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Muhannad Salah Alazzeh is a Jordanian writer and politician. In 2013, he became the youngest person in the history of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to be appointed in the 26th Senate (Jordan) at 43 years of age. He was also one of the youngest members of the Board of Trustees of the Jordanian National Center for Human Rights in 2008. He is Secretary-General of the Higher Council for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the first person with a disability to occupy such political and leadership positions in the history of Jordan. On May 25, 2021, Alazzeh was awarded the State Centennial Medal of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan as part of the country’s Independence Day celebrations. He was honored by King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein along with a number of political, academic, scientific, artistic, media and union figures who had a clear impact and contribution to public life in Jordan during the first hundred years of the establishment of the Jordanian state. In 2002, Alazzeh received the Best Doctoral Dissertation Award for his thesis on "The Protection of the Human Body within Modern Medical Trends from a Criminal Law Perspective: A Comparative Study" from the Faculty of Law at Alexandria University. He received an award from Family Health International (FHI360) for the best project implemented through his accomplishments in the Persons with Disabilities Rights component, which he led in 2010-2013 within the Civil Society Organizations Strengthening Project (CSP) in Jordan. He is an expert who is accredited by some United Nations organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) and many other international organizations in the field of legal analysis and human rights. He is also a writer in public affairs and a critic of extremist thought, with controversial writings, including his publication on “Women’s Rights to Inheritance in Jordanian Legislation: Requirements and Prospects of Change”. This is in addition to a number of weekly articles in which he discussed, analyzed and critiqued the religious nature of the cultural heritage over the course of two years. He has authored several books in the field of law, women's rights, the rights of persons with disabilities, and human rights conventions and covenants. Personal life Muhannad Alazzeh is a Jordanian politician and the first member of the Senate with disabilities in the history of Jordan. He is a critic of extremist intellectual thought and an advocate of reform of religious discourse, and he writes about political and legal affairs and human rights. He is a certified international expert in the field of analysis and drafting of legislation, legal research and human rights agreements. He was born on June 5, 1970, in Zarqa, Jordan to a middle-class family. He was born with the retinal detachment that led to the gradual loss of his vision, and he became legally blind at the age of ten. Alazzeh was initially enrolled in a school in Amman until the age of seven, where he used to read and write using glasses and special lighting. At the age of eight, he moved to the only school for the blind at the time, which was located in Jabal Ashrafieh in the eastern of capital, Amman, to finish his preparatory studies. Next, he moved to Aqaba High School, where he finished secondary school and returned to obtain a high school diploma from Salah El-Din School in Amman. He excelled as a student and was able to keep up with his peers. During his childhood, he was passionate about studying scientific subjects and dreamt of becoming a scientist in genetic engineering, only to be shocked by the fact that blind students in Jordan were denied entry to the scientific branch in high school because they were not taught mathematics. He describes his childhood years in the boarding school for the blind as similar to the events of Jane Eyre by the British writer Charlotte Brontë, since living conditions were harsh. Children would freeze in the cold winters and would suffocate in the hot summers. There was no heating or cooling system or proper nutrition or hygiene, besides widespread psychological and physical violence. This planted a desire in him to play some role in the future in defending victims of violence, especially children and persons with disabilities. His father encouraged him to use a white cane while moving about before he lost his eyesight completely to prepare him psychologically for the next stage of eyesight loss. At the age of ten, Alazzeh was able to move and use transportation on his own. As a boy, he resisted the idea that losing his eyesight would deprive him of the things he loved, and he relied on his other senses to continue playing football and cycling even in high school. He also mastered playing the piano, accordion, the keyboard and the violin. Staying at the boarding school for the blind for many years and thereafter with his relatives, away from his family, enabled him to form an independent personality at a young age, and always made him feel that he was able to live and face life’s challenges without assistance. Since his childhood, he dreamt of the day when he would be able to travel to Egypt to complete his studies. He was greatly affected by the image he painted of this country in his mind through the novels he read and radio dramas of which he was fond. As soon as he finished high school in Jordan, he enrolled in Alexandria University despite the objection of his parents and their fear of having him travel and live alone. He insisted on his decision and was able to convince them otherwise. He arrived in Egypt in October 1988 and stayed there for 14 years. He describes these years as the best years of his life in which he formed true friendships with friends with whom he remained in touch throughout the years. Academic qualifications • Holds a Higher Diploma in Public Policy, Democracy, Good Governance and Anti-Corruption from the International Institute for Social Studies in The Hague, affiliated with Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands. • Holds a Ph.D. degree