Mapping Arab Women's Movements by Pernille Arenfeldt Nawar Al-Hassan Golley

Author:Pernille Arenfeldt, Nawar Al-Hassan Golley [Pernille Arenfeldt, Nawar Al-Hassan Golley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Gender Studies, Women's Studies, Political Science
ISBN: 9781617973536
Publisher: The American University in Cairo Press
Published: 2012-05-01T04:00:00+00:00

8

A Long, Quiet, and Steady Struggle:

The Women’s Movement in Yemen

Amel Nejib al-Ashtal

But we are struggling to do something, to improve the situation quietly and steadily.

—Amat al-Aleem, 2001

The Republic of Yemen has a unique and long-established women’s movement that is little known.1 Compared to the several detailed accounts and insightful analyses that have appeared on women’s movements based in other parts of the Gulf and the Middle East, literature on the Yemeni women’s movement remains scarce and dispersed. In an effort to document and promote a better understanding of women’s organized activity in Yemen, this chapter aims to develop a historical overview of the women’s movement in Yemen (both North and South) from the late 1930s to the present. Space considerations limit the presentation of an in-depth analysis, but the hope is that this chapter can help stimulate further research and facilitate a greater inclusion of the Yemeni women’s organized activity into ‘general’ accounts of Yemeni history and in comparative reflections on women’s movements in the Middle East.

The women’s movement in Yemen is shaped by the country’s turbulent political and economic history. North Yemen gained independence from the Ottomans in 1918, after which it came under an Imamate theocratic rule that created the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen. In 1962, a revolution replaced the Northern regime and established the Yemen Arab Republic. South Yemen was under British occupation from 1839 and became independent in 1967, after which it became the socialist People Democratic’s Republic of Yemen. North and South Yemen united in 1990, creating the Republic of Yemen, but also ushering in pressing economic and political challenges that have continued plaguing the country until today (Dresch 2000).

Existing studies on women in Yemen are largely anthropological or sociological in their focus, examining Yemeni women’s traditions, roles, experiences, or socioeconomic status in light of development concerns. Perhaps the only texts so far that examine women’s organized activity in Yemen as a primary focus are Ra’ufa Hassan’s unpublished draft study, titled “al-Haraka al-nasawiya fi-l-Yemen” (2004) and Margot Badran’s “Unifying Women: Feminist Pasts and Presents in Yemen” (1998). Ra’ufa Hassan’s paper attempted to develop a proposed strategic framework for women’s organized activity in Yemen and Margot Badran’s paper examined Yemeni women’s mobilization by the state and independently. Two other key studies provide detailed accounts of the earlier developments in the Yemeni women’s movement: Adel al-Sharjabi’s study, al-Musharaka al-siyasiya li-l-mar’a al-yamaniya: tahlil thaqafi tarikhi fi daw’ nazariyat al-naw‘ al-ijtima‘i (Women’s Political Participation in Yemen: A Historical Analysis from a Gender Perspective, 2007) and Asmahan al-‘Alis’s book, Awda‘ al-mar’a al-yamaniya fi zil al-idara al-baritaniya li-‘Adan 1937–1967 (The Status of Yemeni Women under British Rule in Aden, 1937–1967, 2005). Focusing on women’s political participation in Yemen, al-Sharjabi examines the rise and developments of the women’s movements from the 1940s until early the 2000s, in both the North and South. Asmahan al-‘Alis’s book (2005) provides a comprehensive overview of women’s lives in Aden during the late colonial period (1937–67), including detailed information on the most prominent women’s associations and the earliest forms of women’s social and political activism.

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