Yemen

Yemen: 'Yemen women burn veils in Sanaa in anti-Saleh protest'

Hundreds of women have set fire to their traditional veils in Yemen in protest at the violence used against anti-government demonstrators. The women, in the capital Sanaa, made a pile of veils in the street which they then doused with petrol and set alight.

Women have played a key part in the uprising against Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

A Yemeni woman activist, Tawakkul Karman, was joint winner of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize. She received the award for her role in the struggle for women's rights and democracy in Yemen.

Yemen: 'Tawakkul Karman as Cause and Effect'

Political activist Tawakkul Karman has brought Yemen’s revolution to New York, speaking directly on October 20 with Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and organizing rallies at the United Nations headquarters in lower Manhattan, the largest of which is slated for the afternoon of October 21. The purpose of her visit is to keep pressure on the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution that reflects the aspirations of the overwhelming numbers of Yemenis who have sustained peaceful calls for change for the nine long months since protests began in late January.

International: Nobel Peace Prize Awarded to Three Women

LONDON — The Nobel Peace Prize for 2011 was awarded on Friday to three campaigning women from Africa and the Arab world in acknowledgment of their nonviolent role in promoting peace, democracy and gender equality. The winners were Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf — Africa’s first elected female president — her compatriot, peace activist Leymah Gbowee and Tawakul Karman of Yemen, a civil society campaigner.

Arab world: Women of the Revolution

The enormous role of women in the uprisings in the MENA region is undisputed. They faced verbal and physical abuse, violence, arrest and death just as their male counterparts. The transformation of these countries has been groundbreaking, and their participation is as important as ever. After the dust of the battle settles, will Arab societies remember to include women in the rebuilding of their countries?

اليمن: بيان حول المجزرة التي ارتكبها صالح ونظامه في ميدان التغيير بصنعاء

دانت اللجنة التنظيمية للثورة الشبابية الشعبية بصنعاء المجزرة التي ارتكبها اليوم علي عبد الله صالح ونظامه بحق المعتصمين المطالبين بإسقاط النظام سلميا في ميدان التغيير بصنعاء ، والتي راح ضحيتها أكثر من أربعين شهيد ، و200 جريح .

Yemen: Interview with Amal Basha, Sisters’ Arab Forum for Human Rights

In what ways are women participating in the protests in Yemen? The leading force behind this movement are the students from Sana’a University. They are gathered in Al-Huriya Square (Freedom Square) in front of the University. Women and women’s organisations are participating in the demonstrations and supporting the demonstrators, they stay until late at night in Freedom Square. In general, the students are protecting the women who are demonstrating on the square. Women are not generally targeted by the security forces in the repression of the protests because there would be an outcry. One woman demonstrator was arrested and imprisoned a couple of weeks ago, but she was released after one night, because we protested.

Moyen Orient: Et si l'on s'intéressait un peu au sort des femmes

Pourquoi les musulmans ne peuvent-ils développer d'autres formes de protestation pour défendre l'honneur d'Aïcha [épouse du Prophète, elle est considérée comme la "Mère des croyants" par les sunnites, mais honnie par les chiites en raison de son attitude hostile à Ali, le quatrième calife, considéré comme le père du chiisme] ? La défense d'Aïcha justifie-t-elle vraiment l'explosion de tensions confessionnelles qui en est découlée au Koweït et ailleurs ? Au lieu de préparer le terrain pour des agressions et attentats entre sunnites et chiites dans certains pays de la région, on aurait pu se saisir de l'occasion pour attirer l'attention sur le sort des Aïcha contemporaines. Ainsi, l'Aïcha afghane, dont le magazine Time a fait sa fameuse une et à laquelle sa famille a coupé le nez. Dans ce même pays, les talibans mènent une guerre sans merci contre l'enseignement des filles : ils ont détruit, selon différents rapports, des dizaines d'écoles et ont menacé les familles qui continuaient de vouloir donner une éducation scolaire à leurs filles.

Yemen: Physical assault of human rights defenders

On 14 December 2010, human rights defenders Ms Tawakkol Karman, Ms Bushra Alsorabi and Mr Ali Hussain al-Dailami were physically assaulted during a peaceful protest in Sana'a, Yemen.
Tawakkol Karman and Bushra Alsorabi are Chairperson and Executive Director respectively of Women Journalists Without Chains (WJWC), an organisation which campaigns for freedom of the press and other human rights in Yemen. Ali Hussain al-Dailami is the executive director of the Yemeni Organization for the Defence of Democratic Rights and Freedom.

Yemen: Women are not the decision-makers but they bear the brunt of the war

The Yemeni authorities, facing growing internal and external pressures, are abandoning human rights in the name of security says a new Amnesty International report, Yemen: Cracking down under pressure. The role of armed Islamist militants in Yemen rose to prominence during the civil war in 1994, when they fought alongside the army of the former YAR (North Yemen) to defeat the armed forces of the former PDRY (South Yemen). The PDRY was a secular state, widely perceived to be communist and backed by the USSR. The Islamist militants siding with the YAR comprised Yemenis and other nationals, mainly from Arab countries. Many had settled in Yemen, with the encouragement of the government in the north, after taking part in the war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan during the 1980s.

International: Progressive male Muslim preachers: oxymoron or reality?

Feminist concern about the violation of women’s rights by male clerics in Muslim countries is slowly producing a response from some states. At the same time, rights activists are increasingly reporting examples of clerics who are standing up for women’s rights. This isn’t about the progressive male and female scholars that are increasingly visible in the Muslim world, nor about the occasional female imam; it’s about male preachers on the streets and in the villages.