Yemeni women continue to fight for rights

President Hadi Takes a Nap at the Arab League Summit

President Hadi taking a little nap. 

With every public speech president Hadi appears with, it amazes me that Yemen has a president other than Ali Abdullah Saleh. I'm 28 years old and I still struggle with the fact that Yemen's long time -3 decades- dictator is no longer on power. I still can't believe that I lived till the day to see another president other than Saleh! Call me dreamy, tell me that Saleh is still holds a huge influence in the country, tell me that democracy in Yemen is still zero,,tell me whatever.. but I must admit that this is a huge step for Yemen.

On Mothers' Day, a Tribute to Mothers in Yemen

SEVEN women die EVERY day from pregnancy and childbirth in Yemen. Over 90% of these deaths are preventable, if a political decision is made to address the causes (hopefully with the help of the current National Dialogue Conference) like combating child marriages and improving healthcare system in rural areas specially, etc.

Yemen's National Dialogue Conference Kicks Off

Yemen's highly anticipated conference, the National Dialogue Conference (NDC) commenced today amidst a great deal of resentment from a great number of people who hopped the day would be dedicated to commemorate the 2nd anniversary of the Friday of Dignity Massacre. Moreover, huge rallies took place in south part of Yemen to emphasize on the demand of independence. Nonetheless, the NDC took place no matter what.

In the meantime, change square was a bloodbath by Ali Muhsen's soldiers

*Pictures by Mohammed al-Emad and Abdullah Karaman

Documentary on Yemen's Sa'adah District

Yemeni filmmaker, Ammar Basha presents to us his latest heartbreaking short documentary on the agony of people in Sa'adah in Yemen. This documentary is titled, "4th Day in the Heart of the Revolution" that's the latest edition from Thawrat Shabab.

*English Subtitle

Dear Mr. President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi

Martyrs of Friday of Dignity - 18, March 2011.

Why? Why the 18th of March was the date for the National Dialogue conference to commence? Why was it so of all dates? Why it weren’t, say, on the 19th, 20th? Did you forget what took place on this day, 2011 and the anniversary we must commemorate? Do you remember? We do.

It was an ordinary Friday until the tragedy struck us all. It was Friday of dignity where protesters were deceived by the silence of the security guards who were there and did nothing but watched; to allow one of Yemen’s deadliest massacres to occur. The massacre’s location was change square, at the heart of Sana’a. It was destined to become a bloodbath for peaceful protesters who were arbitrarily being shot down with bullets in the head one after another. Alas, how absolutely independently driven were those killed protesters to realize the uprising! On that very day, a group of veiled armed thugs and snipers waited till the end of the Friday prayers - at least they were endowed with respect for praying- then opened fire at protesters from behind killing one after another just like that with a cold blood. Notice, the snipers came from behind which spoke a lot about their iniquity.  

 

I wish I can get you in my head and make you listen to the sound of bullets that I still vividly remember. I wish you can sense what I’m feeling now when all the memories are back. Being at our home in Sana’a located right next to change square, hearing the sound of bullets one after another for continuous 5 hours, insanely worrying about whose chests or heads those bullets were going to rip! For God sake’s! my teenage cousin was there and could have been among the killed ones. Regardless, the death toll of that day was 53 and over 200 were injured. Was your cousin or a relative among them?

I remember also watching my helpless mother panicking and running from one room to another at home, and I was trying to calm her down and resisting my tears, oh heart is aching once again. The feeling of helplessness was unbelievable. Even though I should have developed tough skin against going through violence and atrocities that Yemen lived through periodically for all my 28 years lifetime, the bullets’ sound still live in my head and kills my soul little by little. Why should we tell you this anyway when you are a veteran army man yourself who has been in the army structure for a huge part of your lifetime.

Nevertheless Friday of dignity massacre is described as a milestone in Yemen’s uprising long process, we’d oppose that notion and we mainly believe that the aftermath events of that day were the milestone. Yemenis’ blood has been always shed, like when nearly 200 people got killed after being burned in Abyan’s armory explosion on the 28th March, 2011, or when nearly 100 soldiers were killed during a suicide bomb attack in Sab’een square on the 21th May, 2012. On the 21st March, one of Yemen’s military dictators hijacked the revolution; a political decision that astounded the whole country. General Ali Muhsen al-Ahmar, had no right whatsoever to defect his half-brother, ousted president Ali Abduallah Saleh and join the uprising that people embarked to topple all those tyrannical figures of all types; army, tribal and war criminals.

