What a Houthi-controlled Yemen means for women
Female activists in Yemen say that their situation under the Houthis’ control of the country is much worse than before the 2011 protest, when women were able to achieve significant gains.
Houthis published a circular in January 2015, pertaining to women in the city of Amran, banning them from going out following the Maghrib prayer, prohibiting them from bringing male bands or singers to their gatherings or parties, banning the use of cameras at women's gatherings and parties, including mobile phones with cameras. These new rules are being implemented in Amran, and the people there have been adhering to these rules to avoid punishment.
The circular stirred controversy in Yemeni society, especially among women who feel that the next phase will bring in many unpleasant surprises regarding hard-won gains they had achieved. Some women have concerns about Houthis since they are so dogmatic when it comes to women’s rights.
Women in Yemen suffer from discriminatory laws. The country has the largest educational gap between men and women: the illiteracy rate among men is 30%, and 67% among women. But the popular movement that erupted in February 2011 witnessed a heavy participation of women, drawing attention to women’s issues, and following the revolution, the National Dialogue Conference in March 2013 brought about new legislation, some of it related to the quota system and underage marriage. These were considered a victory for women.
Houthis are not the only political grouping in Yemen to target women. Yemeni women used to work on the land alongside men in rural areas. But when Ali Abdullah Saleh took power in 1978, the state policy started to tighten the noose around women’s freedoms and rights, because of the political alliance between Saleh and the Muslim political movements to confront communists in the south. This reflected on the education curriculum and women started covering their faces, which hides their identities and decreases their role in the public sphere. Some political parties used women's rights as a card to show off their modernity, but they didn’t adopt women’s issues seriously, as their actions did not exceed mere media propaganda. On the other hand, religious political parties claimed that women's rights are something alien to our society and an attempt to Westernize society. But they showed a hypocrisy of sorts during elections, encouraging women to vote while not putting forth female candidates.
