Photo Journalism Continued: Orphans in Jordan

So about a week ago I accompanied my Journalist friend to duar Abdoun, which is considered one of the most expensive and richest places of Amman. We went there because a group of orphans were protesting the way that the Jordanian government treats them. To read about more, click here for the AlBawaba article... I took the picture featured with the article. When we were at the circle, we spoke with several of the orphans' 'leaders.' Most of these orphans are actually no longer considered 'orphans' anymore because they are over the age of eighteen. However, as stated by the article, the government highlights their orphan status in society, making it very hard for them to obtain a job and socially integrate. One girl we spoke with in particularly stuck out in my mind. Her hair was cut extremely short so that she would look like a boy. She told us that she gets less harassment when she is sleeping on the streets. She told us of the terrible treatment she received by the care center that she lived in until she was old enough for them to kick her out. Another thing that struck me was the fact that these orphans were sleeping on the circle (they have been traveling from circle to circle for the last several years protesting their forced and separation from society at the hands of the government)... many were huddled in sleeping bags on sparse patches of grass. When one orphan was explaining to me what protest signs they had hung up at the circle said, he also pointed out a group of men hanging close to the protest. "Those are the mukhabarat," he told me in Arabic. "Take a picture." The Mukhabarat are the secret police in Jordan. One of the things that shocked me most was the fact that all of these orphans were of Palestinian descent, a fact that speaks to the government's continual discrimination against and victimization of Palestinians who live on Jordanian soil.