The post-Friday of dignity political decision was indeed the milestone in Yemen’s uprising and the birth of Yemen’s uprising problem. Yes, it was a problem. In the awake of that massacre, several regional and international allies of Yemen’s government came to rescue Yemen from the so-called civil war. They mastered perceiving the nation’s uprising to be a mere political crisis in which innocent civilians were killed. I wonder what kind of logic they used to reason the bloodshed! That unjust logic was embodied in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) power-transfer plan. 

"Your dialogue is a betrayal to the dignity martyrs," sprays political activist, Rathwan al-Haimi in one of Sana'a's streets' wall.

 
They all were eager to implement the saudi version of democracy where you and only you were the only candidate in the February 2012 presidential election. How funny was that! We wish there was also an eager to implement justice to punish all the criminals, armed thugs, and snipers who killed those 53 protesters on that day. No one has been punished till today. No one. In fact, in the attempt to silence the truth, an unknown armed person has assassinated the prosecution investigative lawyer in the case of the Friday of dignity massacre, Hassan Ahmed in his own home on December, 2012. Just like that! He was our hope for justice to be served.

If there is any justice in the world, you’d have not chosen the 18th of March for the conference to take place. Choosing this date is a systematic attempt to erase that tragedy from the nation’s mind. You aim to make us only remember the conference but how about the massacre? Rephrasing anniversaries’ names is not new in Yemen’s political nature. On the 7th July 1994, the northern’s forces invaded the south to make an end to the civil war and didn’t “liberate” it as we were taught in school’s history books.

Will the next generation’s school books mention the 18th of March as the beginning of the National Dialogue conference only? While being in self-exile, it breaks my heart to visualise the future for my country. What fuels me with hope is young revolutionaries inside Sana’a like Rathwan al-Haimi. “We reject the conference and how it came up in the first place through the GCC deal plan. How can we, the revolutionaries have a dialogue with criminals who hijacked the revolution? we can’t betrayal the martyrs. I can’t let down my killed friends during the uprising. Justice must be served,” tells me Rathwan.

He plans to lead a big demonstration today in Sana’a to protest against launching the conference. And the struggle for justice continues. 

What International Mainstream Media Doesn't Show about Women in Yemen

If you just google "Yemeni women" or/and observe contents on international media about women in Yemen, you'd definitely get pictures of Yemeni women covering their whole bodies and wearing black in black; only showing their eyes and hands. Since there is a tendency to portrait Yemeni women in a certain pattern in the international media as very conservative and influenced by how women in KSA usually wear the black abaya, this post is dedicated to dispel that myth.

Almost %60 of Yemen's population lives in rural areas where women know nothing about that black abayas. The dress code is as colorful as it gets.

In the capital city of Yemen, Sana'a, women's dress code in the public is very diverse. However, I lament how international media outlets only portrait half of the picture; disseminating pictures of the conservative ones like above and the other side of women's dress code like the ones below are neglected.

This is a report done by a Yemeni TV channel about a group of women's celebration on the International Women's Day, last 8th March. Notice, no international media bothered to report about them.

دعوة من نساء اليمن للسلام في يوم المرأة العالمي

 اليوم اليمن في امس الحاجة لتعزيز عملية بناء السلام بين كل أطيافه بعد ان ذقنا الأمرين من حروب ونزاعات على مر العشرين عام الماضية. غدا تُنظم مجموعة من نساء اليمن بقيادة الناشطة والباحثة سارة جمال، تنظم المجموعة وقفة رمزية نسوية تدعو الى السلام بمناسبة يوم المرأة العالمي. تقول سارة جمال: " نالت اليمن نصيبها من النزاعات المسلحة بين حرب 1994 و حروب صعدة الست و أرحب و الحصبة و أحداث سبتمبر 2011 و لم يتضرر قادة و تجار الحروب بل نحن من خسرنا أقواتنا و بيوتنا و أرواح من نحب، لذا هذه دعوة لنساء اليمن ان ينزلنّ معنا في الثامن من مارس أمام الجامع الكبير في قلب مدينتنا القديمة لنقول لليمنيين لن نرسل أبنائنا و أزواجنا و آباءنا للقتال، ونحن لها، نساء اليمن و سلامها!" (رابط الفعالية)

كفاية حروب ونزاعات .. يانساء اليمن اتحدن ضد الحروب والعنف! هذه فرصتنا لكي نثبت اننا جزء من سلام أرضنا. فالقضية لاتتعلق بالمرأة او الرجل فالمشكلة هي الإنسان. فلندع الصراعات والانقسامات على جنب ولنتعامل مع المستجدات بنظرة شمولية قوامها الإنسان بشقيه الرجل والمرأة.

