Seeking equal stake in the political process

Taiz: Every day, Ahlan Muthana breaks away from the past. At pro-democracy rallies, she leads crowds of protesters chanting against the government, an act unthinkable for a Yemeni woman only a year ago.

Men who never took her seriously now listen to her ideas and, like disciples, join in her calls for justice. Muthana, however, was reminded that the future she seeks is still far away.

At an opposition meeting, she and other female activists were told that they had to enter through the back door, a sober reminder of the obstacles they continue to face in a changing Yemeni society.

For thousands of women, the 11-month-old populist uprising has never been just about ending Ali Abdullah Saleh's 33-year-long rule.

It is as much about gaining long-denied basic liberties, about altering the trajectories of subsequent generations of Yemeni women. The world applauded their aspirations, giving activist Tawakkul Karman the Nobel Peace Prize this year — the first Arab woman to receive this honour.

Conversations

But casting a shadow over conversations with women at the heart of the struggle is a sense that their revolt has been overshadowed by competing forces, from geopolitics to regional power plays, from fears of terrorism to local grabs for influence.

For Yemeni women the new Yemen looks a lot like the old, and they worry that the small but unprecedented gains they have made could be reversed. "We fear that women will be pushed out after the revolution," Muthana said. "We fear we won't be included in the political process."

Of all the Arab countries transformed by protest movements in the past year, Yemen arguably had the most to gain from change. Taiz, where Nobel laureate Karman was born, has a history of resistance, driven by resentment toward Saleh for ignoring the region for decades.

In a country with 60 per cent illiteracy among women in some areas and the lowest rate of school enrolment for girls in the Middle East, many families in Taiz educate their daughters.

Inspired by female activists in Tunisia and Egypt, as well as by Karman, hundreds of women arrived daily at Freedom Square, the focal point of activism here, chanting for Saleh to leave as protests in Sana'a were heating up in February.

They were educated, middle- and upper-class women who believed that broader social change could be achieved only through Saleh's removal.

Lawyer Nadia Al Amery, 30, remembers how male judges never took her legal arguments seriously in the courtroom. Now, they view her with more respect, she said, although most still do not consider her their equal.

A year ago, a male relative had to escort Muthana whenever she left her house. Now, she can leave on her own. But when a group of female activists, including Muthana, visited Cairo last month to attend a conference, they understood they had a steep climb ahead.