Praising Yemen’s Transition as a Good Model Misses Facts

Soldiers Patrol a Street in Sana'a. Photo by Yahya Arhab/EPA

The National 

Sama’a Al Hamdani

February 26, 2014 

Last week, Yemenis simultaneously celebrated and protested to mark the third anniversary of the 2011 revolution. The country was then on the brink, but today it is applauded for having completed a “peaceful” transition. It is popularly portrayed as having undergone an ideal shift from dictatorship to democracy. The realities on the ground, however, tell a much different story. Whether the focus is on the nation’s extreme failures or exaggerated success, most of the narratives on Yemen are based on false assumptions. 

Many of the actual atrocities happening in Yemen are untold, and thousands traumatised by violence continue to tolerate severe injustices. Since August, Yemenis have stomached a whirlwind of new disasters seemingly synchronised with water and electricity outages. New sources of turmoil are materialising far more traumatic than bombs and the occasional exchange of gunfire.

During the revolution, Sanaa was divided into boroughs controlled by three main tribal figures who filled the void left by a fractured system of governance on the verge of dissolution. As a result of the transition’s mismanagement, the balance of power has shifted: other new players are successfully contesting state power.

In one month, a military hospital was targeted by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, killing 52. Most of these individuals were civilian doctors and patients. In that time, a drone strike attacked a wedding convoy killing 17, three political figures were executed, prominent scholars have been threatened for their rhetoric, a liquefied natural gas site was attacked with rocket-propelled explosives, an influential Southern sheikh was gunned down at a military checkpoint, a car bomb exploded in the heart of Sanaa, and artillery shells hit a funeral for a Southern separatist in Ad-Dhale province.

Yemen is witnessing a deterioration of its already fragile social fabric, compounded by a breakdown of tribal norms. Foreigners are no longer the sole targets of kidnapping: children of notable businessmen are abducted, members of the national dialogue are held hostage and, more recently, women from prominent families are snatched to shame men.

Most governmental operations are interrupted, and airports and seaports are subject to random shutdowns due to protests.

In the “democratic model” that has become Yemen, everyday life comes with a penalty.

In light of the clear absence of rule of law and the lack of accountability, Yemen has become the perfect realisation of Immanuel Kant’s “State of Barbarism”, a country managed and run by several guerrilla groups and individual leaders under the cover of government.

The message being sent, and understood, is that human life is cheap and victims are mere numbers. At any moment, anyone can be caught in a gun battle, and be considered collateral damage and no one will be held accountable.

Today, Yemenis are divided by faith, geography, ethnicity, political ideology and tribal affiliation – but they collectively suffer from anxiety, irritability, insecurity and depression. Yemenis are being pushed to the limit. Their silence and tolerance is docile.

Thousands of unemployed youth are sleep deprived, seeking refuge in mindless hours of qat-chewing to numb the reality of everyday hardship. Many wonder who will be killed in the future, and whether the frequency of random mindless will allow them to see another day. These thoughts are kept private while Yemenis attempt to live as normally as possible.

Those able to leave the country often claim they can “finally just breathe” or that they were ignorant of the “burdens” they carry. These fears are destroying Yemen’s psyche, and citizens are using them as justification to seek other forms of security in the absence of the rule of law.

There is a clear contrast between the marketed achievements signed behind closed doors, and the realities on the ground. Between these false narratives and the population’s unique case of surrender, things will get a lot worse before they get better. With several separatist movements, the strongest in the South, and the war in the North over authority and religious ideology, the population is at high risk of radicalisation.

Those who fought for a peaceful civil state in 2011 may use violence to revive the state.

Throughout the transition, the international community endorsed theoretical solutions prematurely in the pursuit of democracy. The sanctions that the UN Security Council produced yesterday could be a gamble during this critical period. Rather than deterring figures who are impeding the political transition, Charter VI can further promote chaos and overshadow non-political grievances.

Yet, there is hope: the world must recognise that Yemenis have legitimate aspirations. Yemenis need to separate themselves from the despair lingering from previous failures, and believe in self-determination. The government must be pressured, nationally and internationally, into providing justice to those who were victimised.

Real solutions will only emerge when the realities on the ground are managed rather than provoked.

Sama’a Al Hamdani is a Yemeni researcher who lives in Washington DC and blogs at yemeniaty.com

A conversation with Dr. AbdulKarim Al-Eryani

Dr. Abdulkarim Al-Eryani has been involved in Yemeni politics for more than 40 years, holding various senior positions within the government, first under the Yemen Arab Republic (YAR) then the Republic of Yemen. Moreover, he is an influential member of the General People's Congress (GPC) political party. Currently, Dr. Al-Eryani presides over the National Dialogue Committee (NDC). For his full biography, click here.

In New York City, Yemeniaty sat down with him to discuss some Yemeni politics.

Obstacles in the Path of Female Education

Child Marriages

Image via Glamour Magazine

Child marriages remains one of the biggest impediments to female education. Ironically, it is a cause and symptom of this problem. In the West, the story of Nujood Ali, who was married at the age of nine to a man in his thirties and became known as the youngest divorcee in Yemen became famous, she even has a bestselling book, I am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced. Once married, it is hard for young women to get a divorce; first, talaq unilaterally belongs to men, and second, if a girl attempts to get khul’a or no fault divorce, then she must return her pride price and forgo financial support (Khalife 9). This complicates matters because young women do not have their own money or come from really poor families who are desperately in need of it. While this rarely happens in the West, in Yemen, there are numerous comparable stories. The UNICEF revealed that in 2006, 14% of all females in Yemen were married before the age 15, while 52% (more than half) were married before the age of 18 (Khalife 1). Most children finish their high school education by the age of 18 but Yemeni girls are inclined to leave schools to fulfill household responsibilities. 

