Al-Houthi strangles Yemeni women

English - Monday 30 January 2023 الساعة 04:02 pm
Sana'a, NewsYemen, exclusive:

 A great and unexpected shock is experienced by "F.N", an inmate in the central prison in Sana'a, which is under the control of the Houthi militia, Iran's arm in Yemen, after the decision to prevent her release from prison after the end of her sentence during the past years.

 "F.N" - a pseudonym for the prisoner for fear of being harmed and harassed by the Houthis - was arrested on the background of a criminal case and was sentenced to several years in prison. During the past weeks, the sentence period and sentence period have expired.  Great joy was drawn on the face of the prisoner, F.N., who eagerly waited for this day, after she had been counting the days and nights since the first moment of the court ruling against her.

According to the information, the prison administration informed the released woman that she would not be allowed to leave as long as there was no "Mahram" person receiving her at the gate, and the administration demanded one of her relatives to come and receive her, unless she would continue to be detained.

The news fell on the prisoner "F.N", like a thunderbolt, in light of the insistence of the Houthi leaders in control of the prison to implement their decision not to allow her to leave without a mahram, despite the knowledge of the prison administration that she has no relatives who are included in her mahram list, as she is alone from the first moment she entered prison.

Human rights denunciation

 What F.N. was subjected to revealed many other cases of female prisoners and detainees who have completed their sentences in Sana'a prisons, and the Houthi militia refuses to release them under the justification that there is no mahram "male guardian" to release them into his custody.

Amnesty International published a statement condemning the practice of the Houthi militia against women detained in prisons without legal justification after the end of their sentence, calling for their immediate and unconditional release.

The statement added, “The prison authorities detain women who have completed their sentences in prison, if there is no mahram to accompany them upon their release, or they are released and sent to the custody of women’s shelters exclusively.”

 “It is unacceptable that the authorities in Yemen continue to view and treat women as incomplete and without the ability to act independently, and to detain them until their male guardians accompany them in their daily lives,” said Grazia Carrica, Amnesty International's Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa.  

Carrica stressed that "customary traditions must evolve, as societies evolve, to ensure respect for human rights and dignity."

 According to the team of eminent international experts in charge of the Yemen file last September, there are more than 300 women and girls who have been subjected to violence and intimidation by the Houthis, in addition to the exacerbation of threats of rape, sexual assault, and accusations of prostitution, as an attempt to legitimize their practices through these accusations.

The Humanitarian Association for Rights in Yemen revealed the types of torture that detained women are subjected to in Houthi prisons, noting that the Houthi militia kidnapped 1,700 Yemeni women, most of them in the capital, Sana'a, during the period from August 2015 to the same month in 2022.

Harassment of women is a Houthi goal

 During the past years, the Houthi militia escalated its arbitrary and repressive decisions against women in the areas under its control, the latest of which was the imposition of certain designs on women's abaya sewing shops and directives to prevent women from sitting on both sides of the old Sana'a liquid, as well as preventing them from moving and moving between the Yemeni governorates unless there is a Mahram.

What Sana'a is witnessing in terms of writings on the walls imposing the veil on women confirms that the group is on the verge of more repressive measures against women in the areas it controls.

 Human rights activist Hind Al-Eryani responded to the Houthi wall campaigns by imposing the veil, saying that they are campaigns aimed at covering the group's corruption in corruption, land theft, and other violations and crimes.

Commenting on her Twitter page, she said, "Because the Houthi group failed to rule, and corruption spread and theft of people's lands, they say, 'OK, how do I cover my scandals? Oh, I am going to talk about the veil of women - even though they are all veiled”

Dr. Mariam Al-Doughani, Director of Relief and International Cooperation at the Office of the Presidency of the Republic, confirms that the role of women has declined due to the restrictions imposed by the Houthi militia that marginalized their role in all aspects of life.  She added: Yemeni women have regressed their natural rights, which they had obtained, albeit relatively in the past, under the control of the dynastic coup militias.

 Al-Doughani explained that the Houthi militia put Yemeni women at the top of the attack list, marginalized, arrested, and prevented women from playing any role for them, and deprived women of the most basic human rights.

Houthi accusations.. Women are tools of corruption

 In his recent speech, the militia leader, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, focused on talking about Yemeni women, accusing them of having become a tool of corruption for society and of leading a demonic war.  As he says.

Al-Houthi claimed that his militia is leading a counter-war against corruption and the imposition of faith identity, which observers considered a clear and official directive from the leader of the Houthis to his followers to impose more restrictions targeting women in Sana'a and the rest of the areas under their control.

The Houthi restrictions on movement, clothing, and their going out to field work and moving freely confirm that the Houthis continue to clamp down on women under the cover of confronting the demonic soft war that is corrupting Yemeni society.

Human rights activists in Sana'a believe that the Houthi militia is seeking, through its arbitrary measures against women, to "Talibanize society."  In reference to the practices of the Taliban movement in Afghanistan, and the imposition of its ideology and extremist sectarian ideas.

Houthi turns women into a tool of oppression

 Many challenges that women face in Yemen, specifically in areas controlled by the Houthis, that they did not face before, and the Iranian-backed militias are exploiting women to achieve their interests and agenda.

 French journalist Quentin Mueller - who specializes in the affairs of the Arabian Peninsula and works particularly in Yemen, Oman and Iraq - indicated that over the course of 8 years of war in Yemen, women were exploited by the Houthis in implementing their repressive measures in a way that serves their interests and agenda.

Mueller published an investigation for her in the French newspaper "La Croix" under the title "Yemen: Women Serving the War Effort", in which she revealed how the Houthis exploited women who joined his terrorist group, who were assigned the tasks of suppressing women's demonstrations, spying on male and female activists, and storming homes to arrest women.  And working to torture them with the participation of Houthi militants.  In this regard, the French journalist referred to about 5,000 women who were recruited into the Houthi militia, which was called "Zainabiyyat".

She explained that many Yemeni women in Houthi-controlled areas reject what is practiced on them.  This caused them to pay a heavy price by being subjected to arbitrary arrests, kidnappings, torture and rape, in a precedent that Yemeni women had not witnessed before over the decades.

The most heinous organization in the world

 The Yemeni government denounced the continued repressive measures against Yemeni women by the Houthi group in the areas under its control, stressing through its Information Minister Muammar al-Eryani that the Houthi militia is one of the most heinous organizations in the world in terms of harassing women, taking away their freedom, and depriving them of their most basic rights.

The minister considered these unprecedented repressive measures against Yemeni women escalating in the sight of the international community and human rights and women's rights organizations and bodies, to constitute a real threat to undermine all that women have achieved during the six decades of the Yemeni revolution, in terms of gains to become active partners alongside men in the process of construction and development.  

He called on the international community, the United Nations, UN and US envoys, human rights organizations and bodies, and the defense of women's issues to condemn the Houthi behavior towards women, put an end to the militia's efforts to perpetuate its extremist rituals and ideas that are alien to society by force of arms, and turn the capital, Sana'a, into a second Kabul.