غدا سيحتفل العالم بيوم المرأة العالمي وفي ذلك  تنقسم الآراء مابين من هو مع و من هو ضد مطالب المساواة بين الجنسين في كافة مجالات الحياة. فهناك فئة تدعوا بإخلاص ودون ملل لنهوض بالنساء وتمكينهنّ حتى يصلنّ لمناصب القرار مثلهنّ مثل الرجال، وبالطبع لتحقيق ذلك يستلزم الخوض في عملية طويلة تتطلب معالجة عدد هائل من التحديات الاقتصادية والاجتماعية والثقافية والسياسية التي تواجه النساء بشكل خاص. وفي الكفة الأخرى الفئة التي تتعلل بأحكام دينية أو أسباب اجتماعية أو بيولوجية أو سياسية أو جميع ماذكر، تتعلل بتلك الأسباب لتبرر رفضها لمبدأ المساواة بين الجنسين. ربما الأمر أكثر تعقيدا من ذلك.

الأمر المثير للإهتمام في مناصرة قضايا المرأة (أو مايعرف بالنسوية) هو أنه ليس بالضرورة ان المناصرين هنّ من الإناث .. فليست كل امرأة هي نسوية وليست كل نسوية هي امرأة. هناك عدد من الذكور المهتمين بقضايا المرأة بشكل متفاني وهناك نساء ترفضنّ مبدأ المساواة والعكس صحيح. الأمر متشعب جداً ويدفع المرء الى البحث والتعمق فيه ودراسته لمحاولة إدراك حيثيات هذه الحالة الاجتماعية.

د.رؤوفة حسن

 بالعودة ليوم المرأة العالمي ورمزيته في الحث على تحقيق المساواة بين الجنسين أتذكر كيف بدأت قصتي مع البحث في مبدأ المساواة. اتذكر اثناء مراهقتي كنت اشاهد على تلفاز بيتنا في صنعاء الرائدة الأكاديمية المرحومة د.رؤوفة حسن عندما كانت تُجرى معاها لقاءات بخصوص قضايا اجتماعية.

 كانت تُشدد دائماً على "تعزيز مفاهيم المواطنة القائمة على الحقوق والواجبات المتساوية وترسيخ مبدأ تكافؤ الفرص بين كل افراد المجتمع بغض النظر عن نوعهم الاجتماعي..." وأمور شتى. كنت أقول في سري: "يالها من امرأة مذهلة .. كانت تبهرني بمعرفتها الواسعة وطرحها الراقي جدا. وكنت أقراء في الصحف عن انجازات المناضلة رضية شمشير أو عن ماما نجيبة حداد وعن الرائدة امة العليم السوسوه.. وعندما كبرت قليلاً وبدأت العمل كصحفية سنحت لي الفرصة لمقابلة عدد من تلك الشخصيات اليمنية التي شكلت الحركة النسوية اليمنية  في العصر الحديث أمثال المرحومة د. رؤوفة حسن التي صاغت الكثير في نظرتي للأمور بشكل عام. والتقيت ايضا بالاستاذة أمل الباشا التي اعتبرها اهم من عزز فهم النضال الحقوقي في وعيي.

مع الأستاذة أمل الباشا

 في ظل المشاكل المتفاقمة التي تعيشها اليمن لربما قد تكون المطالبة بالمساواة في غير محلها في الوقت الحالي. لكن ماذا عن تحقيق مبدأ المواطنة الكاملة؟ ألم تُنادي ثورة اليمن في 2011 بالمواطنة الكاملة؟ نعم، نادينا بذلك وبدولة مدنية تقوم على السلام والتسامح وقبول الآخر والمساواة في الحقوق والواجبات لكل أفراده بغض النظر عن الفروق مهما كانت. ولكي نُحقق تلك المواطنة الكاملة لابد من تحقيق المساواة في الحقوق بين الرجل والمرأة، وكم أحوجنا الى ذلك لأنه حتي اليوم لم يُسن قانون السن الآمن للزواج في اليمن للحد من زواج الصغيرات الذي يؤدي الى حدوث وفيات كثيرة لفتيات صغار السن زوجن باكراً فمنهن من ماتت أثناء الولادة أو المعاشرة الجنسية، بالإضافة الى ذلك فانه حتى اليوم لا تملك المرأة اليمنية حقها في عقد قرانها أو الشهادة في عقد غيرها.

هناك الكثير أمامنا لكي نفعله في ذلك الصدد ولابد من مواصلة مسيرة تلك الرائدات المناضلات اليمنيات الاتي افنين عمرهنّ لتعزيز مبادئ المواطنة الكاملة والدفاع عن حقوق المرأة اليمنية. وان كانت الدعوة لتحقيق المساواة بين الجنسين في اليمن في غير أوانها فمتى سيكون ذلك؟