Yemen: A regional consultative meeting on Violence Against Women to be held this week
Source:
NewsYemen The capital city of Sana'a will host a meeting on violence against women on Wednesday, with representatives attending from Egypt, Sudan, Djibouti and Oman.
"The consultative meeting will discuss the phenomenon of violence against Arab women, especially domestic and social violence such as circumcision, early marriage and depriving women from education", said the chairwoman of the Yemeni Women's Union, Ramzia al-Iryani.
Al-Iryani said in a statement to NewsYemen such violence is found in some Yemeni provinces, particularly the coastal ones, where people circumcise girls after birth under the pretext of "purification". [She continued,] "In al-Mahra, 98% of women are subjected to circumcision and in Hodeidah and Hadramout the percentage is 96; 82% in Aden and 28% in Taiz, in addition to other governorates." [...]
"If Islamic religion was the source of girls' circumcision why did not our prophet Mohammad (PBUH) circumcise his four daughters?" al-Iryani inquired, replying to allegations of those families who practice female circumcision.
29 May 2007
