29 Jordan
Despite Jordan being one of few countries in the SWANA region moving towards the decriminalization of LGBTQIA+ relationships, it has become increasingly apparent over the last few years that queer people living in Jordan have almost no legal protection against gender or sexuality based discrimination. Just a few months ago, in August of 2023, the king of Jordan approved The 2023 Cybercrime Law, a censorship law which, with mostly undefined terms, aims to punish the consumption, production, and distribution of the following:
- Content “promoting, instigating, aiding, or inciting immorality”
- Content displaying “contempt for religion”
- Content “undermining national unity”
- “Pornographic content” *note that “pornographic is not defined in the text
In addition, the law prohibits the use of many Virtual Proxy Networks (VPNs), thereby threatening the right to anonymity and the right to freedom of expression. With Jordan’s secret police supposedly ramping up their harassment and forced outing of queer people in recent months, this all should be cause for heightened concern.
When I was in Amman studying abroad, I found that the experience of being queer in Jordan varied greatly depending on the views of each individual family and one’s access to Arabic-speaking, underground queer spaces. There was one café chain we frequented (I won’t disclose the name because they could get shut down) which had a reputation for being queer-friendly and where some members of my cohort felt they had found community among groups already gathering in resistance to the discrimination they faced. Additionally, through family and social events we were able to meet queer Jordanians who shared with us stories of losing family, finding new community, and ongoing struggles to self-express against the threat of violence.
A little bit to my surprise, we also found a couple NGOs doing work in Jordan to support the LGBTQIA+ population there through medical, legal, psychosocial, and economic avenues. The one I had the most contact with was Forearms of Change Center to Enable Community (FOCCEC), the only Jordanian NGO working specifically with HIV/AIDS.
Sources
Jordan’s New Cybercrime Law is a Disaster for LGBT People | Human Rights Watch
Jordan’s king approves ‘draconian’ cybercrime law
Jordan’s secret police accused of targeting LGBTQ+ community