Political jokes in Jordan: Only bare footed MPs are granted access to the House of Representatives
By Iqbal Tamimi
The Jordanians who are criticized
with their gloomy nature seemed to surprise everybody when they suddenly turned
with a collective sense of humour following a row that broke between
members of the Parliament.
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After few minutes of a quarrel
inside the Jordanian Parliament, a huge number of jokes broke up by activists.
The jokes were triggered following circulating photos of a pair of shoes flying
in the air. The pair of flying shoes belonged to MP Yahya Al-Saud, who became
angry during a debate, that he translated his rage into action by taking off
his shoes and throwing them at one of
his colleagues in a manner described by some activists as ‘a sporty well aimed
shot’.
Immediately following the
incident, jokes broke and one of which turned into a rumour that the Chairman
of the House of Representatives decided to enforce a law banning members of
Parliament from accessing the sessions with their shoes on, and that every
member entering the Parliament must come barefoot, and that he decided to strip
the place of all wooden benches in the meeting room, and replace them with foam mattresses on the floor similar to those in Bedouin tents.
And since there are women members of the parliament, another set of
jokes broke regarding the incident, one of which claimed that the House of
Representatives will hand over to every female member a sheet to cover her legs
while setting on the floor fitted mattresses.
The incident triggered all kind
of humorous feedback, and the photos of the flying pair of shoes preoccupied
the cyber sphere, declaring it as a new form of arms that every citizen should
have one to defend himself.
Other incidents at the Parliament
had other humorous response from the public. In another incident, one of the
public has spotted a Member of Parliament passing to his peers peanuts between
sessions. Following that bit of news, some Jordanians started nick naming the
House of Representatives as (The Roasting Shop).
