ADRIANA ABDENUR AND NATHALIA QUINTILIANO TELL US ABOUT YEMENI WOMEN’S STRUGGLE FOR EQUAL RIGHTS AND PARTICIPATION IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE IN A CONTEXT OF DISCRIMINATION, POVERTY, AND ARMED CONFLICTS  

Nathalia Quintiliano Ungierowicz e Adriana Erthal Abdenur

1- Women in the Conflict in Yemen

In May 2016, a delegation from Yemen travelled to Kuwait hoping to make space for women in the UN-supported peace negotiations. At first, the image of the seven women trying to influence the peace process seemed to run against a common narrative in the West according to which political actors in the Middle East are almost exclusively male. However, far from being a novelty, the delegation’s hard work can be seen as part of a long, albeit bumpy, historic series of attempts to expand women’s political participation in what is now one of the poorest countries in the region.

In effect, the conflict in Yemen’s conflict has been closing doors that had been partially open for women (and by women) before the war broke out. In 2015, what started as a wave of peaceful demonstrations turned into a devastating conflict that, by early 2017, had already left over three million people displaced and almost 10,000 dead. Currently, an estimated 18,8 million Yemeni citizens require emergency assistance in order to meet their most basic needs. Airstrikes and internal rifts form the backdrop to this humanitarian catastrophe, which occupies very little space in the international news. Among the chaos and insecurity of war, Yemeni women—who had already done more than their fair share to transform Yemen during pre-war times—suffer disproportionately, not only due to the war itself, but also as a result of setbacks to their hard-fought political participation.

Even before the current conflict broke out, Yemeni women were already fighting against discriminatory laws and rigorous social norms that sought to ostracize them from the political sphere. According to the World Economic Forum, Yemen has been the worst country to be born in as a woman for the last decade, ranking even lower on gender equality than neighboring Saudi Arabia. In 2008, the first Yemeni woman to become a lawyer won an unprecedented case for a girl who bravely went to the courts to file for divorce from her husband, alleging that he had repeatedly raped her. The victim was only 10 when the divorce was granted. This case became central in the fight against child marriage in Yemen. However, the Yemeni government had grown unsatisfied with the negative publicity associated with this narrative, and it confiscated her passport so as to prevent her from speaking out publicly.

The situation of Yemeni women, however, hasn’t always been like this. In some regions of the country, including certain tribal areas, women are traditionally part of conflict mediation and resolution. For decades, feminist movements have also been trying to improve women’s situation both in the capital and the rural areas. However, the country’s instability, combined with the influence of other, conflicting traditional norms, have frequently led to setbacks in gender equality. Poverty and illiteracy have also played a major part, since women lack information about the few legal rights to which they are entitled.

Armed conflict has also influenced gender inequality in Yemen for over half a century. Battles for power have been a constant in the country since the 1960s, when the revolutionary forces of what was previously known as North Yemen attempted to overthrow King Muhammad al-Badr. The republican party of Abdulah Al-Salal aimed to end the weak monarchy that had reigned over the country since the end of the Ottoman Empire in 1918. The party also had help from the USSR and mainly from Egypt, which sent over 70,000 troops to Yemen. The monarchy received international help too, primarily from the Saudi Arabia but also from the USA, UK, Jordan, and even Iran and Israel, marking the only time that these countries have been on the same side during a conflict.

The civil war ended in 1967, when Egypt agreed to withdraw troops in exchange for military support in the Six Day War against Israel. Yemen’s limited participation in its own peace negotiations highlights how state institutions were routinely overshadowed by the interests of other states in the region, ensuring Yemen’s role as a pawn in the economic and geopolitical chess game played by the great powers. External interference has posed severe challenges to Yemen’s project to advance peacebuilding initiatives; without self-evaluation of its internal schisms and contradictions, peace initiatives fail to be properly implemented, creating further discontent among Yemeni women.

After eight years of war and over 200,000 deaths, the Arab Yemen Republic (North Yemen) was established and founded on Islamic and tribal traditions. At the same time, the insurgency movement in South Yemen expelled the British Crown, ending more than a century of occupation, and founded the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen, the first socialist country in the Middle East. In opposition to its neighbor in the North, South Yemen followed more progressive traditions and included governance measures to ensure women’s emancipation and gender equality. Article 36 of the South Yemeni Constitution, for example, stipulated that “the state must grant equal rights to men and women in every area of the social, economical and political sphere, and should progressively provide the means to achieve this equality.” Four years later, South Yemen’s government released the “Family Code,” which encouraged women’s participation in politics, and it invited them to run in the 1977 elections.

The code also encouraged Yemeni women to participate in the economy. The General Union of Yemeni Women (GUYW) was the first women-led movement to promote the new government’s measures. Under the slogan “Yemeni women should fight against ignorance and for the love of labor,” the GUYW offered technical training, capacity building, and courses in politics, literature, and art. However, political instability still dominated the region. The radical tribal forces from the North fought both radical and moderate socialists from the South. Moreover, there were internal rifts on both sides. These multiple cleaves help to explain why periodic armed conflicts took place even after the unification of North and South, in 1990.

