AMMAN — For four days in a row this week, youths hurled rocks at police officers, burned tires and damaged properties in the ancient city of Salt, thought to have been built in the days of Alexander the Great.
Local tribal leaders and professional associations called for calm and condemned damage to property but also called on the government to address long-term grievances, including political detentions, rising prices and a lack of popular representation.
More than a year after the Arab Spring challenged the political status quo across the Middle East, leading to the regional rise of the Muslim Brotherhood and the spiraling war in Syria, Jordan is facing a crucial test of whether a new electoral law can quell the rising clamor for meaningful political changes.
RAMTHA, JORDAN — Four Syrian women sat in a circle in a small apartment during the weekend, reminiscing about green fields and the homes they left behind months ago as their neighborhoods descended into violence and basic food supplies dried up.
The women took turns, too, narrating the last conversations they had with their husbands before the men left this impoverished Jordanian town and crossed back into the border city of Dera’a, a flash point early in the Syrian rebellion.
“My husband said it was his duty to go back and fight against the Syrian regime because the situation has become intolerable,” said Fatima, 28, as her three children and their cousins ran barefoot in and out of their dark, cramped living room. She asked that her family name not be used because of security concerns.
“I cried a lot when he left us but I always had a feeling my husband would return to join the battle,” she said. “There are others who also are returning.”
Her brother-in-law had returned to Syria recently, she said, leaving his wife and children behind.
Region-wide, of more than 60,000 Syrian refugees registered by United Nations relief workers, 74 percent are women and children.
The Jordan Health Aid Society, a non-governmental organization, said that of the 12,873 home visits it has made to Syrian refugees since January, nearly 500 households consisted of just women with their children.
While increasing numbers of Syrians, especially from cities like Homs and Dera’a, are fleeing into Jordan, young men are returning at a steady flow to Syria, some to fight against the forces of President Bashar al-Assad.
AMMAN — At a gathering of the Celebration of Entrepreneurship forum here this month, young Arab techies, some dressed in jeans, others in pinstriped suits, exchanged business cards and listened to advice from investors.
The goal of these would-be entrepreneurs: to start local businesses that tap into a rapidly growing market for Internet and mobile telecommunications applications. Investors from the region say they are ready to provide as much as $500 million as seed money for new businesses in Arab countries.
The key role played by social media in the Arab Spring political movement has helped to encourage the growth of online start-ups across the Arabic-speaking region. Young entrepreneurs say that creating businesses that employ people and contribute to social change can be just as revolutionary as marching in demonstrations.
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