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Shurooq Al-Nsour
20 October 2025
“Should we give it to you or to the man? If he fails in the future, they’ll say, ‘May God not grant her success; she has disrupted the family’s unity.’” With these words, Fatima’s family (a pseudonym) conveyed their opposition to her candidacy in last year’s parliamentary elections.
Fatima says her family refused to support her, arguing that it was to avoid splitting the tribe’s votes, since a male candidate had been chosen to represent them. She stresses that running for parliamentary elections is extremely difficult without her family’s support.
Fatima adds, reflecting on her repeated attempts to run in multiple election cycles: “Every time, it’s the same—whenever I try to run, they choose a man.”
The candidate chosen by the tribe was defeated in the last election. According to Fatima, women have no role in selecting the tribe’s candidate. She regrets not being affiliated with a political party, as that would have allowed her to stand for elections without needing the tribe’s approval.
Fatima is no stranger to public life; she is a former member of the municipal council and has won a seat in her local council multiple times. In her first municipal election, she ran as an independent candidate and successfully secured a seat.
In the most recent municipal elections (September 2024), Fatima placed fourth on a list of 18 candidates, most of them men, and won a seat competitively, outside the “quota” system. She says that running in municipal elections does not require the tribe’s consensus.
Fatima is well known in her community, having worked in education for more than two decades and interacted with many local families. When she won her first municipal election, she met with the governor along with the other council members to discuss the municipality’s challenges. According to Fatima, one council member objected to her speaking with the governor simply because she was a woman.
This was not the only instance in which Fatima faced discriminatory remarks and attempts at exclusion. She says some members of the tribe (Ashira) openly expressed their discontent with her running for municipal elections when she visited polling stations: “We don’t want women; we cast our votes for a man.”
Fatima was not the only female candidate to face difficulties in the most recent parliamentary elections. A report on “Violence Against Women During the 2024 Parliamentary Elections” noted that many female candidates who ran last year said the election environment—dominated by tribe-based competition and the widespread use of illicit funds—led them to withdraw their campaigns.
According to the report, which surveyed more than 167 female candidates, some were pressured by tribe members and relatives on social media, attempting to convince them to withdraw or cast doubt on their chances of winning. One candidate reported that members of her own family posted negative comments on social media, declaring they would disown her if she continued her electoral campaign. This put significant psychological pressure on her. The study—issued by the Karak Castle Center for Consulting and Training—analyzed thousands of posts and over 140,000 social media comments.
Another candidate faced intense pressure from “respected tribe elders” sent to her husband and family members to persuade her to withdraw. She reported that her husband asked her to step back from the electoral contest and even threatened divorce if she did not comply, believing that maintaining family unity was more important than her participation in politics, according to the report.
Tribe consensus is a social practice in which members select one of their own to run as the tribe’s candidate in elections. As a result, members vote for this representative regardless of political affiliation or platform.
Political analyst Samih Al-Maaytah explains that the tribe was traditionally a social unit fulfilling a national role rather than a political framework. Over time, however, it gradually became an entity that nominates candidates for parliament. He notes that the tribe’s influence has declined due to several factors, including intense competition among its members.
According to Al-Maaytah, the “quota” system offered an alternative path to select women from the tribe without affecting the male candidate.” He emphasizes that it was rare in the past for a tribe to present a female candidate who enjoyed full clan consensus.
Some tribes admit to excluding women from the selection process of consensus candidates. On its official website, Tribe “Z” published what it called its “internal election law” for parliamentary elections, detailing the procedures for selecting the tribe’s candidates. This tribe adopted a more complex system for its internal elections compared to others: an election council forms committees to oversee the process, which is conducted through a secret ballot with designated ballot boxes, voting booths, ballots, and stamps designed for this purpose. Yet, the “law” explicitly stipulates that only men are eligible to vote.
Women of the tribe have no role in the process at any stage, even though the “ Z” tribe emphasizes on its website that parliamentary elections are a constitutional entitlement and participation is a national duty.
Tribe “A” meanwhile, posted on social media a call for a meeting to select its candidates for the 2024 parliamentary elections. A Facebook post by the tribe clearly states that the right to choose clan candidates is reserved for men only.
This type of announcement is not unusual. As parliamentary elections approach, social media is often filled with tribe calls for internal elections that openly exclude women from the process.
Mustafa Q, a pseudonym, and head of his tribe’s internal election committee, explains that the tribe holds elections to select its candidate. Before the internal elections, one person from each “fakhadh” (extended family unit) is chosen to form the election committee, which sets the date of the elections and oversees their conduct.
According to Mustafa, the tribe’s elections were held last year in a facility rented specifically for this purpose, with more than thirty cameras installed in the rooms to monitor the voting process.
He explained that no female members of the tribe had ever expressed a desire to serve on the election committee. This case is tied to the branch of the family that selects its representative. Last year, all candidates who ran in the tribe elections were men, he said.
According to Mustafa, participation in these “elections” was limited to those listed in the prepared registers that exclude women. The registers are based on voter lists issued by the Independent Election Commission for members of the tribe.
Mustafa asserts that women’s absence from selecting the consensus candidate is not due to deliberate exclusion, rather due to logistical constraints related to the size of the venue.
Dr. Hiba Haddadin, director of the Mossawa Center for Training and Human Rights, says that the exclusion of women from clan internal elections is not random but deliberate. The selection of the consensus candidate is often conducted in councils dominated by tribe notables, sheikhs, and senior men, where “decisions are made in the absence of women’s active voices or even their presence, reinforcing the notion that tribe representation is purely male,” she explains.
Haddadin notes that women’s loyalty is managed through male family members, with fathers or husbands asked to direct women’s votes toward the candidate chosen by the tribe, effectively eliminating their independent decision-making in elections.
She adds that women who announce their intention to run for elections face threats and pressures of a tribal nature, which do not necessarily take the form of direct physical violence but may manifest more subtly, affecting the candidate socially and psychologically as well as her potential support. Among these threats are attacks on reputation and status, social isolation, and political marginalization, according to Haddadin.
The exclusion of women is not limited to clan consensus “elections” themselves; they are also barred from serving on the internal committees that oversee the selection of candidates within the clan.
Jihad Al-Momani, former spokesperson for the Independent Election Commission (IEC), revealed illegalities in these types of “elections” within tribes. Speaking to Al-Mamlaka TV ahead of the 2020 parliamentary elections, he said: “These elections are illegal and discriminatory; women are excluded from voting in them.” He added, “There is no place for tribe elections in the IEC’s executive regulations; we do not recognize them.”
These elections are held openly under the watchful eye of government authorities, with announcements appearing on news sites and social media. In 2020, the authorities banned internal tribe elections due to public health concerns and as a preventive measure against the spread of COVID-19, though they were later allowed to proceed.
Constitutional expert Laith Nasrawin explains that Jordan’s election contains no provisions governing tribal election, It applies only once a candidate submits an application to the Independent Election Commission, without addressing the preceding stages.
Nasrawin adds that Jordanian law does not regulate tribe elections, unlike other countries where tribal consensus has been considered illegal and treated as a form of illicit political funding, as is the case in Kuwait.
