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Close to her

She is a human rights activist, a professor of media studies, and the first female journalist in Yemen. She is Dr. Raufa Hassan, who is at the center of all women’s issues in the country.

Hassan’s life demonstrates a lifelong devotion to women’s issues, on both theoretical and practical levels. Much of her work has been concerned with creating equality between the genders in Yemen especially when it comes to her devotion to women issues. This importance comes from her wide interest and concern-theoretically and practically- with civil society organizations where a woman gets all her rights enabling her participate effectively in social activities propping its basics based on equal partnership in the life equation on pairs and individuals.

She finished her secondary school and traveled to Cairo, where she got her bachelor degree in media from the Journalism Department of Cairo University. She then went to the United States of America and got a master’s degree in 1984.
In 1991, she earned a PhD in communications from Paris and returned to Yemen to put her knowledge in use. In 1996, she founded the first Center of Women’s Studies in Yemen at the University of Sana’a, after she was initially expelled for her work on gender issues. Regarding the reason why she was expelled from Sana’a University, he said that she was the victim of ideological conflict. “She came with the notion of gender in a time when people doesn’t know what is it.” said Nabil al-Sofi, chief editor of newsyemen website and one of her former students.
She later founded her own Independent research and philanthropic center, called the Cultural Development Planning Foundation (CDPF). Her foundation is still active and she carries on work in a lot of projects involving culture, women’s issues, national unity, and others.

She is also working on good governance, her foundation engaged in partnership with the American University in Cairo to do social researches about Yemen, Immigration project and the last one is creating women movement in Yemen united with unified agenda.

-By Zaid Al-Alaya

MWF condemns demolishing freedom of expression

Media Women Forum (MWF) held a demonstration in front of the Attorney General’s office in Sana’a to demonstrate against demolishing the freedom of expression after journalist, Mo’ath al-Ashhbi and many others were sentenced to jail.

Mo’ath al-Ashhabi was sentenced to jail last January for one year after writing an article in a cultural newspaper. Members of Parliament thought the article was disrespectful to Islam.

This demonstration occurred after MWF held a supporting conference last week, where many Yemeni journalists showed up to call for freeing al-Ashhabi..

At the conference, imprisoned journalist al-Ashhabi’s brother, Aqeel al-Ashhabi and imprisoned journalist’s lawyer, Abdul-Aziz al-Bagdadi attended. “My brother is in jail simply because he took a pen and expressed his opinion. While we call our country a democratic one, does one expressing his opinion considered a crime? This sentence is unfair and it is a violation against our right for freedom of expression,” said Aqeel.

Al-Bagdadi said that the illegally-based sentence of al-Ashhabi is a dangerous matter. “This is a kind of terrorism for intellectuals in our country that only exist in Yemen. The reasons the judge took into consideration are nothing related to court and judgment system,” said Abdel-Aziz.

“Mo’ath was taken to prison after he attended the first trial at an initial court and that’s unjustified and out of the laws’ systems. His sentence is unjust and against the regulation 47th of Yemen’s constitution, “ he added.

“Mo’ath was severely victimized just because he doesn’t belong to a party or a powerful direct side. Our support for him, and the many cases like his, come from a strong belief for freedom of speech and expression,” stated Fakhria Ali, the Executive Director of the Media Women’s Forum.

Deceased childbride had forceful defloration

There have been new details from the Sisters Arab Forum for Human Rights (SAF) in Yemen about the child bride, Elahm Shoa’ai who was only 13 when she died of internal bleeding. SAF maintains that after Elham’s wedding night, her husband and brother took her to al-Huda clinic where the husband asked the attending doctor to open Elham’s hymen, which he was unable to do. . The late Elham refused.

Then, her husband took Elham home and forcefully put his fingers into her vulva and removed her hymen. That led to a severe injury and hemorrhage and great damage to her vagina. When Elham fainted, her husband took her the next day to a hospital where he was told not to have sex with her at all. However, the husband took her from the hospital to an Islamic sheikh in order to recite verses from the holy Qur’an, claiming that the late Elham was possessed. All this time, Elham was severely bleeding.

