The War in Yemen Spurs Surprising Challenges to Traditional Gender Roles

SANAA — Talee’a Salem, 33, roams the streets of Yemen’s southern city of Aden everyday in her silver minivan delivering all sorts of products — and people. Clad in the typical full-body veil, the sight of her making deliveries is an unusual one to behold in the conservative country, where women are bound by deeply-ingrained gender roles that hold men as protectors and earners and women as childbearers, secondary to men. But with an ongoing civil war that’s worsening a dire humanitarian crisis, it’s women like Salem who are challenging societal rules in order to provide for their families.

Seven years into a civil war, Yemen remains the world’s worst man-made humanitarian crisis. Nearly 71 percent of the total population — 20.7 million people — are in need of humanitarian assistance;16.2 million people face hunger, pushing society against its own customs in order to survive. According to the UN Refugee Agency, a quarter of displaced families in Yemen are now headed by a woman or girl.

“The ongoing war, men’s involvement in the battlefronts, the deteriorating economic situation, and the interruption of salaries have all enabled the participation of women in the public sphere,” said Rasha Jarhum, founder and director of the Peace Track Initiative (PTI), a group that works toward empowering Yemeni women and including them in peacebuilding efforts. Consequently, women like Salem have pushed into jobs that long have been held exclusively by men.

Before Salem turned to driving for extra income, she was a teacher at a private school. “[But] we were no longer able as a family to afford our basic needs,” the mother of four said.

Launched in September 2020, “Absher”—Salem’s delivery business—serves Aden’s women in obtaining household items they can’t buy themselves, due to either security-related concerns or because some women have no male relative to collect heavy items, such as cooking gas canisters or water, Salem said. The service is available via mobile app, which was built by her software developer husband.

Salem began with a women-only team to encourage others to join but eventually hired men as the city’s security situation worsened. Car bombs, for instance, are regular occurrences on the streets of Aden: in November, a pregnant journalist and her child were killed by an explosive device planted in her family’s car, while her husband was badly wounded.

‘Worst place for women’

Security-related risks have shaped Yemenis’ lives since a 2014 power takeover by Iran-backed Houthi rebels ignited a civil war, with a Saudi-led coalition vying to reinstate a fleeing government. Since then, endless atrocities and war crimes have been committed against Yemeni civilians by warring factions as a bitter regional feud and power play ravage the country.

But, Jarhum notes, Yemen’s record of hostility toward women long preceded the war: it was ranked last in the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Gender Gap index for 13 consecutive years. Violence against women was instilled in law, Jarhum said, in discriminatory establishments (built on patriarchal guardianship) and in demeaning gendered norms, which restricted women’s potential and opportunities.

Still, the war brought violations committed against women to new levels, she said. “Arbitrary arrests, sexual assault and torture, and mobility restrictions — especially in areas controlled by the Houthis — as well as increased domestic abuse are among the many forms of violence Yemeni women face today.”

In 2019, Amnesty International described Yemen as one of the worst places for women to live.

Amid this stark reality, ventures like Salem’s reveal the new societal territories that some Yemeni women are daring to explore despite all odds — and with significant rewards.

In time, Salem’s Absher has expanded its client base from only women to also including small enterprises and other customers, and slowly accruing 14 drivers in her fleet. She says she’s served at least 40 percent of Aden’s population by now.

Positive feedback

Faced with violence and restrictions to their mobility — but still expected to provide for their families — other women have started small businesses from the safety of their homes, and in traditionally male-dominated professions.

Fakhriya Naji, 40, took up tailoring in the suburbs of the southwestern city of Ibb. Male tailors have always dominated this market, not only in Yemen but across the Arabian Gulf. But when Naji’s husband, a civil servant in the educational sector, joined the more than half a million government employees whose salaries were suspended in the Houthi-held areas in 2016, the mother of seven saw an opportunity as a female tailor serving other women.

“Since receiving our last paycheck in June 2016, our family has lived through dire times,” Naji said. Her husband repeatedly attempted to find another source of income but failed. So, in early 2017, Naji began sewing women’s clothes, which she sells to other women in her village.

“Despite the conservative nature of the village’s community,” she said, “people’s reaction to my work has been very encouraging and supportive.” Her business has since pulled her family’s financial circumstances away from the brink — and then some. “I’m even considering setting up a shop to sell the clothes I make.”

Echoing similar positive experiences in starting her own business is Zainab al-Samei, 43. The widow began making and selling frankincense, a cherished traditional commodity, from her home in the southwestern province of Taiz after her husband, a construction worker, was killed in the war in 2016.

“My husband handled all our living expenses through his construction business,” said al-Samei. “But after his death — all of the sudden — I was forced to fend for myself and my seven children. Let’s face it, I either work or put my kids on the street to beg for money.”

al-Samei began selling incense from her home in early 2017 with the help of her daughters, who deliver the product to nearby clients. Neighbors — especially women — have supported her project. “People’s approach has been tolerant and positive.”

Still a long way to go

But the country has a long way to go before it permanently disrupts gender conventions.

A recent WEF report shows that the country’s gender gap in economic participation, education, and income is among the world’s most extreme: Despite women’s increased participation in the labor market and families’ continued dependence on them as caregivers, the difference between men and women in the labor market in Yemen stands at 91 percent, with the income gap at over 93 percent, according to the report.

“Despite Yemeni women’s recent participation in some sectors and businesses, traditional gender roles are still part of the prevailing culture in society,” said Olfat al-Dubaei, a sociology professor at Taiz University and member of the National Dialogue Conference, which shaped Yemen’s transitional peace process in the earlier days of the war.

Yemen’s steadfast and stubborn commitment to these enshrined gender roles was on full display in August 2020, when, in forming a new cabinet, the legitimate government did not include a single female member for the first time in 20 years. The country’s national assembly had included one female parliamentarian out of 301, but she died in 2015.

Women also remain underrepresented in peace-building negotiations, despite UN resolutions that have not been translated on the ground. This prompted independent groups like PTI to take initiatives like the recent Feminist Peace Roadmap, which brought together 148 women and 38 men to discuss a multi-phase guiding framework for achieving peace in Yemen. “We press for women’s inclusion, and when the doors shut in our faces, we create our space,” said Jarhum, who added that the roadmap has been well-received on the national and local levels, and efforts continue with local leaders to adopt the roadmap.

“I believe awareness in Yemen’s society has increased,” said al-Dubaei. “And it’s not just among women but men as well, who play an integral role in supporting women and reducing the amount of wasted human potential resulting from society’s stereotypical approach towards gender.”

Ultimately, al-Dubaei believes, challenging these rigid gender roles must begin in the private domain, which makes these women’s enterprises all the more revolutionary.

This story has been published in collaboration with Egab.