SANA’A — Since the Houthis rebels seized the Yemeni capital a decade ago, they have aimed to control all walks of life in areas they seize. And women have been their primary target.
Over the years, a range of new types of restrictions have been imposed on women who had already long been marginalized in the Arab nation. Such restrictions have turned the already shrinking public space in Houthi areas into an aggressive zone for women.
This system has been enforced with inflammatory rhetoric, sermons at local mosques and their Iranian-style morality police known as “Zainabiat.”
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The rebel group, which is backed by the Islamic regime in Tehran, has virtually barred women from travel since 2019 when they issued a verbal decree forbidding women from travel abroad or between Yemeni cities without a written approval from their male guardian and the Houthi-controlled Interior Ministry. The group has recently gone further and barred women from travel without a male guardian, or mahram, accompanying them.
Some tribes in Sana’a, Yemen’s capital, followed the Houthis lead and barred their women from traveling without mahram. They also barred them from working with humanitarian organizations, which they accuse of “extorting them sexually,” according to a tribal document crafted in Sep. 2021.
Zainabiat
Such verbal and tribal restrictions are viewed as an attempt by the Houthis to escape criticism and charges from the international community for their rule, warned a feminist activist in Sana’a, who asked to be referred to as Soaad for fear of reprisal from the rebels.
A 2023 report by the Human Rights Ministry of the internationally recognized government described the Houthi decisions as “gender-based violence.” The reports cited “Zainabiat” which the Houthis created in 2014.
The secretive police corps, which includes 500 women, used to hound women and girls in schools, universities, parks and transportation to implement the Houthis restrictions on the movement of women.
The Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedoms documented 1,444 incidents of violence by the Zainabiat in 2022. Such incidents included raids, searches, kidnapping and sometimes killings and torture of women inside prisons, according to the local rights group.
They want to reshape the whole society.
The Human Rights Ministry’s report also revealed that women traveling without a mahram were subjected to harassment, blackmail, arrest, and interrogation for long hours in Houthi-manned checkpoints.
The rebels call women traveling without a mahram “prostitutes” and confiscate their passports. They hold them in custody until they pledge not to travel again without a male family member, according to the ministry.
Violence against women came in light of what the Houthis call “faith identity” approach, which is also used by the rebels to wage “war” against international and local humanitarian groups. The Houthis say such humanitarian groups “lead a soft war aimed at destroying society’s values and morals, and use women to achieve this.”
Maysaa Shuja al-Din, a researcher at the Sana’a Center for Studies, said the Houthis are not only a group seeking power, but rather “a totalitarian regime that seeks to impose values and concepts on society. They want to reshape the whole society.”
She said the Houthis’ relationship with women is linked to their ideological character as an extremist religious group which has grown concerned about women’s activities, including their work with charities and relief groups.
Mahram regime imposed
The Houthis’ restrictions on women have impacted the deteriorating living conditions of Yemenis in their areas. Many women lost their jobs. Humanitarian groups have scaled down their operations due to the rebels’ threat to their female workers.
Shuja al-Din, the researcher, criticized humanitarian groups that didn’t resist Houthis’ restrictions.
“Instead of putting pressure on the Houthis and supporting these girls, they simply replaced them with young men,” she said.
The United Nations warned last year that restrictions and discrimination against women have persisted under the Houthis’ “mahram regime.” It said about 12.6 million women need life-saving services, related to protection and reproductive health. They include 7.1 million who need urgent access to such services, the U.N. said.
My life is at a standstill and I do not know what my future will look like.
The Human Rights Ministry’s report said Houthis’ restrictions doubled the cost of travel for women who have to pay for their mahram who would accompany her during the trip.
One woman who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal said she has lost job opportunities under the new rules. “I am now in Sana’a doing nothing. My life is at a standstill and I do not know what my future will look like.”
Lost jobs
Travel agencies in the Houthi-held areas have been ordered not to transport women without mahram. That verbal decisions have forced many women — including female workers at humanitarian groups — to flee the Houthi rule, and move to areas controlled by the internationally recognized government.
“I used to work for an organization in Sana’a, and my work required me to constantly move between cities. But recently, the Houthis imposed a mahram (regime),” said a female humanitarian worker, who was forced to apply for a new job in the government-held province of Taiz.
“I don’t apply for any job in areas under Houthi control,” she said, “regardless of the salary.”.
