Women’s status in Yemeni community: challenges and aspirations

Women still face many difficulties and obstacles although many things have been done in order to enable them to take part in all aspects of life,” said Hooria Mashoor, vice-chairperson of the Women National Committee (WNC), in a lecture entitled “ Women’s status in Yemeni community: challenges and aspirations” delivered at the Sheba Center for Strategic Studies (SCSS).

Women’s issues are a crucial part of any political agenda and nowadays large numbers of women demand equal rights with men in all fields. As part of this fight, many organizations that support women’s issues add their efforts to defend women’s rights and reach a real equality with men. Here, in Yemen, we find that the government pays particular attention to women and tries to protect them from all kinds of violence. 

But besides the government’s efforts, Yemeni women manage to improve their conditions and overcome the obstacles they find in a society like the Yemeni. “Among the achievements that women have accomplished is education: the rise in girl’s education increased to 62 percent, a fact which is part of Yemen’s aim at aligning the national planning processes with the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) and its targets. Despite that one of the MDG’s emphasizes that all Yemeni children should be in school by 2015, still dropping outs are impeding the achievement of this dream,” added Mashoor. 

Girls’ education remains one of the national challenges that Yemen faces, however there has been some progress in girls’ enrollment in schools in the past few years as Mashoor pointed out. Yemen is facing a serious challenge in bridging the gender gap, which shows that nationally there are only 63 girls per 100 boys enrolled in primary schools, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). 

According to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Yemen’s education indicators are among the lowest in the Middle East. Primary school attendance is only 40 percent for girls, with only 13 percent of girls attending secondary school. 

However, a field study executed by an independent survey firm last year together with school data demonstrated that the enrollment of girls in schools was very encouraging for the academic year 2006-2007. Joint actions by the government, different international organizations and other stakeholders contributed to this noticeable increase.   

There are many reasons behind dropping out of schools; one of these reasons is early marriage and the spread of illiteracy, according to Mashoor. “In fact, education is one of the only means through which Yemeni women’s status and life could be improved. Another problem is the high fertility rate and mortality ratio among women. In rural areas, total births per woman are 8 children while in urban areas, it is 4 births per woman. This means that education would delay fertility among educated women whereas dropping out would increase fertility rates among illiterate ones, especially in rural areas. Regarding the betterment of women’s health, she stressed that there are extremely tough challenges to enhance medical services especially for women. Accordingly, in Yemen maternal mortality ratios are among the highest in the region, accounting for 366 deaths per 100,000 live births; these women die as a result of complications of pregnancy, childbirth and the post-natal period,” explained Mashoor.

Hooria Mashoor elaborated on the various problems and challenges confronting the empowerment of Yemeni women and the betterment of their social, economic and political life. “Despite of the achievement of some progress in terms of women’s empowerment and in improving women’s status in Yemen, still there are many drawbacks and challenges to be overcome,” she stressed. 

Regarding the issue of streamlining women into economic life and recruiting them into the job market, it was stated that the rate of women in the labor market is in constant rise and recently the working women rate has reached 23 percent out of the total working population. Mashoor further elaborated on the role being played by the WNC; that is, the WNC has requested the government to recruit at least 8 percent females of the total working population in the health and education sector, and 5 percent in other sectors. While in the former sectors the percent was maintained, in other sectors it was not.

Yet, the problem lies in the private sector. “This sector only recruits good looking, single women but as soon as a woman gets married and becomes a mother, the sector may simply give her the sack,” said Mashoor. 

To overcome this dilemma the WNC has proposed that the private sector could possibly employ women as part-timers. The issue, nonetheless, was not welcomed by the private sector. This is because the Labor Law grants working women many privileges such as less working hours during antenatal, prenatal and postnatal periods.

Despite of all that, still Yemen is committed to abide by the provisions of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) since it endorsed it in 1984. It is not only enough to state this Convention or part of it in its Constitution, but also Yemen must take all precautions and measures to protect and prevent women from being exposed to any violence and discrimination. In this respect, she also highlighted another problem: the objection of some religious men to the women’s cause. What adds insult to injury is the application of some traditional customs and practices which are irrelevant to Islam and that hinder women.

“The best solution to contribute to women’s empowerment in Yemen is to allocate a certain percentage of job positions to women in the office, decision making positions and in other fields where women’s presence is still low. This would enable women to actively and effectively participate in social, economic and political advancement,” said Mashoor, adding that “unfortunately, while political parties oppose this proposal, they, on the contrary, exploit women for short-term political ends such as voting.” “They also prevent and marginalize them from candidacy or any post in office or leading positions. A living testimony is what took place in Kuwait: while women voters accounted for 57 percent, not even one female candidate won a seat in the Kuwaiti Parliament. Thus, the only solution for empowering women in this respect is the adoption and application of a system of quotas that would reserve a percentage of seats for women in the Parliament,” stated Mashoor.

A quota system, as advocated by President Saleh among others, would guarantee women a percentage of the seats in the Parliament. Elements satisfied with the political status quo argue that introducing this system would require a major legislative effort. 

But will the quota really help Yemeni women to take part in political life? That is the question asked by many women, educated and also house wives.  Some said that women are still ignored by the political system and have no right in decision making processes. Having a democratic country means that it should be ruled by its citizens -all citizens, men and women- and not just the men who traditionally enjoy power and authority. But what happens is that Yemenis just talk about democracy without understanding the real meaning of it, because if they did, why don’t women take a greater part in politics?

There are more than a million women in Yemen- at least half the population. But only one woman has so far managed to become a Member of Parliament, and there are only two female ministers. Is that the democracy that we are talking about and are so proud of? We have come to realize that only men are citizens because only they control this country.  The question that imposes now is: will the quota system really help Yemeni women to take a greater part in politics?  

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