Women in Yemen

In the Yemeni context, amid the multiple crises plaguing Yemen, and the economic, political, and social challenges brought about by various political forces, and in the midst of the peace negotiations called for by the United Nations Special Envoy and supported by international, regional, and local efforts, women are prominently featured as a superficial tool by various political forces in Yemen. This is a clear example of the triumph of blatant marginalization policies, in addition to the absence of genuine political will to empower women to play an active role in the peace process or even to include women's issues and priorities in peace discussions. Despite the global increase in attention to women's issues, it remains more of a superficial and propagandistic concern rather than a genuine and impactful interest, given the ongoing and persistent neglect of the real issues and priorities that affect the lives of women in Yemen.

The Struggle of Yemeni Women Before 2014: Legal Reform in the Face of Religious Differences

Looking back to the period before the recent conflict in Yemen, women fought for many years against various previous regimes to achieve political empowerment, secure their rights, and reclaim what had been taken from them. One of the most notable examples of this struggle is the ongoing fight to restore a deleted article from the old Yemeni Constitution—Article 27 of the 1991 Constitution—which stated: "All citizens are equal before the law, and equal in public rights and duties, with no discrimination among them based on gender, color, origin, language, profession, social status, or creed." This article was replaced in the old Yemeni Constitution by Article 41 of the 1994 Constitution, which states: "Women are the sisters of men, and they have rights and duties as guaranteed and mandated by Sharia and as stipulated by law." This change represented a significant setback for women, as the replaced text subjected women's rights to religious and sectarian framing in determining their rights, duties, and social status in relation to men. Although the phrase "Women are the sisters of men" is extracted from a Hadith (a saying of the Prophet), which the legislator may have clung to, it is taken out of context. This Hadith was originally a response to a question concerning ritual purification, yet the Yemeni legislator chose to apply it in the context of civil rights and duties!

In other legal texts, the legislator chose to use religion as a pretext for defining women's rights and duties. For example, Article 42 of the Penal Code sets the blood money (diya) for a woman at half that of a man. Despite the ongoing religious debate among various Islamic scholars regarding the comparison of diya for women and men, the Yemeni legislator consistently opts for the most unjust interpretation concerning women's rights! This pattern was also evident in the amendment of Article 15 of the old law, which originally prohibited the marriage of a girl under the age of 15. This was later amended to remove any age limit for marriage, using the same common pretext in women's issues—that Islamic Sharia does not specify a minimum age for marriage! Although there were subsequent attempts to set a legal age for marriage, including the Yemeni Parliament's approval of a law in 2009 that set the minimum marriage age at 17, political pressures exerted by the Islah Party (Muslim Brotherhood) in Yemen and the General People's Congress Party, along with the attacks on the Center for Applied Research and Women's Studies at Sana'a University and Yemeni academic Raufa Hassan, ultimately led to President Ali Abdullah Saleh's refusal to ratify the law. This confirms that political parties in Yemen use women's issues as a distraction for the public, employing religious and sectarian rhetoric in the political struggle between various parties and political forces.

While women's issues have sparked public debate, particularly regarding the legal age of marriage and the comparison of diya (blood money) allocated to women versus men, there has been an alarming silence from the Yemeni legislator and political parties on other, more critical issues that the Yemeni law fails to address in its legal texts. In some instances, the law even mandates provisions that Islamic Sharia itself does not stipulate, despite Sharia often being used as an excuse in matters concerning women. For instance, Yemeni law remains silent on criminalizing incest, often categorizing it as a crime of 'adultery.' As a result, instead of being recognized as a victim of rape by a close relative, the woman is condemned for committing the crime of adultery!

Article 232 of the Yemeni Penal Code stipulates punishments for so-called "honor crimes," which absolve a Yemeni man of the penalty for killing his wife, a female relative, or his sisters if they are caught in the act of adultery. This provision is not stipulated by Islamic Sharia, which prescribes the practice of 'lian' (mutual cursing) between spouses in cases where a husband accuses his wife of adultery. This is one of the many examples illustrating the shortcomings of Yemeni law in safeguarding women's rights. In addition to other legal texts that represent a significant gap between what the law should protect and what constitutes a crime against women in the form of legal provisions, this gap persists despite Yemen's ratification of the CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women), which requires the elimination of discrimination against women.

