Empowering Young Women Leaders in Yemen

Yemeni father burns his daughter, 15, to death for keeping in touch with her fiance

• A 35-year-old man has been arrested in a remote village in Taiz province
• Believed the father caught the girl chatting on the phone to her fiance
• Parts of Yemen prohibit contact between men and women before marriage

23 Oct 2013

Yemeni child bride, eight, dies of internal injuries on first night of forced marriage to groom five times her age

• 'Rawan' died in the tribal area of Hardh, which borders Saudi Arabia
• Activists have called for groom and family to be arrested over her death
• One activist: 'Groom is an animal who deserved to be punished severely'

9 Sept 2013

These two recent reports of tragic events involving young women in Yemen are all too frequent in a country where social norms and customs prevent women from enjoying their rights and playing an active part in their communities and where contravening these rules can literally be fatal.

Partners for Democratic Change and Partners Yemen are trying to rewrite the headlines about Yemen. Through our programs we are giving a voice to women, women are returning to school, they are starting small businesses, and they are resolving conflicts in their communities. Moreover, men have also been affected by our women’s empowerment programming and we are changing patriarchal views about the role that women should play in Yemen.

“My father was listening from a close distance to me conducting a session, and he heard me raising awareness about education; he encouraged me…”.

 “The society [the community] has changed a lot; my wife visits other women in the neighborhood and educates them after she understood her role in the community [as a social volunteer]. She also talked to women and persuaded them to send their daughters back to school. She became one of those believing that she has a mission to educate others. In the beginning, she faced some problems as there were some persons who claimed that
my wife was pushing their wives to do things they would not accept, but I explained to them further’  –  husband of a social volunteer in Shabwa.

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