with honors in Comparative Criminal Law from the Faculty of Law at the University of Alexandria where his committee issued a recommendation to circulate the thesis among universities because of its significance. The topic of his thesis was "The Protection of the Human Body within Modern Medical Trends from a Criminal Law Perspective: A Comparative Study" ; deliberating the issue in relation to French law, Anglo-American law, Arab legislation, and Islamic law. In his thesis, he discusses the criminal responsibility for organ transplants, human cloning, and misuse of embryos and human harvested cells/ organs. • He holds a master’s degree in law from the same college where he obtained a higher diploma in Public Law in 1993 and was ranked third among his colleagues despite the challenges he faced in reading and writing. At the time, he was totally dependent on audio recordings of the voices of readers, and on writers to whom he dictated his answers and who were not proficient transcribers. He obtained a higher diploma in private law and was the only student who was able to pass the written and oral exams for this diploma in September 1994. • Holds a bachelor’s degree in law from the same college in 1992. • Has undertaken many specialized courses in forensic evidence, forensic medicine, human rights, communication skills, media and methods of effective training and strategic planning. Career Alazzeh returned from Egypt to his homeland with a Ph.D., which he obtained with distinction and for which he earned the award for best thesis for 2002. He thought this would enable him to find a job easily. He wanted to teach at a university because he was fond of research and academic life. He was surprised that public and private universities welcomed him as soon as they received his CV and certificates, only to decline appointing him when he went for the interview when officials found out that he was blind. The discrimination he faced at this stage reminded him of the suffering he faced as a child at the school for the blind, and this further motivated him to fight the battle of defending human rights and the rights of the most marginalised groups facing discrimination and exclusion. Alazzeh started his career as a researcher for Humanity & Inclusion International in its regional office in Amman. He then rose through the ranks until he became the organization's regional official for rights and advocacy. He continued in his career and caught the attention of national, regional and international institutions for his analytical skills in the field of law and human rights and for the research and worksheets he prepared and trained on. He gradually held different positions including international and senior political and administrative positions. Chief among these are: • The youngest and first person with a disability in the Jordanian Senate in 2013. • The youngest and first person with a disability to occupy the position of a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Center for Human Rights in Jordan in 2008. • The first person with a disability to hold the position of Secretary-General in a government institution and was appointed to the position of Secretary-General of the Higher Council for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Jordan in 2017. • Chairman of the Legal Committee that drafted the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Law No. (20) of 2017, which was approved by the Jordanian Parliament. • Member and legal advisor to the Jordanian National Committee for Women. • Member of the Technical Committee of the Democratic Empowerment Programme in the King Abdullah II Fund for Development in Jordan. • Worked as an expert and legal and human rights advisor accredited by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, ESCWA. • Was in charge of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities component of the Civil Society Organizations Strengthening Project (CSP) and as a senior human rights consultant in the Civil Society Initiatives Project implemented by Family Health International (FHI360) funded by United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Jordan. • Worked as a consultant and expert to evaluate the Arab Convention for Disability at the Arab League. • Worked as an expert who prepared and drafted the first regional report that monitors the rights of persons with disabilities in the Arab Gulf states at the technical office of Ministers of Labor and Ministers of Social Affairs for the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf. • Worked as a consultant and as a co-author in a study in English for the American Bar and Judges Association (ABA) in Jordan on the legal effect of constitutional texts and the Constitutional Court in the country. • Worked as a consultant with CBM International to review and draft the Bill in English on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Pakistan. • Worked as a regional officer for rights and advocacy with Humanity and Inclusion in its regional office in Amman, Jordan. • Represented the Jordanian government in several international conferences, the most important of which are the conferences of the States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in New York, the Zero Project conferences on issues of persons with disabilities in Vienna, in addition to many regional and international conferences on human rights, combating extremist ideology, women's issues and the rights of persons with disabilities. • Member of the Advisory Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Human Rights Watch until 2013. Notable achievements • Proposed and drafted amendments to the Jordanian Penal Code that made disability an aggravating condition in the event of committing crimes against a person with a disability, in cases of sexual assault, fraud, abandonment and neglect so that the most severe punishment for the crime is enforced. These amendments were adopted and approved by the Jordanian government and parliament in 2017. • Contributed to the drafting of the position paper presented by the Jordanian National Committee for Women which was adopted by hundreds of civil society