Unification was met with enthusiasm by the women’s emancipation movements, but the process proved much more difficult than it first appeared. Ali Abdulah Saleh, Yemen’s leader since 1978, kept his position after the 1991 referendum. The stronger influence of the North inside the new parliament made it easier for a new code (1992) that restricted women’s rights with regards to marriage, divorce, custody, and inheritance. Tensions mounted between the new government and the separatists of the south, and in 1994 the violence escalated so quickly that, less than four years after reunification, Yemen was at civil war again.

Yemen’s development stagnated after the end of the 1994 conflict. The country has high levels of illiteracy, child mortality, food insecurity, unemployment, gender inequality, and poverty. The North’s victory granted Saleh freedom from his alliances with the conservative movements, yet policies related to gender were inconsistent at best. A constitutional amendment in 1994 linked the role of women to Sharia law by declaring that “women are sisters of men and have their rights and duties granted by Sharia law and common law.” That same year, another amendment punished those who committed honor crimes—murders committed with the intent of saving the honor of that family following acts or behaviors that could be considered as immoral—with one year in prison.

After strong calls from Yemeni civil society, Saleh’s regime declared the creation of the Women’s National League, in 1996. The league became responsible for development and public policy related to women, but its autonomy was questioned because it required that women report to the prime minister on a regular basis.

Sadly, the political situation continued to deteriorate, including because of the growing prominence of extremist groups. Yemeni jihadists who had returned from fighting Soviet forces in Afghanistan intensified their actions in Yemen.  In 1992, members of al-Qaeda bombed hostels in Aden with the goal of killing American troops who were en route to Somalia; the US did not respond militarily because no Americans died in the attacks. However, in 2001, in response to the attack against the USS Cole in the port of Aden, Yemen launched the first of many operations against Al-Qaeda, which remains in active in the country to this day. The government also began receiving considerable US financial aid and military assistance in the name of combating terrorism.

Between 2004 and 2009, six wars against the Houthis, a traditional and conservative Shia Zaidi group from the north, left the regime even more fragile. More than 250,000 people were displaced, and infrastructure was destroyed. Arbitrary arrests and imprisonment, as well as numerous human rights violations, were documented despite the country’s strict political censorship regulations. The scarcity of natural resources also posed challenges to the country’s economic development; although gas and oil represented 75% of the government’s income and 90% of all exports, production had declined by 2009. The lack of water in the region and natural resource mismanagement also contributed to the aggravation of the country’s economic and political crisis.

In early 2011, the Arab Spring began to spread across the Middle East and North Africa and eventually reached Yemen. The protests against the economic crisis and calls for the end of corruption rapidly transformed into calls for democratic reform in Yemen and for the fall of Ali Abdulah Saleh’s regime.

At the same time, there was another revolution at play: the return of female participation in the Yemeni political sphere. During the Arab Spring, Yemeni women from all over the country in unprecedented numbers not only participated in protests, but also led them. The use of social media helped to mobilize and organize demonstrations, while online female activism provided the revolution with a way of reaching a wider and more diversified audience.

However, on 14 April 2011, President Saleh declared that Islam does not allow women and men to mix in public places, adding that all women “should all return to their houses.” The following day, something completely unexpected occurred: thousands of women took to the streets in order to demand the right to participate in the country’s public life. Decades of conflicts and conservative traditions may have stymied the achievements of the past, but it was clear that a younger generation of Yemeni women wanted to participate, influence, and lead the political process. Many demonstrators were harassed, abused, arrested, and threatened for their participation. While for some this was simply a continuation of a lifetime of activism, for the vast majority it was their first experience in the public fight for women’s rights.  

After months of protests and negotiations, Saleh officially resigned. His successor, Abdullah Mansur Hadi, won the election in which he was the only candidate. In 2013, the National Dialogue Conference, an international effort supported by the UN, began trying to reach a peaceful transition. During the process, women had a strong role in developing Yemen’s new constitution, working to ensure that gender equality was back on the official government agenda. In another surprising turn of events, female activists were able to pass a law that made child marriage illegal.

However, the promise of the revolutionary movement was never realized. Proposals for the new constitution were not approved by pro-Saleh forces or by the Houthis who, in 2014, managed to take over the capital Sanaa, forcing the transitional goverment’s leader to escape to Saudi Arabia. The conflict reached epic proportions, and the international community was unable to fill the power vacuum left by Saleh.

In 2015, the so-called Islamic State began attacking Yemen, and Al-Qaeda’s forces conquered new territories. Saudi Arabia, as an ally to the West, launched Operation Decisive Storm, in order to attack the Houthis and ensure the return of President Hadi. The subsequent naval and economic blockade have made it even harder for the population to access food, medicine, and education. According to an OXFAM report, there has been a concurrent rise in domestic violence and child marriage, the latter being the only way many families believe their daughters may have a future. Since 2014, women have also been prevented from participating in peace talks.