Introduction
The history of women’s rights in South Yemen is rich having been shaped by social, political, and economic forces over the years. The British ruled South Yemen from 1839 to 1967 when the region gained independence and became the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY). The Socialist Party ruled the region until 1990 when it was merged with North Yemen. Before the unification, the Socialist Party was determined to free women from traditional and patriarchal laws that had bound them for a long time.
Women were allowed to participate in different socio-political and economic activities. Laws were passed to facilitate this process and women in PDRY thrived under the Socialist Party. However, the unification process ushered a new era and a change of guard that saw the rolling back of the gains that women had made over the years. Patriarchal laws were reintroduced and women started suffering under subjugation with minimal or no rights. The political and social status of women in Aden during the PDRY was better as compared to the current welfare after the unification process of 1990.
This paper discusses how the social and political statuses of women in Aden have changed with time from independence in 1967 through the 1990 unification with North Yemen to the current state. The paper is divided into four major sections.
In the first section, the key concepts that have contributed to the changing social and political status of women in Aden are highlighted. A literature review is the second section where information from academic sources concerning the research topic is presented. The third section is the analysis and the roles of society, the state, laws, and the family code in the changing status of women in Aden are discussed in depth. The final section is a conclusion whereby the main points of the paper are summarized.
Methodology/Approach/ Key Concepts
The methodology used in this paper is to collect information from academic sources that have been written on the status of women in Yemen before and after the unification. Keywords, such as women, PDRY, South Yemen, North Yemen, the family code of 1974, and the family code of 1978 were used to generate search results related to the topic. From the generated search results, reference materials were chosen based on their relevance.
Study materials used in class were also used for reference. The approach used in this paper is a comparative analysis. The social and political status of women in Aden under the rule of PDRY is compared to how it changed after the unification process in 1990.
The key concepts explored in this paper include the role of society, the state, laws, and the family code in contributing to the changing political and social status of women in Aden before and after the unification process of 1990. The state, society, and laws played a central role in facilitating women empowerment in Aden under the rule of PDRY. They also contributed significantly to the subjugation of women in the post-unification era under the parliamentary system with a strong presidency form of governance.
Literature Review
Moghadam (2009) posits that the PDRY acted quickly to release women from retrogressive patriarchal and chauvinistic laws that enslaved women and treated them as lesser human beings. Known as the Cuba of the Middle East, PDRY, under the leadership of the Socialist Party was proactive and it signed the family code as Law no. 1 of 1974 to allow women to join politics, education, employment, and other social activities alongside their brothers (Badran, 1998).
The socialist government in the south was highly supportive of women’s empowerment. Even before the independence in 1967, women in the south had enjoyed different rights and freedoms under diverse initiatives by the colonial British administration (Carapico & Wuerth, 2000; Molyneux, 1995). In the 1950s, women activist groups had emerged and they later engaged in the struggle for independence. After the independence of the south, the family code of 1974 was ratified to guarantee women their rightful place in society (Clark & Schwedler, 2003).
The women emancipation campaigns in the south facilitated the rise of the first women leaders in different sectors including the media, education, and the judiciary among other key occupations (Molyneux, Yafai, Mohsen, & Ba’abadd, 1979). On the other hand, the north had been led through military force without the recognition of women’s rights. The family code of 1978 was created to subjugate women by denying them their rights and freedoms.
After the unification, the South’s achievements on women’s emancipation and empowerment were lost with the formation of a parliamentary system with a powerful president. In 1992, the South’s family code of 1974 and that of the North were canceled and replaced with the Personal Status Law (PSL). This legislation was drafted even before the completion of the unification process by scholars in the north.
Therefore, it was mainly based on women’s repressive ideals that had been tolerated and practiced in the region for a long time (Manea, 2012). According to Jalalzai (2009), the involvement of women in political and social activities was limited in different regions around the world, and especially in the Middle East. Yemen’s situation was worsened by poverty and civil the 1994 civil conflict that further hindered any attempts by women emancipation movements from the south to voice their concerns. Carapico (1996) indicates that gender has always been a source of inequality in Yemen.
