Born: 1948, Jordan
Died: NA
Country most active: Jordan
Also known as: توجان الفيصل
Journalist and human rights activist Toujan al-Faisal was the first woman to be a member of Jordan’s Parliament, elected in 1993 following the repeal of martial law and serving until 1997. Government officials are reputed to have interfered with her re-election.
Previously, she had been charged with apostasy (abandoning or renouncing a religion, in this case Islam) in 1989, the first instance of a sharia court case in Amman. There was no actual law against apostasy, but petitioners demanded she be declared an apostate and divorced from her husband. The court eventually ruled that it had no jurisdiction to do so, but the sharia court of appeal agreed to hear the case the following year, finding no evidence of apostasy and dismissing the case.
In 2002, al-Faisal published an open letter accusing the prime minister of corruption. She was arrested two weeks later. Although she was freed, she was re-arrested only two days later, shortly before a planned press conference. She was was convicted by the State Security Court of “tarnishing the Jordanian state”, defamation of the judiciary, “uttering words” before another deemed to be “detrimental to his religious feeling”, “publishing and broadcasting false information abroad which could be detrimental to the reputation of the state”, and inciting “disturbances and killings.” Sentenced to the maximum 18 months in prison, she was reportedly mistreated while detained, with organizations like Amnesty International speaking out on her situation. She was freed by royal pardon in 2002 following 29 days on hunger strike, during which she lost 12 kilograms.
The following year, she was prevented by the Election Commission from standing as a candidate for the 2003 Parliamentary elections. The federal Court of First Instance upheld this decision because her conviction had not been annulled, and was thus sufficient cause to prevent her running. This decision was criticized by the International Federation for Human Rights and Amnesty International.