Political Struggle: Women in Political Negotiations—Superficial Presence and Limited Influence

The Arab Spring revolutions placed Yemeni women in an unprecedented position. In 2011, the Gulf Initiative included the participation of women in the National Dialogue and the peace process. The Technical Committee for the National Dialogue set the number of participants at 565, ensuring that 30% were women according to a quota system. Despite this minor breakthrough against the dominant male political will in Yemen to increase the representation of women in peace negotiations, decision-making, and the Yemeni Parliament, the impact remained limited. Since women’s early participation in the first parliamentary elections in 1993, the number of female candidates from various parties did not exceed 42, with only two winning seats. Women’s presence as candidates and members further declined in the last parliamentary elections in 2003, where only one woman won out of 11 candidates. The situation was no different in the 2001 local elections, where only 18 out of 35 female candidates won. Thus, the Gulf Initiative was seen as a beacon of hope for Yemeni women, potentially imposing external pressure to overcome the national political will and strengthen women's roles in peace processes and Yemen's transitional phase. This could have marked a significant and unprecedented shift in women's status within Yemen's political sphere.

Despite these efforts, "during the February 2014 negotiations, all participating parties and entities—except for the Minister of National Dialogue Outcomes—refused to accept the participation and representation of the women's component in the National Dialogue Conference (along with the youth and civil society components). After pressure from various entities and with the assistance of the UN envoy, Jamal Benomar, two women were accepted as observers—one from the North and one from the South—but not as participants representing the women’s component. The main argument presented was that the independent women were not truly independent, but rather affiliated with certain political entities, which would affect the balance."

These arguments prove that Yemeni women are being used as symbols without substance, highlighting the stark contradiction between rhetoric and reality. They confirm that women's issues and participation are the one area where all parties and political forces in Yemen agree to oppose, even amidst sectarian mobilization and the absence of social justice. This underscores the superficial use of women in peace negotiations as mere symbols without any real influence or role in decision-making. Nevertheless, the presence of women in the negotiation room and their struggle to secure a seat at the decision-making table was a genuine and significant step for women’s role in politics. It demonstrated that women were poised to strive for more progress on various fronts. It was not anticipated that the conflict would cause a regression and lead to the further marginalization of other issues affecting women after the conflict.

Current General Context: The Conflict and Its Impact on Yemeni Women

Since the onset of the conflict in Yemen in 2014, Yemeni women have faced severe escalations affecting their rights and daily lives, imposed by various parties to the conflict and by Yemeni society itself. As the conflict has impacted the economic, social, and political landscape, women have been scapegoated by both the conflicting parties and society, blamed for the hardships faced by the community today. With the Ansar Allah (Houthi) group taking control of the capital, Sana'a, they imposed illegal restrictions on women's freedoms and daily practices. Such restrictions include banning travel without a male guardian (mahram), closing women’s cafes and sports centers, obstructing access to reproductive health services, attempting to restrict women's dress, prohibiting women from working, enforcing gender segregation in public universities, banning mixed-gender public spaces, prohibiting mixed-gender graduation parties, as well as restricting women's freedom of movement by questioning their guardianship at checkpoints, and banning travel through areas controlled by the internationally recognized government or the Southern Transitional Council forces.

Despite the fact that the role of Yemeni women has been economically enhanced after the conflict—where rural Yemeni women once made up 80% of the agricultural workforce, the conflict has increased women's participation in the urban workforce due to economic crises, salary cuts, and men being drawn to the frontlines. Many women have become the primary breadwinners for their families, entering fields of work where they had never been before—this has not translated into real power for women in public life as an influential and important workforce. It has not allowed women to occupy decision-making positions. Instead, women’s presence has expanded in basic jobs that may or may not be sufficient to provide for their livelihoods. We now see women working as taxi drivers, phone repair shop owners, street vendors, and more. Their presence has also increased in civil society and its institutions, as well as in international and local organizations, yet they have not succeeded in strengthening their presence in positions of power. On the contrary, the parties to the conflict have actively excluded them from positions of power and prestigious government roles. For instance, in 2024, the Ansar Allah (Houthi) group banned female students from enrolling in the Judicial Institute.

To mislead public opinion regarding women's issues, various parties to the conflict have deliberately adopted different policies when it comes to women. For instance, the Ansar Allah (Houthi) group continues to use religion, customs, and traditions as a pretext for their actions and violations against women, or to justify their illegal actions in most societal issues under the guise of "soft war."