Moghadam (2004) adds that the different groups championing the liberation of women were dissolved after the ratification of the PSL. Therefore, women were forced to comply with the demands to dress in hijabs and assume household chores and childbearing responsibilities. Even to date, women’s rights and freedoms in the Republic of Yemen are controversial issues influenced by social and political interests, which are mainly patriarchal favoring men over their female counterparts. Illiterate levels are disproportionately high among girls because society values the education of boys. Girls are married off against their will and at a tender age by their guardians. Women can be divorced illegally and fail to get any form of compensation based on provisions of the PSL.
Analysis
Society
During the PDRY’s rule in the South, the society advocated for equality to promote women’s rights and their involvement in social and political activities. This culture had been inherited from the British administration, which had ruled the region from the 1830s. In the 1950s, colonial wives were heavily involved in public affairs and soon other women joined forces to become radicalized entities fighting for independence (Dahlgren, 2013).
Ultimately, these organizations championed women’s emancipation politics in the post-independence era. Additionally, women were engaged in proactive activities to promote their emancipation. For instance, in 1959, six women marched on the streets unveiled, and this act motivated others to join the protest against the hijab (Nejib al-Ashtal, 2012). Additionally, women’s emancipation discourse was publicized through the press. These few examples show that the society in the pre-unification era was actively involved in ensuring the participation of women in social and political affairs.
After the unification in 1990, the society’s voice on women’s emancipation was muted. In the North, women were already undergoing the adversity of patriarchal traditions. One of the provisions of the unification process was to have a parliamentary system with a strong presidency. In 1992, the family code that had allowed the women of Aden to enjoy their rights and freedoms was repelled through a presidential decree (Nejib al-Ashtal, 2012).
Consequently, society was barred from holding the discourse on women’s emancipation. The opponents of this new conservative degree on women’s rights could not defy the presidential order. Within no time, the South’s women progressive agenda was lost as people started complying with the new order. The society was required to enact the retrogressive laws segregating women and relegating them to societal disregard. Ultimately, women’s social and political status in the Republic of Yemen deteriorated and even to date, they are worse as compared to the PDRY’s ruling period.
The State
In the 1930s, the colonial British government launched concerted efforts to formalize girls’ education in South Yemen. Initially, girls studied in places of learning, popularly known as mi’lamas with the majority of the teachings being based on the Quran. However, in 1934 and 1935, the British government converted mi’lamas run by Nour and another by Nooria Enayat, respectively, into primary schools for girls (Nejib al-Ashtal, 2012).
This strategy played an important role in the transformation of the social and political status of women in Aden. Educating girls prepared them to take challenging roles in socio-economic and political spheres. According to Paluch (2001), the British administration in Aden was proactive to ensure the equality of women and at one time in the 1940s, the then region’s governor was invited to an opening ceremony of one of the girls’ schools where he presented his administration’s comprehensive plan and education policy for girls. This aspect shows how the state and the government of the time supported and promoted the social and political status of women in Aden.
When the Socialist Party assumed power in 1967 and formed a government, one of its priorities was to promote women’s emancipation popularly known as the policy of taḥrÄ«r al‑mar’ a. The government focused on anti-imperialist policies by seeking to promote the progressive ideologies held by the British. As such, the government was the leading force in ensuring that girls received the necessary preparation to become active members of society through education.
Governments play a central role in the implementation of policy on any social issue. For instance, while the PDRY in South Yemen was actively championing for the empowerment of girls and women, its counterpart in Iran was instituting gender segregation to relegate women to wifely duties and childbearing responsibilities (Moghadam, 2009). This argument underscores the role of governments in promoting the welfare of women in South Yemen. Therefore, the social and political status of women in Aden during PDRY’s rule was improving significantly through state efforts to achieve equality. However, this scenario would change drastically with the unification process of 1990.
When South was unified with North to form the Republic of Yemen, the rights that women from Aden had hitherto enjoyed were revoked and their social and political status deteriorated. Dahlgren (2013) notes that the North had been ruled by military technocrats, and they highly valued the traditional tribal system that used customary conventions to regulate family life. Before the unification process, it was against the conventions to send girls to school.
Additionally, education was rare in the North and the few available schools were only for boys. Consequently, after the unification, women would not go to school or participate in socio-political activities. Their movements were restricted and they were forced to dress in a certain manner. Therefore, the state, in this case, played an active role in the subjugation of women and denying them their rightful participation in the social and political affairs of the unified country.
