Gulf | Yemen
Student attacked for walking with women
A 23-year-old university student said he was beaten up for walking with a female friend in Aden in May.
- By Nasser Arrabyee, Correspondent
- Published: 00:11 June 6, 2008
Sana'a: A 23-year-old university student said he was beaten up for walking with a female friend in Aden in May.
"A bearded man attacked and slapped me while I was walking with my girl colleague, saying it's haram to talk to women in the street," said the student.
The student was going home from the Aden law college along with two boys and three girls when a group of religious men intercepted them and had a fight with them over "walking and talking" with girls in the street.
In an interview with Gulf News this week, the student, who asked not to be named, said: "When I asked the men why are you doing this, one of them rudely said, 'Do you want us to wait until you have sex with her in the street?'"
The six students, aged between 23 and 24, four of whom were interviewed by Gulf News, went to police but could not accuse any-one. They did not know the men who attacked them.
"We know only that one of them was named Ramazi, and police told us they would do their best to find the assailants," he said.
The incident, which is unprecedented in Yemen, came only weeks after a number of Yemeni religious scholars asked President Ali Abdullah Saleh to issue a decree allowing them to form committees throughout the country such as those in Saudi Arabia to "protect virtues".
The committees are not yet formed in Yemen as a debate continues on what the task of these committees would be, presumably to focus mainly on fighting the trend toward night clubs, trading in alcohol, and movies in hotels.
Threat
"The clamour is not more than an attempt by those who want to destroy our society's morals," said Hamoud Al Tharhi, one of the most enthusiastic scholars who asked President Saleh to form these committees last month.
If formed, the committees will include scholars and officials like the Minister of Interior and Minister of Information, said Al Tharhi.
"When you see a hotel selling wines and showing sexy movies and you go to police station to complain, they say the hotels have permission to do that. What is this, is this Islam?" Al Tharhi asked.
Public role
Women's participation in public life would also be monitored by these committees.
"Why are you walking with this boy, have not your parents told you it's shame when a girl walks with a boy," the girl student told Gulf News, quoting one of their assaulters as saying.
"He held my arm up and started screaming and using very bad words to insult me," she said.
The committees will be a threat to personal rights, said a Yemeni journalist.
"If a scholar forced me to pray or to fast or to worship, then this worship is for him, not for Allah. So the problem is in violence and force, and not in advising people," said a journalist who preferred not to be named.
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