organizations and thousands of activists to abolish Article 308 of the Jordanian Penal Code, which exempted the perpetrator of rape from punishment if he married the victim. This article of the law was abolished in 2017. • Prepared and drafted the Jordanian Draft Law on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities No. (20) for the Year 2017, which is considered the first anti-discrimination law in the Arab region. Dr. Al-Azzeh defended it before the Parliament until it was approved. • Reviewed and drafted the Bill of Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Pakistan in cooperation with the following: CBM, organizations of persons with disabilities, civil society as well as official, judicial and legal bodies. • Prepared draft ministerial decisions for the rights of persons with disabilities to work with the Ministry of Labor in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. • Prepared the first shadow report that monitored the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Jordan in 2012. • Supervised the preparation and editing of national strategies for education, accessibility, independent living and diagnostic criteria in Jordan. • Prepared the first legal terminology guide related to language that should be used in dealing with issues of persons with disabilities in the media through the “Say this and Don’t Say that” list that was approved by Al Jazeera Network offices around the world and by media and national institutions in various Arab countries. • Helped prepare position papers with a group of experts and human rights defenders related to the rule of law, women's rights and the independence of the judiciary. • He was the first member in the history of the Jordanian Senate to contravene and vote against constitutional amendments when the amendment of some articles of the Jordanian constitution was proposed in 2014. He was also the first member whose discussions with the government were described as “parliamentary accountability.” His writings in daily print media and electronic newspapers tackle issues of public affairs, especially political issues and human rights. His assumption of a government position did not prevent him from criticizing the government on several occasions, as he did when he wrote about the government shaving the hair of a group of young people because they gathered in the Dead Sea contrary to quarantine instructions for those arriving from travel during the Covid-19 pandemic. He also criticized the Greater Amman Municipality for removing banners on Independence Day because they showed phrases from the Bible. This is in addition to his extensive writings on the process of political reform and criticism of extremist thought. • He evaluated many projects implemented in the field of human rights and the rights of persons with disabilities locally, regionally and internationally. • He prepared several training materials on human rights and prepared monitoring reports on international conventions and covenants. These trainings were directed towards judges, employees in the diplomatic corps, employees of government institutions and civil society organizations. • He was the first to prepare and present a series of radio programmes of about 30 episodes on the human rights approach to issues of persons with disabilities through Radio Farah Al-Nas, and then by participating in a weekly segment in a new programme on Jordanian TV on specific topics related to human rights and the rights of persons with disabilities. Honors and Awards • Received the State Centennial Medal on the Establishment of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan from King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein on the 75th Independence Day celebrations in 2021 for his achievements and services in the field of law and human rights. He was honored with a group of individuals including leading political, academic, media and union figures who contributed to the establishment of the state and its development from 1921 to 2021. • Received the Hassan Al-Baghdadi Award for the best doctoral thesis for 2002 from the Faculty of Law, Alexandria University. • Received an international award for the best performance in services from Family Health International (FHI360) for the achievements of the Persons with Disabilities Rights Department, which he headed within the Civil Society Organizations Strengthening Project in Jordan in 2013. •Received certificates of appreciation from international, regional, and local organizations for his contributions to research, working papers, and training in the field of human rights, women's rights, and the rights of persons with disabilities. Intellectual Predilections Muhannad Alazzeh’s intellectual predilections underwent a radical transformation after the growth of extremist religious movements following the events that swept the countries of the Arab region at the beginning of this century. These include the occupation of Iraq, the war on Gaza and the infiltration of these movements after the Arab Spring revolutions, and the control of totalitarian and sectarian regimes. Initially, he was moved by the teachings of the founder of the extremist Salafi thought of Sheikh Muhammad Nasir al-Din Al-Albani. However, later he took a leftist approach and became one of the prominent writers who provide an objective and critical reading of violent extremist intellectual and cultural heritage, especially from the point of view of women’s and children’s rights and religious minorities. His weekly articles on the AmmanNet community media network website was attacked by the hard-line religious movement and its supporters. These articles dealt with criticism, analysis of much discriminatory legislation, and behavioral phenomena based on extremist fundamentalist concepts. In 2017, he participated in a long unannounced debate with 8 professors of Sharia and Islamic jurisprudence and representatives of various religious institutions after authoring a discussion on “Women’s Right to Inheritance in Jordanian Legislation: Requirements and Prospects for Change,” which was rejected for publication in Jordan. The debate was organized