demolishing the family...
Not all laws are written to protect, nor all legislations enacted to reform.
When the law loses its compass, turning from a shelter that preserves the family into an axe that breaks it, silence becomes complicity in the crime, and revising legislation becomes an imperative duty.
The family is not just a contract between two spouses; it is the cornerstone upon which the entire society stands. If this cornerstone cracks, no structure in the homeland will remain standing.
God Almighty said:
﴿Among His signs is that He created for you mates from among yourselves so that you might find peace in them. He ordained love and mercy between you.﴾
If compassion and mercy are absent, peace is lost, and the meaning of family vanishes.
The matter is no longer simple, and the fault cannot be hidden. The flaws in the Jordanian personal status law have reached an extent that makes the house crumble from its foundation, and the family that used to be the fortress of society falls apart brick by brick.
A law was created to preserve affection and maintain companionship, but through its applications and successive amendments, it turned into a tool of dispute and a bridge that imported organizations and agendas use to impose their visions on our social fabric.
The essence of the crisis is the detachment of this law from its true legitimate reference, and its submission to external dictates that do not understand the purposes of Sharia in preserving religion, honor, lineage, progeny, and establishing the family on the principles of peace, affection, and mercy.
Thus, texts with a legalistic facade mixed with a superficial legitimacy emerged, resulting in a hybrid legislation that is neither purely divine nor consistently secular.
This mixture has directly fueled internal disputes in the home, widening the rift between spouses, often turning the law into a cause for weakening the family instead of fortifying its pillars.
And it didn't stop there; subsequent changes in legislation imported inapplicable for our societies only increased the devastation, opening doors to family crimes and disintegration.
Laws imposed under the guise of modernization turned into tools of demolition, and promoted under the name of rights, ultimately causing their loss.
Because outcomes are inherently linked to causes, media deception and reporting have only added obscurity to the scene.
Reports from The Higher Population Council and others insist on blaming "economic conditions" alone for deterring youth from marriage, deliberately ignoring the core defect originating from the law itself.
Indeed, poverty is a barrier, but which young man would venture into a home knowing it could be taken from him, that his children could be pulled away, and that expenses will haunt him while he is deserted?
And which sensible person would risk a marriage, the consequences of which are heavier than he can bear? The problem is not just in the young man's pocket but in a legislation that makes marriage a risk dreaded by the sensible.
And the evidence of the system's collapse is screaming official figures no one hears.
Cases of divorce before consummation exceeded thirty thousand, and the annual divorce rates rose to levels signaling an imminent danger to the structure of society.
In contrast, the spinsterial figures rose to a scene that cannot be ignored or justified.
What logic accepts that marriages end before they begin? And what sound law produces this ruin? This alone is damning evidence that marriage has shifted from a "solemn covenant" to a temporary deal made today and canceled tomorrow.
And prominent among these problems is what the young Jordanian man facing marriage encounters. He enters marital life seeking peace and stability, only to find himself burdened with severe financial obligations and endless responsibilities, all while the authority that God entrusted as a duty and accountability is devoid of its contents. He enters the house aspiring to build it, then exits overwhelmed by debts and deprived of his children.
Therefore, it was not strange that many youths refrained from marriage, finding solitude easier than standing at the courts' doors.
And the trouble did not stop there; it extended to entrenching the culture of divorce and marketing it, so that separation in most cases became more accessible than making amends. This is evident in the applications of "discord and dispute," which transformed from an exceptional means to protect the family to a paved path for ending the marital relationship for the most trivial reasons.
And even more dangerously, it gave the woman a direct incentive to demand divorce, since it guaranteed her immediate gains without consequence.
Thus, reaching the court became shorter than the path to reconciliation, and demolishing the family became easier than repairing it, because the law rewarded those who destroy, and didn't secure even one home that remains.
Young girls celebrating divorce after long marriages and children convert the demolition of the home into a party, making the dismantling of the family a joyous occasion with applause, an insidious reality that would not have transpired if these laws and legislations had not removed affection and mercy from hearts, and killed the meaning of 'peace' between spouses.
They transformed the home from a place of love into a battlefield, and from partners to adversaries lying in wait for each other.
Thus, for some, divorce is not the end of a tragedy, but the beginning of gains and a contrived 'liberation' project, because the law guarantees the reward, suspends the punishment, and rewards those who demolish, and does not protect those who build.
All this is linked to the "empowerment" slogans promoted by the same entities.
What we see today is not isolated incidents, but the result of a single comprehensive program aimed at dismantling the family, drying up the sources of stability, and reshaping society on the ruins of homes.
Other texts came to further imbalance the scale of justice, favoring one party over the other at several points, weakening the guardian's status, and depriving the man of many guarantees that preserve balance within the family.
With this imbalance, the scope of disputes expanded, and the spirit of partnership that should underlie marital life is replaced by a mentality of perpetual opposition.
The bitter harvest is that the family alone pays the price.
A child deprived of his father for years, a mother burdened with accumulated responsibilities, and a father reduced to just providing support.
Thus, homes disintegrate, generations wander, and the fundamental cell on which the stability of the nation rests is shaken.
We do not call for the abolition of rights, nor for the injustice against women, nor for neglecting the dignity of the child, but we call for a return to the origin that falsehood does not approach from before or behind.
We want a law derived from the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Prophet, peace be upon him, and from sound jurisprudence that preserves the purposes of the Sharia and understands the reality of people.
A law that clearly informs each spouse of their rights and duties firmly, so that the man knows he is a guardian and responsible, and the woman knows she is peace and affection, and a partner in building the family.
A law that makes reconciliation a duty before litigation, and makes family stability a higher goal than any false individual victory.
Nations are not built by the abundance of laws, but by their justice. Homelands are not preserved by speeches and slogans if the family, the nucleus of society, is eroding from within.
The Jordanian family is not just a passing legal file, but it is the nation's first stronghold, and if the stronghold cracks, no defence behind it will remain strong.
Therefore, revising every legislation that threatens the cohesion of the family is not a legislative luxury, but a national, legal, and ethical necessity, because nations start from a stable home, and if the home falls, it won't be long before the entire society pays the price.
May God protect Jordan, its people, its army, its families, and continue to bless us with the grace of security and stability.
