Mahmoud Kharabsheh

Mahmoud Kharabsheh (also spelled Mahmud al-Kharabsha) is a Jordanian politician and lawyer and a member of the House of Representatives. In 1999 he was a member of the same institution, and in November 2007 and January 2013 he was also elected, both times for the First District of Balqa Governorate. He served multiple terms as Head of House Legal Committee.

After the January 2013 election, he stood candidate as Speaker of the House of Representatives, however, he was eliminated in the first round of voting after receiving 5 of the 150 available votes. Saad Hayel Srour won the election in the second round.

In 1999 he opposed amending Article 340 of the law, which lessened the punishment or exonerated those who killed family members for harming family honor. In October 2007, he once more said that it will take a long time for Jordanian society to change its attitude towards honour killings.

While in his position of Head of House Legal Committee in early 2000, Kharabsheh accused Issams al-Rawabdeh, the son of Jordanian Prime Minister Abdelraouf al-Rawabdeh, of corruption. After the charges al-Rawabdeh shuffled his cabinet, the move was seen as a way to lessen criticism against himself.

After a new parliament was elected in 2003, several temporary laws were up for review. Two of those were related to women's rights: Article 340 called for the same reduction of punishment for women as perpetrator in honour killings, and the Khuloe law gave women the right to file for divorce without giving a reason in return for her wedding dowry. Kharabsheh said he would vote against the Khuloe law as he saw it to be in contradiction of the sharia law. He also said that "women would destroy the family if divorce was in their hands".

In June 2009 he called for the resignation of Omar Rimawi, President of Al-Balqa` Applied University, for his involvement in financial and administrative corruption. Shortly thereafter Mahmud's nephew Atef al-Kharabsha was appointed as advisor to Rimawi.

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