by the Jordanian National Committee for Women, and it was published on the website of the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies in Doha, Qatar. It was also published in English and on other websites. The research called for a review of the provisions of inheritance in the personal status laws in light of social changes and since women are active participants in the economy and sometimes are the breadwinners in the family. He based his claim on various legal evidence and bases in Sharia Law, including the analogy with what the second Caliph Omar Ibn Al-Khattab said when he disputed a “zakah” for “those who bring hearts together for Islam,” even though it was stated definitively in the Holy Qur’an. Circumstances and conditions during Ibn Al-Khattab’s reign changed since the time of the revelation of the verse that granted them their share. His criticism of Hamas in 2014 angered the movement’s supporters who attacked him fiercely on various social media sites. He described the movement as a pragmatic political movement that suffers from ideological duality and invests in religion to achieve authoritarian goals. It pushes conflict at times and resorts to peace at other times depending to its agendas and interests. It is also indifferent to the will of the people under its control in the Gaza Strip. He also strongly condemned the movement for using violence and abuse and for the elimination of its opponents, including Palestinians who belong to other movements and factions; the movement accused them of working without investigation or trial while the innocence of many of them was proven later. Publications In addition to his weekly articles that deal with public affairs published in many daily newspapers and websites, his publications vary between books, research papers, legal studies, and other works related to human rights, women's rights, and the rights of persons with disabilities. Most notable of these works include: • Women's Right to Inheritance in Jordanian Legislation: Requirements and Prospects for Change. • The Sixty Question Guide: 60 Questions and Answers on the Compliance and Monitoring Mechanisms of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities • The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities between the Requirements of Implementation and Effective Monitoring • An Analytical and Comparative Reading of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Compared to the Provisions of Islamic Sharia • The Arab Decade on Disability in the Balance, the Effectiveness of Texts and Prospects for Application • Co-author of Global Perspectives on Disability Activism and Advocacy Our Way • Co-author of the international study on Disability-Specific Forms of Deprivation of Liberty • A report entitled “A Mirror to Reality and a Tool for Change” on the status of implementing the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Jordan • The Thirty Question Guide: Thirty Questions and Answers on Creating an Accessible Work Environment for Persons with Disabilities • Ya Salaam or Ya Haraam! The Media's Handling of Disability Issues: What to Say or Not to Say in the Field of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities •"The Protection of the Human Body within Modern Medical Trends from a Criminal Law Perspective: A Comparative Study". • Legal Articles of Disability between Effectiveness and Activation: A Comparative Study on the Phenomenon of Ineffective Disability Articles in the Middle East References 1. "Muhannad Salah Alazzeh | The 26th Senate". A Guide to Political Life in Jordan. Archived from the original on May 15, 2018. Retrieved June 03, 2020. 2. "The Majlis Library | The Higher Council for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities". www.hcd.gov.jo. Archived from the original on November 28, 2019. Retrieved June 04, 2020. 3. "Khaberni website: King Hands over the State Centennial Medal to a Gathering of Jordanians". news site. Archived from the original on May 26, 2021. Retrieved on May 29, 2021. 4. "Women's Right to Inheritance in Jordanian Legislation: Requirements and Prospects for Change". www.dohainstitute.org. Archived from the original on June 4, 2020. Retrieved on June 4, 2020. 5. Alazzeh, Dr. Muhannad (05-09-2020). Crisis Memory. AlRai. Archived from the original on May 17, 2020. Retrieved June 29, 2020. 6. "Alazzeh, Dr. Muhannad...The Symbolism of Difference". Ammon News Agency. Archived from the original on June 6, 2020. Retrieved June 29, 2020. 7. "The Legal Zero and the Forbidden Zero". Ammon News Agency. Archived from the original on May 23, 2020. Retrieved June 29, 2020. 8. "The Youngest Member of the Senate is Blind". www.gerasanews.com. Archived from the original on June 03, 2020. Retrieved June 03, 2020. 9. "A Royal Decree Appointing Dr. Muhannad Salah Alazzeh as Secretary-General the Higher Council for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities | Jordan Today | Saraya News Agency - Freedom with a Sky Roof". www.sarayanews.com. Archived from the original on June 03, 2020. Retrieved June 03, 2020. 10. Mohamed Lotfi Abd (January 1, 2012). Criminal Law and Uses of Biotechnology: Genetic Engineering, Genetic fingerprinting, Cloning. Al Manhal. ISBN 9796500133737. Archived from the original on June 03, 2020. 1. "Dictatorship of Doctors!". Alghad. 2019-11-16. Archived from the original on June 29, 2020. Retrieved June 29, 2020. 2. “When the exception becomes the rule”. Alghad. 2020-05-03. Archived from the original on June 29, 2020. Retrieved June 29, 2020. 3. “One Senator opposed the constitutional amendments”. Khaberni website: Archived from the original on June 29, 2020. Retrieved June 29, 2020. 4. Senator Alazzeh: “Repeated Amendments to the Constitution May Make It Lose its Stature. Oman Net website. 2014-08-28. Archived from the original on June 29, 2020. Retrieved June 29, 2020. 5. “Three transformations that changed the life path of Senator Alazzeh”. Ammon News Agency. Archived from the original on November 13, 2016. Retrieved June 29, 2020. 6. “Corona and the Significance of the Curve”. Alghad. 2020-04-09. Archived from the original on April 19, 2020. Retrieved June 29, 2020.