Laws and the Family Code
In the South, the family code (Law no. 1 of 1974) was passed in January 1974, and it played a major role in ensuring that families, and especially women, enjoyed their rights and freedoms. One of the significant aspects of the law was the freedom-preserving legislation. This law had several clauses indicating that women had the right to education, could choose what and how to dress, it highlighted the minimum age for marriage, monogamy and alimony laws, and other provisions that preserved the dignity and rights of women.
Additionally, the law allowed women to play an active role in the political process, thus becoming part of the liberal and civil society (Moghadam, 2009). consequently, women were presented with opportunities in society.
The first female deputy minister in the Arabian Peninsula was a product of this process. Similarly, the first female civilian pilot, judge, television anchor, dean of a department in a university, and radio presenter were are born out of the era between 1970 and 1990 when the Socialist Party ruled before Aden was annexed to North Yemen. Even in the military, women were actively involved in different struggles (Molyneux, 1991). The struggles of Da’ra and the martyr of Khadija al-Hawshabia cannot be blotted out of Aden’s beautiful history of women empowerment
The modern-day situation in Aden is appalling with educated mothers, but illiterate daughters, which characterizes the state of women subjugation in the Republic of Yemen. The majority of women from the South had attended school and gained quality education before the unification. The North had already enacted its version of the family code in 1978 (Moghadam, 2004). This law was retrogressive and it entrenched the culture of repressing women through patriarchal policies.
For instance, women had to dress in a given manner covering themselves from head to toe. Besides, they were not allowed to engage in different social, political, and economic activities. In essence, women were relegated to domestic chores and childbearing responsibilities. In 1992, barely two years after the unification process, the 1978 and 1974 family codes by the North and the South respectively, were annulled and replaced with a new PSL.
The PSL emphasizes customary practices that seek to limit women’s rights in different aspects. Dahlgren (2013) posits that the majority of men in Yemen believe that the era of women’s liberation and empowerment is over. Under the PSL guidelines, women’s activities in the south were paralyzed and the local committees and unions that had been formed during the reign of the Socialist Party before 1990 were shut down.
The Yemeni Women’s Federation (YWF), which had been influential in the championing of women rights in the south struggled to rise to the national level without the much-needed support from the government. Women from the south were disoriented due to the many adverse provisions in the PSL. In 1994, a civil war broke out in the country, and thus the quest to have women rights recognized in the country was hampered by infighting due to the conflict and lack of stability in the region. In 1998, the PSL was revised to deny compensation to women divorced illegally and allow the guardian of a minor girl to marry her off without her consent (Dahlgren, 2013).
In 2000, women activists from the south petitioned President Saleh to ratify a draft law revising some of the PSL provisions. However, despite appeals from different countries around the world, through their embassies in Yemen, the president did not sign the law. Women in Yemen continue to suffer under the repressive PSL provisions. Dahlgren (2010) argues that women from the south ultimately started to wear hijabs voluntarily to appear as good mothers or people. Moghadam (2009) rues that illiteracy levels among girls are high, due to the lack of a universal schooling system for both boys and girls. Therefore, the social and political status of women in Yemen is worse as compared to how it was under PDRY.
Conclusion
Women’s rights in Yemen are limited, and thus their participation in political, social, and economic activities is minimal. However, the situation has now always been this grim. Before the unification process of 1990 where the south was annexed to the north to form the Republic of Yemen, women in Aden enjoyed equal rights as freedoms as their male counterparts. The Socialist Party, which ruled the PDRY after the independence of the south in 1967, had worked strategically and deliberately to ensure that women were involved in socio-economic and political activities in the country.
The society was vibrant, and it supported the quest for women’s emancipation. The family code of 1974 legalized women’s rights and freedoms in the south. However, after the unification, a new law was enacted and it had numerous stipulations subjugating women by denying them equal rights with their male counterparts.
The current PSL law is based on patriarchal traditions that relegate women’s place in society to household chores and childbearing duties. The 1994 civil war hindered the progress of any attempts by women groups to have their voices heard at a national level.
The PSL has been revised several times, but women have not gained their rights and freedoms, and thus they remain bound. This paper has shown that the status of women’s involvement in social and political activities in the south, under the rule of the Socialist Party in PDRY, was better as compared to after the unification process of 1990. Future research should focus on ways that the current Yemen administration can be engaged to allow women to start enjoying their freedoms and rights like any other human being.
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