ABSTRACT

This chapter highlights women as initiating agents behind cultural projects that affect Amman in various ways. Souq JARA, a weekly street market started in 2005, illustrates these trends in crafts, gender, and urban change. Art circulation in Jordan had been limited to a few venues: a national art museum, an independent art foundation, a few commercial galleries, and some key foreign cultural centers. Anthropological and other social science writings about Amman, compared to studies of neighboring capitals, are relatively slight. In the 2000s, responding to the massive influx of refugees, the Jordanian government granted long-term residency permits to affluent Iraqis, who would not be classified as refugees nor placed in temporary camps. The creators and the works at Souq JARA cross levels of economic class and sophistication. Upper- and middle-class women are leading art and cultural activities, as the vast majority of art galleries are owned and run by women, and many cultural activities are organized and attended by women.