{"id":49873,"date":"2022-03-16T08:38:30","date_gmt":"2022-03-15T21:38:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/?p=49873"},"modified":"2025-03-25T20:34:57","modified_gmt":"2025-03-25T09:34:57","slug":"queer-travel-jordan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/queer-travel-jordan\/","title":{"rendered":"Here’s what I learned as a queer traveller on a Women’s Expedition in Jordan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As someone who\u2019s openly queer, travelling to a conservative country like Jordan was a big decision for Intrepid traveller and lawyer Lauren Peterson. Here\u2019s what she learned on Intrepid\u2019s Jordan Women\u2019s Expedition. (First lesson: we all have a lot more in common than we might think).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were sitting around the table after dinner in this woman\u2019s house in a remote part of Jordan, and the discussion turned to jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our group was an interesting mix of women. We had a lawyer (me), an engineer, a diplomat from Australia, a woman from London who won her spot in a competition, and two OBGYNs (obstetrician-gynecologists) \u2013 old friends from medical school in America who take a trip together about once a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the OBGYNs explained what they do for work, our host got very excited and started talking urgently to her sister-in-law. We asked our guide what was going on. She explained that in Jordan, most of the medical professionals, including OBGYNs, are men, and most of the good ones are in Amman, far away from our host\u2019s home. It\u2019s often difficult and uncomfortable for these women to get medical advice, especially for women\u2019s issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It turned out our host was going through menopause. So a consultation sprang up over the pita and hummus, with our OBGYNs recommending some treatment options. I don\u2019t know if they were able to get<\/em> treatment \u2013 birth control in Jordan is kind of controversial, even for medical purposes \u2013 but it was an amazing experience. We\u2019d only met our host family an hour ago, and here the matriarch was telling us her intimate health issues. It was basically like, \u201cOh, thank god, there are women doctors here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Intrepid traveller Lauren Peterson floating in the Dead Sea. Image: Lauren Peterson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I joined Intrepid\u2019s Women\u2019s Expedition<\/a> through Jordan<\/a> as part of my \u2018Bar Trip\u2019 in 2021. Like most law graduates in the United States, I finished my degree in May, studied my ass off for two months, took the Bar in July, then booked a trip and got the hell out of dodge. In fact, this time, I booked two Intrepid trips. A two-week tour in Egypt, then a quick flight over to Jordan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As you might have guessed, I\u2019m kind of addicted to getting my passport stamped. Growing up, my family and I lived in Zurich for a couple of years, which was incredible. I\u2019ve been obsessed with Egypt since the sixth grade, ever since I got my hands on an Egyptology book with pop-up pyramids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I didn\u2019t know much about Jordan, but I\u2019ve been to Israel and Palestine on previous trips, and I remember people would point across the Dead Sea and say, \u201cOh, that\u2019s Jordan over there.\u201d But what could have been a 10-minute drive from our resort in Israel to the Jordanian border turned into a two-year delay, as I waited for the world to exit lockdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

It wouldn’t surprise me if Jordanians just looked at me and thought, “Oh, a woman with short hair. She must be American.”<\/p>\nLauren Peterson<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Jordan is quite a conservative country, and as someone who\u2019s out and openly queer, any place where you\u2019re considered kind of a second-class citizen can be tough. Not that being gay is illegal in Jordan. There\u2019s actually a thriving queer scene in Amman \u2013 when we visited a Jordanian matchmaker on the tour, she laughed and said, \u201cPfft, everyone in Amman is gay\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it\u2019s still hard for people to express and act on their sexuality in public. There\u2019s still that conservative influence coming from parents, who expect traditional heterosexual marriages for their children, regardless of their sexuality. It wouldn\u2019t surprise me if Jordanians just looked at me and thought, \u201cOh, a woman with short hair. She must be American.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Meeting the locals in Amman. Image: Lauren Peterson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Since this was a Women\u2019s Expedition, our tour guide was also a woman (I was lucky that both my Intrepid leaders, in Egypt and Jordan, were women). It\u2019s such an intimate way to travel, being in a small group like that. Our guide would go into her personal life, her divorce, her different matches on dating apps, the trouble with toxic relationships, which exist in Jordan just like everywhere else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s one of the reasons I\u2019d recommend doing Egypt and Jordan in a group, rather than solo, especially for female travellers. Only because, when you get a good guide, they\u2019re so<\/em> knowledgeable about their country, and so excited to tell you all about it. You end up getting much more out of the trip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, we\u2019d have meals with local women, and because we<\/em> were all women, they\u2019d feel comfortable taking off their headscarves, which obviously is such an honour. We even got to visit this textile factory that\u2019s completely female-owned and run. These women are the breadwinners in their households. They literally have a pillowcase contract with IKEA! (I wanted to buy one at the factory, but they weren\u2019t for sale; I think it must be an exclusive contract and the women were like, \u201cYeah, we\u2019re not messing that up.\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
A group dinner in Jordan. Image: Lauren Peterson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019d always been someone who saw \u2018Made Well\u2019 labels on commercial products and kind of scoffed. I didn\u2019t know (and, frankly, was incredibly skeptical about) how much buying these products actually helped. But seeing these women at the factory where these goods are made, seeing it from the other side, seeing them earn a living wage, get flexible working conditions and run a successful business, it suddenly made sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you travel, you go around the world, and the thing that sticks out isn\u2019t the differences, it\u2019s how similar everyone is: how similar our problems are, our hopes and dreams, our anxieties and worries. They\u2019re all the same. At the end of the day, it was nice to solidify female solidarity and understand that even small experiences can have a big impact. Take our two OBGYNs. When they graduated medical school, their class was more men than women; now it\u2019s decisively the other way around. And here they were, way out in the Jordanian desert, making a positive impact on a woman\u2019s life. That\u2019s the real power of travel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As someone who\u2019s openly queer, travelling to a conservative country like Jordan was a big decision for Intrepid traveller and lawyer Lauren Peterson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16247,"featured_media":49885,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3109],"tags":[55,56,2859],"class_list":["post-49873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-good-trips","tag-jordan","tag-middle-east","tag-queer-travel","ipf_region-jordan"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhat I learned as a queer traveller 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