Gulf | Yemen
Yemeni women swell in party ranks, not government bodies
Yemeni women participate in political parties in greater numbers than in legislative and executive bodies, said a recent report on women's status in the country.
- By Nasser Arrabyee, Correspondent
- Published: 00:20 September 5, 2008
Sana'a: Yemeni women participate in political parties in greater numbers than in legislative and executive bodies, said a recent report on women's status in the country.
At the highest leadership of the three main political parties, there are about 168 women as against some 1,469 men, said the report, which was prepared jointly by the government-backed High Council of Women and the National Committee of Women.
Six women and 10 men take up the higher positions of the largest Islamist opposition party, Islah, according to the report, which says the Islah party was topped terms of women's participation.
The ruling party, General People's Congress (GPC), ranks second, where 1,390 women are part of its Politburo and Central Committee as against 4,401 men.
The Socialist party ranks third, where only 15 women and 100 men participate in its supreme bodies.
In the judiciary, the report says that women's participation is very weak.
In general prosecution offices, there are only 85 women judges as against 953 men, according to the 2007 statistics. The number of women judges was 76 versus 1,131 men in courts.
"The reason behind the low number of women working in the judicial field is that women were only allowed to study in the high judicial institute from 2006."
A sociologist from Sana'a University, Adel Al Sharjabi, said discriminative laws was a major cause behind the situation.
Al Sharjabi mentioned the law of personal status, as an example, which obligates women to take permission from their husbands if they were to go out. "There is contradiction between legislation that guarantees women's rights and legislation that obligates them to take permission from the husband," he added.
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