Violence against women discussed again:It’s in women’s hands [Archives:2003/652/Culture]

Yasser Mohammed Al-Mayyasi
The Women's National Committee (WNC) has intensified its efforts lately in focusing on the ongoing problem of violence against women in the Republic of Yemen. In a gathering that took place a few weeks ago in Sanaa, the WNC, Oxfam-Yemen, and Shaima Network discussed the results of a thorough and comprehensive study made by Dr. Adil al-Sharjabi, an instructor in the Social Science Department of Sanaa University, the unending negative phenomenon of violence against Yemeni women.
The study included a detailed survey on violence committed against Yemeni women and tried to provide the ultimate definition of violence against women in the eyes of Yemeni women themselves.
The study was hailed by Ms. Amatulaleem Al-Susuwa, the Human Rights Minister, and the only current female Minister in Yemen. She said that even though Yemen has improved its record in human rights, a lot is yet to be done for women's rights in the Yemeni society.
Ms. Rasheeda Al-Hamdani, the Chairman of WCN said that her organization has been continuously exerting efforts to limit violence against women through encouraging and carrying out surveys and studies. “The organization has always been attempting to broaden understanding of the issue of violence against women and its roots. Only by investigating and identifying its roots will we able to wipe it out of our society.” she said.
“We have committed ourselves to helping the government implement the Beijing conference's resolution on women's rights and have come to realize that raising public awareness is one of the major steps that should be undertaken.”

Study results not a surprise
Just as expected, the study made by Dr. al-Sharjabi revealed that cases of violence against women are still on the rise due to the lack of proper education among Yemeni women and because of unwillingness of large masses of traditional societies to take this issue seriously. The study attempted to get a clear and distinctive definition of violence against women according to how Yemeni females view it. The study also revealed various types of violence against women and attempted to find in which governorates and towns it exists the most, and how widely spread it is. The study also gave rough statistics about how violence against women is evident in the different classes of the society based on wages, type of life, and education.
The results revealed that women in rural areas are much more exposed to violence than those in urban regions. One exception was notices in Shabwah governorate as women in cities of that governorate are more exposed to such violence compared to women in villages.
Economy-wise, violence against women in poor families is much greater than that in rich or middle-class families. The same applies to minorities such those of African origin (Muwalladat), who may be exposed to harassment even in public areas. Fathers, brothers and husbands think that if their daughters, sisters or wives are not beaten up at home, they may attempt to escape their grasp resulting in having them lose control. They believe this could possibly lead to having women become prostitutes or commit unethical acts.
However, the study also disclosed that the reasons behind violence against women in poor families are probably due to financial and social pressures on the men in those families.
The study revealed that women in minorities are the largest portion of Yemeni women subject to violence as they constitute around 18% of all surveyed women. However, females from poor families constitute a percentage approaching 70%. It is worth noting that only 8.9% of all women are from cities, while the vast majority -90%- live in rural areas. Hence the study believes that no matter how much effort is done for women in cities, the overall level of violence will not be decreased unless women in villages are protected.
The study classified violence against women in four main groups: family violence, economic violence, political violence, and violence in the form of harassment in public areas.
It seems that the most common category of violence against women was family violence, which is usually committed against women in all sectors of the community by relatives including father, brothers, husband, or other relatives.
The second most popular violence is that committed because of economic reasons. More than 50% of women in Yemen never earned money, and this makes them seen in many cases as burdens on family budgets.
However, oddly enough, violence is also committed against women in working areas in the form of deductions from salaries, preventing raises, etc. However, harassment in work is in decline because of the increase in the awareness of working women of the possibility to interact with their male counterpart at work, which they consider as normal nowadays.
Political violence against women on the other hand, seems to have been the spotlight of the recent parliamentary elections. It is worth noting that only one female won a seat in the parliament (out of 301 seats), and this shows the low level of female participation in Yemen as candidates. It was concluded in the discussion that politicians usually discriminate against females in political participation, which is due to social and political reasons.

A consensus: Women for women
A consensus was reached at the end of the discussion by the participants that if there is a way to strengthen political, social, and economic participation of women in public life in Yemen, then that could only happen if women themselves exert more effort and stand up for their rights. This can be achieved through a series of steps taken by the authorities, and local and international organizations to raise awareness among the community -especially in women- of women's rights and having females force their way towards more freedom and authority in today's Yemen.
In brief, it is all in women's hands to achieve their goal in preventing violence against them and participate in building the modern and prosperous Yemen. “If women want it, and work hard for it, they will get it.” said one of the participants.
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