The internationally recognized government, on the other hand, previously adopted a policy that it hoped would receive praise. This policy involved stopping some of its illegal actions under unfounded directives. For instance, the Passport and Immigration Authority used to prevent Yemeni women from obtaining passports without a male guardian (mahram), which was contrary to the law that did not stipulate such a condition for passport issuance. After a feminist opposition campaign in Aden against this restriction, the Ministry of Interior of the internationally recognized government issued a directive in March 2022 to grant passports to Yemeni women without any additional requirements not stipulated by law, according to Article 6 of Law No. 7 of 1990 regarding passports, and Article 3 of the Republican Decision of 1994 regarding the executive regulations for passport documents. This directive came 32 years after the enactment of a law that did not stipulate the requirement of a mahram. This situation warranted legal accountability for the Passport and Immigration Authority for practicing this behavior for 32 years, rather than merely issuing a directive that the law itself guarantees. The directive cannot be more authoritative and binding than the law!

With the frequent incidents faced by women on a daily basis, it is regrettable that the conflict has weakened the customs and traditions that once protected women and their lives. This erosion of societal customs and traditions has led to an increase in the harassment, violence, and even defamation faced by many women. The recent defamation campaign against several Yemeni girls, following the spread of a video showing them in their private car with two men from their family enjoying singing, illustrates the extent of the fragility that has affected Yemeni societal customs and traditions. The girls were subjected to a horrific defamation campaign, incitement, and abuse of their morals, which has not ceased even after confirming their familial relationship with those who were with them. Instead, the campaign continued with insults and accusations of "debauchery" and a lack of men's honor for their singing in their presence. Yemeni customs and traditions once afforded Yemeni women a special and sacred status, protecting them from insults and any threats to their honor and chastity. Today, however, we witness actions aimed solely at undermining their honor, dignity, and private lives, with continuous defamation in every case where women are at the center.

The strange contradiction lies in the fact that these customs and traditions become paralyzed in cases where women are victims, especially when the perpetrator is a man or even an authority. Yemeni customs and traditions become paralyzed when Yemeni female students are assaulted in their universities without justification! They become paralyzed when faced with daily harassment practices in Yemeni streets! And they become paralyzed in the face of an authority that places women in the circle of moral accusation solely because they are women!

It is worth noting that hate speech against women has seen unprecedented escalation since the beginning of the conflict in Yemen. This has been carried out through mosque sermons and religious speeches, defamation on social media platforms, and even through writing inciting phrases on public street walls. The repeated use of religious rhetoric to impose further restrictions on women's freedoms or to incite against them has been a common practice.

In another tragedy exacerbated by the current conflict, which does not stem from the practices of the conflict parties but from violations within the family, a field study conducted by Mwatana for Human Rights on sexual violence against women during the war (2014-2021) revealed that "during the conflict period, violence against women within their families increased, and patterns of domestic violence that caused severe harm to women became more widespread. The rate of domestic violence rose due to economic, political, and social changes. Tracking the life trajectories of the cases studied, the research showed that women are increasingly subjected to violence and physical assault within the family, accompanied by a lack of institutional support from the police and judicial authorities." The study described domestic violence as characterized by "deafening silence," but it appears that this silence is related not only to domestic violence but also to all issues affecting women.

The conflict has led to a historic setback for women's issues and their struggle for rights in Yemen. Instead of fighting for new rights, eliminating discrimination, establishing equality, and enhancing legal protection, Yemeni women today are struggling to uphold rights already guaranteed by law but undermined by the parties to the conflict. Today, they are clinging to a legal framework that has often been unjust to them, yet now appears to offer more protection than the practices of the warring parties and a society that has found in women's issues an outlet for the anger and pressures caused by the war. Yemeni women are struggling to return to the life they had before the conflict.

Strategies for Advancing Women’s Issues and Priorities

In the current situation, with the impossibility of enacting legislative reforms due to the absence of authorities legally empowered to issue new laws or amend existing ones, and with Yemen in a transitional phase where the real issues and priorities of women continue to be sidelined under the pretext of "we are at war, it’s not the time for women," and with the lack of genuine political will to empower women, the strategy to advance women's issues lies in societal reforms. These reforms could serve as a means of pressure and advocacy for achieving future legal and legislative reforms, given that most legislative and legal imbalances were the result of societal and political imbalances that contributed to the enactment or repeal of certain provisions. Societal reforms cannot be achieved without pressure from the primary stakeholder and the most concerned party—Yemeni women.

The erosion of societal customs and traditions that once safeguarded women, largely driven by the calculated strategies of conflict parties to marginalize women's issues, underscores that Yemeni customs and traditions are merely the byproducts of recent changes—rooted in political agendas and societal fragility—rather than the genuine teachings of religion. These religious teachings have often been misappropriated as a convenient excuse for society's stance on women's issues. Consequently, real societal change must begin within civil society and, most importantly, through the agency of Yemeni women themselves. While the community's response to women's issues has been described as "a deafening silence," the voice of women in asserting and reclaiming their rights from society must be strong and resonant, echoing far and wide.