Jordan’s sanitation workers switch uniform color to avoid ISIS orange

Visitors to the city of Amman's website were able to vote on the new uniform color for their city sanitation workers.

If you know the bright orange jumpsuit from anywhere, it's probably because you've seen them in images or videos produced by ISIS, the terrorist group that forces its hostages to wear them during brutal executions.

Or, if you're from Amman, Jordan, you see it worn every day by sanitation workers. But not for long.

Jawad Safi al-Kasasbeh is the brother of 1st Lt. Moaz al-Kasasbeh, the Jordanian fighter pilot who was murdered by ISIS in January — while wearing one of the orange jumpsuits. Still mourning the horrific death of this younger brother, Kasasbeh created a campaign to change the sanitation uniforms to a different color.

Orange_Jumpsuits
A group of sanitation workers in Amman, Jordan wearing their traditional orange jumpsuit uniform.Courtesy of saltosnews.net

“It’s the right of our children not to see this color in the streets,” Kasasbeh told the New York Times. “Our workers and our people deserve not to have to see this color, which reminds them of the evil actions of [the] Islamic State.”

The campaign took off, prompting a city committee to create an online voting system on which color the city should adopt for the 4,600 sanitation workers' uniforms.

The votes were tallied and, starting on March 21 — the day Jordan celebrates Mother's Day — Amman's sanitation crews will don turquoise uniforms. Kasasbeh was pleased by the choices, telling the Times the new uniforms are “beautiful and signifies life and energy, everything that is the opposite of [ISIS.]”

Will you support The World today?

The story you just read is available for free because thousands of listeners and readers like you generously support our nonprofit newsroom. Every day, reporters and producers at The World are hard at work bringing you human-centered news from across the globe. But we can’t do it without you: We need your support to ensure we can continue this work for another year.

Make a gift today, and you’ll get us one step closer to our goal of raising $25,000 by June 14. We need your help now more than ever!