Health 

Image via PathFinder International

Young brides also means young mothers. The lack of education leaves many of these mothers with no options as “they have little chance of controlling how many children they have, or when they have them” (Khalife 2). Only 9.3% of all women ages 15 to 49 use a modern form of contraceptive, so it is not surprising that 45.1% of all women aged 20 to 24 gave birth before the age of 20. Moreover, these young mothers endanger their own lives as the number of women who die as a result of pregnancy or childbirth (also known as the Mother Mortality Ratio) is 430 per 100,000. This number is high but it appears low in comparison to the 21.6% of women who have a delivery with the assistance of a health care professional (doctor, nurse or midwife). If the mothers are not risking their own lives, then they are risking the lives of their children, the estimated number of infant deaths under 12 months (infant mortality rate) in 2009 was 58.4 per 1,000 (USAID).

Furthermore, uneducated mothers use Khat or Catha Edulis (family of Celastraceoe), which is a psychotropic plant commonly found in Yemen, Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia. In the South, in 1978, the NLF was successful in preventing its use, except for weekends (Ghanem 8). However, during unification, Khat became accessible and its production remains unregulated. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) one of the consequences of khat is that it is psychologically addictive. Other studies revealed that it contains several chemical elements that function as a stimulant; causing Khat chewers to experience anxiety, insomnia, depression, moodiness, and hypertension. Moreover, the chemicals sprayed on the plants and pesticides are known to cause heartburn, constipation, anorexia, nasal problems and other digestive illnesses. Sadly, many of the illiterate mothers who chew Khat, are unaware of its dangers and think of it as a cultural tradition. Research proves that mothers who use Khat to have infants with lower birth weights and 40.7% of women in a recent study confessed to chewing during pregnancy (Saad 309). Indeed, the lack of education affects the entire society as 46.1% if all children are born underweight (USAID).

Female Workers

Image via Olga Engelhardt

Without formal education, many of these women are not equipped to work or generate their own income. Unemployment is high in Yemen, but it is even higher for women, 39% compared to that of men at 16% according to 2005 figures. Yemeni working women make up hardly 20% of all workers, and unless these numbers increase, women will continue to struggle for egalitarianism. Of those women who work, the constitute a minority in the fields that they work in, where 15.5% of education workers are females, and 35.6% percent of women work in the agricultural sector (Khalife 10). These numbers may not entirely disclose the reality of women working in agriculture. Many women work in farms that belong to men in their families and in such jobs, it is considered a duty so they do not get payment in exchange. Hakmah Ali, a 40-year-old woman reveals that all her life she has been working in her family’s farm, she explains:

My program starts early in the morning. I get up at 5 o’clock in the morning. I feed my two cows and ox. We have also 30 heads of sheep and goats. After that, I wake my children up, give them breakfast and ask them to take the cattle to the nearby areas to herd, said ‘Ali. After I finish my work at home, I go to the farm to help my husband or to bring something for the cattle to eat. (Al-Omari)

The shortage in educated females restricts women from choosing the professions they desire. Even when they desire a job, it is not that easy because 44% of women report that their husbands decide whether they work or not (Khalife 11). 

Cultural Tradition

Image via Asia News

“Do not put the gas next to the match”
“A dog won’t come unless its called”
“Women are deficient in intellect and religion as well as inheritance”
“If you follow a woman’s wishes you become one” (Boxberger, 119-120).

These are only some of the proverbs about women in Yemen. The first two reveal a lot about the social position of women. Yemeni society is very conservative and women chastity is expected and protected. In the first saying, women are compared to “the gas” and men to “the match”, the proverb warns of the “explosion” that inappropriate gender mixing can lead to. Many families are scared of sending their daughters to co-educational schools and rural families fear for their daughters and prevent them from going to school because they are too far. The next saying reveals that if anything happens, including sexual assault on a woman, then she is responsible for bringing it unto herself. Following that is a common saying that is based on the female Islamic inheritance (lil rajol haq al-inthayan - for men double the women); the culture deducted that it is so because women are “deficient”. Finally, the last saying is self-explanatory but is really problematic because it reveals an attitude that would challenge women once their education and employment increases. 

If a female is in a place of leadership, then she would have trouble gaining respect and mustering the support of her male colleagues. Experts like Linda Boxberger, view cultural traditions as the biggest obstacle in the path of Yemeni women in general (130). Many other families are just convinced that women are destined to be in marriages, so when coupled with economic hardships, they choose to send their sons over their daughters (see chart 6).

Chart 6: Proportion of Boys and Girls enrolled in Primary School by Country
Source: Baerlocher, Mark O. "Differences in the Proportion of Boys and Girls Enrolled in Primary School." Canadian Medical Association Journal 177.7 (2007): 712. Print.
Poverty

Image via Yemen Fox

The average size of a Yemeni family is seven (USAID) and more than half of Yemen’s population lives below the poverty line, while 16% of the population lives with less than $1 a day (‘Alim 6). If a family has many daughters then the parents chose to withdraw their daughters from school and marry them to a wealthier man in order to guarantee their survival. Poverty is only going to increase because the economy growth is decreasing (13% inflation) while the population growth is rapidly increasing (3.02% per year). Al-Mekhlafey predicts that poverty alters the priorities of families, making female education at the bottom of the list (274).

Tomorrow: Reflections and Recommendations (Female Education Yemen)