Felt Unfreedom: Reflecting on Ethics and Gender in Jordan

Jordanian women are expected to exemplify the multiple – and sometimes contradictory – values that their families, nations, and faiths espouse. Ethnographies of contemporary Jordan attend to the ways women articulate their own interpretations of what constitutes appropriate female behaviour within the discursive frame of these values. But how do women living within this discursive frame feel about living in, and thinking in, this discursive frame? As women engage with social expectations for female behaviour to consider how they should act, their nuanced considerations resemble the kind of reflection that can be taken as freedom. However, their reflections emphasise the ways in which they feel restricted. This felt unfreedom raises questions about the way relationships and the feelings that arise within them come to bear on ethical reflection.