Jalwa must be regulated through law — Senate president

AMMAN — Tackling the tradition of "jalwa" (forced relocation) through the law makes its implementation obligatory, Senate President Faisal Fayez said on Wednesday.

The law should be involved in regulating negative aspects of traditions and harmful social practices to safeguard national security, Fayez said, highlighting that developments in the social sphere should be accompanied with better legislation, mainly in regards to tribal traditions.

Jalwa is a tribal tradition, which may entail the eviction of an entire family and the forced relocation of a clan if one of its members murders that of another’s.

According to those in favour of jalwa, the tradition aims to prevent friction between the tribes of the victim and the killer, if they live in the same area.

Fayez’s remarks came during a meeting of the Senate’s Public Freedoms Committee, which was attended by Interior Minister Salameh Hammad, Police Chief Maj. Gen. Fadel Hmoud and Director General of the Gendarmerie Directorate Maj. Gen. Hussein Hawatmeh, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Hammad said that the government is in the process of planning a conference to endorse a “national code of honour”, which would regulate some negative aspects of tribal traditions, mainly jalwa, highlighting a national consensus to minimise the geographic scale of relocation and lower the number of evicted family members, according to Petra.