Yemeni women during the era of Iran's arm... restrictions, siege, and deprivation of the most basic rights
English - Thursday 09 March 2023 الساعة 03:48 pm
Sana'a, NewsYemen, exclusive:
While the world's women celebrate International Women's Day, which falls on March 8 of each year, Yemeni women live in areas controlled by the terrorist Houthi militia, Iran's arm, under a suffocating siege and restrictions that deprived them of their most basic rights and brought them back to the era of the defunct Imamate.
In addition to the violations committed by the militias against women and the exploitation of the living conditions of some of them to attract terrorist acts, recruit them and use them in acts of hostilities, espionage, raids and other forms of underestimating Yemeni women and using them in missions that are not appropriate for their status. Yemeni women in the north have lost, in a few years, the political, social and economic gains they achieved during their struggle since liberation from the imama until the coup of the Houthi militias, which see in women nothing but a militia element or deprived of rights, even those endorsed by the teachings of the true Islamic religion.
And after women occupied the highest ranks during the era of the Republic and became ministers, attorneys, directors, judges, lawyers, economists and businesswomen, today they are fighting again to regain their most basic rights represented in living decently away from guardianship and interference in their privacy and preventing them from even having a cup of tea in one of the cafes designated for families.
During the past few years, the Houthi militia imposed a series of restrictions and approved measures that represented a suffocating siege on women in the areas under their control. The most prominent of these restrictions is preventing women from traveling and moving without a "mahram" and tightening procedures on Sana'a's land and air ports to implement this measure.
Yemeni activist and journalist Fatima Al-Aghbari confirms, in a post on her Facebook, this violation of women's rights, as she said: "International Women's Day, March 8, comes, and Yemeni women in the north of the country are deprived of the right of movement guaranteed to them by the Yemeni constitution."
Among the restrictions imposed by the militias is also the prevention of women from going to cafes and restaurants and the closure of women's clubs, as well as the creation of entities such as: Zainabiyat, the University Student Forum, and the Graduate Club under the pretext of "preventing mixing."
The militias did not stop at this point, but rather went beyond that to launch a campaign in 2019 targeting shops selling and sewing women's abayas to confiscate the "waist tie" before the campaign expanded this year and placed restrictions on the colors of abayas and the way they are sewn, and high-level meetings were held to discuss and approve this matter.
These violations have multiplied the state of popular resentment in Sana'a, which is under the control of the Houthi militia, especially in light of the lack of services and the continued refusal to pay the salaries of state employees.
In general, Yemeni women are still waiting for a divine miracle or a broad popular awakening to restore their rights, dignity, and deserved gains from decades of struggle during the Republic.
