Yemen Free Essays

Yemen is a small desert country, in Africa. It covers approximately 528,000km2 with an estimated 26 million people populating the area. The official language is Arabic and the practiced religion is Islamic. We will write a custom essay sample on Yemen or any similar topic only for you Order Now Gender relations in Yemen are shaped by diverse religious, cultural, social and political traditions across the regions, between rural and urban areas, and between different tribes and generations (CARE, 2015). The North has been traditionally more conservative than the South. The conflict in Yemen has been catastrophic for its civilian population. Thousands have been killed and over 12 million people are now targeted for humanitarian assistance. This has driven the country into a state of extreme poverty and underdevelopment. Though the conflict has taken its toll on both male and female genders, the female population are the ones left most vulnerable to gender based violence. Apart from the on-going conflicts in Yemen, another conflict that has grabbed international recognition in Yemen is that of Gender Inequality .By conflict we mean the pursuit of incompatible goals by different groups.(Ramsbotham,Woodhouse miall,2016). Pruitt and Kim define conflict as â€Å"a perceived divergence of interest, or a belief that the parties’ current aspirations cannot be achieved simultaneously†. Prior to the conflict, gender inequality was high in Yemen and the conflict just worsened the case. Ranked the least gender-equal of 142 countries for the ninth successive year, Yemen fared worse than Pakistan, Chad, Syria and Mali, according to the Global Gender Gap Report. Gender inequality in Yemen has mostly being attributed to the religious and traditional beliefs. The Penal Code, Personal Status Act, Citizenship Act and Criminal Code all contain provisions that discriminate against women. In addition, the mix of statutory law, sharia, traditional tribal practices and customary law leave women vulnerable to violence and discrimination. (JICA,2009) In accordance with Yemen’s constitution, Sharia (Islamic law) is the source of all legislation. The norms and customs of the people of Yemen classify women as weak beings, and are not regarded as equals with men both by the law and societal norms. Women in Yemen don’t have a choice of whom they marry, when they marry, where they live, how their kids would be taken care of, they are just left at the mercies of the men. There are several reasons why the existing gender inequalities in yemen should be addressed, important well-being-related dimensions such as education, health, employment, or pay are key to the development of a nation. From a well-being and equity perspective, such gender inequalities are problematic as they lower well-being and are a form of injustice in most conceptions of equity or justice. (Klasen ; Wink,2003) According to the World Bank, just over 25% of Yemeni women are economically active; the majority of women who do work are employed in the agricultural sector. With regards to gender inequality in education, research suggests that, in Yemen there is a low percentage of women and girls that are educated or are currently in school, such gender inequality reduces the average amount of human capital in a society and thus harms economic performance. A second argument relates to the externalities of female education. Promoting female education is known to reduce fertility levels, reduce child mortality levels, and promote the education of the next generation which in turn has a positive impact on economic growth. With regards to early marriage, The Personal Status law does not, however, specify a minimum legal age of marriage and early marriage is considered to be a serious issue in Yemen. According to UNICEF(2014), 12% of women were married by the age of 15, 32% before the age of 18; 17.2% of 15-19 year old women were married or in a union. This can be attributed to the fact that based on their customs, they feel their parents should pick whom they would marry because they have their best interest at heart, and these parents tend to pick partners for their daughters at very young age. Gender inequality can also be seen when it comes to family inheritance, daughters are entitled to half of whatever the sons get, and if they marry outside their tribes, they are not entitled to the inheritance. According to their custom, this is done in other to keep the property under tribal ownership. Female Genital Mutilation is not considered illegal in Yemen, though there is a mistrial decree that prohibits it from being carried out in health facilities, they are done in private clinics ,and efforts towards criminalising such acts have failed. According to UNICEF(2014), there is no legislation in Yemen that addresses domestic violence. Though this very common, as a result of lack of trust in the police and the judicial system, most cases are not reported and the testimony of a women is not equivalent to that of a man in court based on their culture. There are also no specific laws addressing sexual harassment , and sexual harassment is another major issue faced by women in Yemen, a study conducted by the National Centre for Women’s Rights and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) shows that 90 per cent of women faced sexual harassment in the streets. PAST INTERVENTIONS AIMED TOWARDS TACKLING GENDER INEQUALITY IN YEMEN. An attempt to introduce a law criminalising the practice in 2008 was rejected by the parliament. Data from 2003 shows that 40% of women aged 15-49 had undergone some form of Female Genital Mutilation.(OECD,2014). The 2011 uprising challenged the norm of women’s limited participation in society with women actively participating in the protests , Women represented more than one-quarter of participants in the National Dialogue Conference (NDC) in 2014 .Through their involvement in the NDC, women were able to achieve important agreements for the new constitution, including a 30 per cent quota for women’s political participation and a law to increase the age of marriage to 18 years. (Gressmann;Heinze,2016). However, their involvement resulted in the women delegates being publicly threatened for participating, and were even physically attacked . The government has made efforts to improve the rights of women in Yemen, including via the formation of a Women’s Development Strategy and a Women Health Development Strategy (Gressmann, ;Jarhum, 2016). However, poor enforcement of this legislation, along with many cultural and religious norms has meant Yemeni women have failed to have equal rights to men. 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