Yemen: Four Yemeni women to be named heads of districts

Sana'a: Four Yemeni women will be appointed as heads of districts in four pro-vinces in the country for the first time, said an official on Monday.

The minister of local administration, Abdul Qader Helal, said this will pave the way for women to also become governors of provinces. The country is divided into 21 provinces which have 333 districts.

"Appointing women as heads of districts will help society gradually accept women as leaders," the minister said. The minister said the four women will be appointed this week in Sana'a, Taiz, Ibb and Hodeida provinces.

This Saturday Yemen will witness indirect elections for the governors of the 21 provinces for the first time. Some 8,000 members of the already-elected local councils will vote for 21 of the 37 male candidates, all of them from the ruling party, to be governors. The three main opposition parties, Islamists, Socialist and Nasserites, have boycotted the elections because they wanted the governors to be elected directly not from the elected members of local councils which are predominated by the ruling party.

All six women who nominated themselves last week withdrew at the last minute. In a poll conducted last week, 53.8 per cent of 600 respondents disagreed with the idea of electing a woman for the governor's post even if she meets all favourable conditions.

By Nasser Arrabyee, Correspondent