SAF also maintains that claims that Elham was 18 years old when she passed away are false. Sources at the village where Elham lived told SAF that Elham was 13 or 14 years old where she was married. Her eldest brother is only one year older. In many rural, poor and illieterate communities, marriage age is not taken seriously, nor is it officially recorded. Elham represents many other similar cases.

Youth donates for the Yemeni center for Autism

Each year, the world celebrates the 2nd of April as World Autism Awareness Day pledged by the United Nations (UN). It’s an internationally celebrated day and the whole month is dedicated to increasing awareness and spreading more knowledge and light into disorder that is normally kept in the dark. There is little said about Autism in Yemen, which makes it even harder to put it at the center of discussion; however, there are serious efforts that have been made by committed groups who want to enlighten the whole world about this disorder.

The Yemeni Center for Autism held a charity festival, intended to raise donations for its autistic kids and increase awareness about Autism in Yemen at Saba University, last week. There were donations from college students and guests along with brief lectures on the subject matter. At the end of the festival, organizers announced an upcoming seminar on Autism to establish a series of campaigns throughout Yemen’s providences. This festival is the third that the center has conducted.

“There is little known about Autism in the whole world, not only in Yemen. It used to be defined as a mental disability but now it’s been looked at differently. There has been great attention to Autism as a neurological disorder that has minimal medical knowledge," said Souad al-Eryani , the center's founder.

Yemen Autism Organization was founded in 2005 and its founder, al-Eryani, herself has an autistic girl. "This kind of campaigns facilitates increasing awareness on this matter. We see lots of interactions from parents who come to us, seeking knowledge and help. Parents are more able to diagnose their autistic kids when they are only 18 months old due to their increased awareness. We used to have kids coming to the center at an older age but now parents bring their sons and daughters at a very young age. Things are getting better," added she.



The center hopes to extend its work, capacity and reaching but that’s not possible unless donations and partnerships from other bigger local and international institutions be in hand working with the center. "We seek to be the best center and each year we receive more and more autistic kids so it's a challenge to keep up on being the best while we have this increasing number of autistic kids, " said she.

However, the biggest challenge is to increase awareness on a public level. On the other side, the center aims to have an active network that promotes awareness on this matter throughout all places in Yemen. "Hopefully our center becomes a center point where others would begin. There has been already established in the Arab world a Network for Autism to provide rehabilitation for autistic children and conduct raising awareness campaigns and programs for diagnosing and early intervention throughout the Arab world and I'm one its founder. I did many partnerships with many sides locally and internationally. We have been working hand in hand with them to provide best services for many autistic children and I really hope to provide best services for autistic children in Yemen as well," added al-Eryani.

At this moment, the center seeks more volunteers to join and contribute as socially active individuals who will be great assistance for the center's success.


Mr. Ahmed Ali al-Najar, Chairman Board of Trustees of Saba University, expressed his delight to have the event at Saba University. "Our university has always been engaged in such events. We encourage charity work and events that increase awareness on unspoken disorders like Autism. This represents one of our social activities in raising awareness to the public on unspoken disorders," al-Najar said.

Dr. Mohammed Yehya al-Mahbeshi, Assistant Professor, thinks humanitarian work is crucial in uplifting veils on the Autism disorder that is rarely spoken about. "When we knew about the motive behind this event and how it was humanitarianly intended, we immediately welcomed cooperating with them. Charity work has been always in Saba University's agenda. We hope that the center gets its goals achieved and we always would like to participate with the center or any other humanitarian centers."

Autism: Autism is not a disease, but a developmental disorder of brain function. Do you think your child might have Autism? Here are a couple of symptoms to help detect if a child could be affected by Autism:
• Avoid eye contact
• Not liking cuddles
• Inability to make friends
• Plays alone
• Inability to sustain conversation
• Unusual language
• Overly focused attention on specific objects
• No two-word phrases by 24 months