SANAA, Nov. 5 (Saba) -It is Yemen's women who during the conflict have maintained the social fabric of society and kept communities together.
The tribal culture in Yemen sees women as the backbone of the family and community.
The conflict, which started in 2014, has claimed the lives of many Yemenis directly through combat or through disease and hunger. UN statistics said that up until September 2017, over 5,000 people had been killed in the war -- 20% of which were children.
Nevertheless, the women came together in grief, they were simply women talking about losing their sons to the war and about how life has become so hard for everyone in Yemen.
But the war has also had a much longer-term impact on Yemeni society: it has changed the country forever -- especially for women.
Across Yemen, women find themselves in charge of managing the poverty afflicting their communities -- and they do so with very few resources and, in some cases, no qualifications.
They bake bread at home and sell it, some have become maids and offer their cleaning services to others for little money.
The situation in Yemen was bad before the war, but with the conflict, it has reached unprecedented levels of desperation.
But as the instability extends over the course of the conflict, women are gradually finding themselves in charge, as the men in their lives are either killed, out fighting, or become too depressed to be useful, the problem of being in charge without basic resources is a very consuming one.
Yemeni tradition has it that women would guard Qat fields from the rooftops of their homes and shoot or scare off potential thieves ,in some tribes where the men go abroad for work, women are taught how to use a firearm for their own protection.
All the women of Yemen share their amazing resilience that pushes them forward, and when tragedy strikes, they all grieve their loved ones the same way.
Because of the war on Yemen , more than 400,000 girls under 18 have lost their homes, and many of them are living in refugee camps, hundreds of thousands have lost access to schooling, and when girls are not in school, many families start to think about marrying them off.
Women and women's empowerment were never really priorities in Yemen, even in times of peace, Needless to say, most Yemeni women have been highly disadvantaged in such a conservative, patriarchal society that looks upon women as inferior, since 2006, Yemen has consistently ranked last in the World Economic Forum's Gender Gap Index. This is an aggregated calculation that compares the reality of women’s to men's rights in education, healthcare, economic participation, and political empowerment. For example, only one in two women in Yemen can read and right above the age of fifteen, when it comes to health care, 65 percent of women lack access to reproductive health care services. Every day, at least eight women die in childbirth, women make up less than 7 percent of the workforce, mostly working in the education and healthcare sectors—and earning wages less than men for the same job. And the list goes on.
However, up until 2014, there was a thriving civil society movement and a strong feminist community in Yemen. Women made themselves visible in public arenas, demanding equality and breaking stereotypes, since 2011, Yemeni women have made significant strides in their struggle to be taken seriously as leaders and decision makers who are on equal footing with men.
The achievements Yemeni women reached between 2011 and 2014 are due to the strong and brave women who would not take no for an answer,it helped that Yemen occupied the world's attention and that the UN Department of Political Affairs, which was overseeing the political transition, and the international community at large were supportive of women’s rights, indeed, the achievements Yemeni women made were in spite of the male-dominated, mainstream political narrative.
Labor migration has become a major issue for many developing countries as migrant remittances increasingly form a major portion of both family and national budgets.
In the Yemen-Arab Republic in 1978-1979, perhaps a million male migrants remitted an estimated US $1.3 billion, lessening the tremendous import-export deficit, Yemeni women's lives are changing as a result of the massive flow of remittances and the absence of men.
While women around the world are today celebrating International Women's Day (IWD), Yemen's women hope simply that it will throw a spotlight on the unspeakable human suffering all genders are enduring across the country.
Ironically, Yemeni history and heritage has numerous examples of women playing instrumental roles in peacemaking. For example, in some tribal areas, if a woman cuts off a lock of her hair and places it in front of the tribal sheikh, tradition obliges the sheikh and the entire tribe to answer her demand— so long as it is legal— and smart women have used this tradition in the past to stop wars or put an end to an armed conflict between tribes. Similarly, the act of burning a veil has the same impact and could lift an injustice. In the urban communities, women have often played the roles of peace builders in local communities, bringing families together and patching estranged relatives after years of bad blood. Traditionally, women are the nurturers, builders, and creators of life. After more than half of a century of armed conflict in Colombia, the value of women’s roles there are finally recognized in establishing sustainable peace, hence their involvement at the highest levels today in the reconciliation process. Why can't Yemeni women also be part of the peace building and reconstruction process? Why should women from any part of the world not be part of their country's political processes, very much including conflict resolution?
We will continue the fight for women's rights and Yemeni women's empowerment.
Written by Mona Zaid
Saba
The tribal culture in Yemen sees women as the backbone of the family and community.
The conflict, which started in 2014, has claimed the lives of many Yemenis directly through combat or through disease and hunger. UN statistics said that up until September 2017, over 5,000 people had been killed in the war -- 20% of which were children.
Nevertheless, the women came together in grief, they were simply women talking about losing their sons to the war and about how life has become so hard for everyone in Yemen.
But the war has also had a much longer-term impact on Yemeni society: it has changed the country forever -- especially for women.
Across Yemen, women find themselves in charge of managing the poverty afflicting their communities -- and they do so with very few resources and, in some cases, no qualifications.
They bake bread at home and sell it, some have become maids and offer their cleaning services to others for little money.
The situation in Yemen was bad before the war, but with the conflict, it has reached unprecedented levels of desperation.
But as the instability extends over the course of the conflict, women are gradually finding themselves in charge, as the men in their lives are either killed, out fighting, or become too depressed to be useful, the problem of being in charge without basic resources is a very consuming one.
Yemeni tradition has it that women would guard Qat fields from the rooftops of their homes and shoot or scare off potential thieves ,in some tribes where the men go abroad for work, women are taught how to use a firearm for their own protection.
All the women of Yemen share their amazing resilience that pushes them forward, and when tragedy strikes, they all grieve their loved ones the same way.
Because of the war on Yemen , more than 400,000 girls under 18 have lost their homes, and many of them are living in refugee camps, hundreds of thousands have lost access to schooling, and when girls are not in school, many families start to think about marrying them off.
Women and women's empowerment were never really priorities in Yemen, even in times of peace, Needless to say, most Yemeni women have been highly disadvantaged in such a conservative, patriarchal society that looks upon women as inferior, since 2006, Yemen has consistently ranked last in the World Economic Forum's Gender Gap Index. This is an aggregated calculation that compares the reality of women’s to men's rights in education, healthcare, economic participation, and political empowerment. For example, only one in two women in Yemen can read and right above the age of fifteen, when it comes to health care, 65 percent of women lack access to reproductive health care services. Every day, at least eight women die in childbirth, women make up less than 7 percent of the workforce, mostly working in the education and healthcare sectors—and earning wages less than men for the same job. And the list goes on.
However, up until 2014, there was a thriving civil society movement and a strong feminist community in Yemen. Women made themselves visible in public arenas, demanding equality and breaking stereotypes, since 2011, Yemeni women have made significant strides in their struggle to be taken seriously as leaders and decision makers who are on equal footing with men.
The achievements Yemeni women reached between 2011 and 2014 are due to the strong and brave women who would not take no for an answer,it helped that Yemen occupied the world's attention and that the UN Department of Political Affairs, which was overseeing the political transition, and the international community at large were supportive of women’s rights, indeed, the achievements Yemeni women made were in spite of the male-dominated, mainstream political narrative.
Labor migration has become a major issue for many developing countries as migrant remittances increasingly form a major portion of both family and national budgets.
In the Yemen-Arab Republic in 1978-1979, perhaps a million male migrants remitted an estimated US $1.3 billion, lessening the tremendous import-export deficit, Yemeni women's lives are changing as a result of the massive flow of remittances and the absence of men.
While women around the world are today celebrating International Women's Day (IWD), Yemen's women hope simply that it will throw a spotlight on the unspeakable human suffering all genders are enduring across the country.
Ironically, Yemeni history and heritage has numerous examples of women playing instrumental roles in peacemaking. For example, in some tribal areas, if a woman cuts off a lock of her hair and places it in front of the tribal sheikh, tradition obliges the sheikh and the entire tribe to answer her demand— so long as it is legal— and smart women have used this tradition in the past to stop wars or put an end to an armed conflict between tribes. Similarly, the act of burning a veil has the same impact and could lift an injustice. In the urban communities, women have often played the roles of peace builders in local communities, bringing families together and patching estranged relatives after years of bad blood. Traditionally, women are the nurturers, builders, and creators of life. After more than half of a century of armed conflict in Colombia, the value of women’s roles there are finally recognized in establishing sustainable peace, hence their involvement at the highest levels today in the reconciliation process. Why can't Yemeni women also be part of the peace building and reconstruction process? Why should women from any part of the world not be part of their country's political processes, very much including conflict resolution?
We will continue the fight for women's rights and Yemeni women's empowerment.
Written by Mona Zaid
Saba
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