Yemen: Women respond to the Vice and Virtue Committee-Part II

The Yemen Women Union is one of the oldest women’s organizations in Yemen. It was formed in 1990 by combining the northern and southern branches, which existed before unification.

This is the second part of a series of interviews that aim to reflect the opinion of several women’s organizations, members of political parties, researchers and journalists that have responded to the establishment of the Vice and Virtue Committee (VVC) and to the fatwa issued against women’s political participation in the context of the upcoming parliamentary elections that will be held in April 2009.

In this occasion we interviewed Ramzia al-Eryani, Chairwoman of the Yemen Women Union (YWU), a non-governamental organization that works in partnership with the government’s policies.

Al-Eryani studied in Ta’iiz, where she started from an early age to work at a Women’s Society teaching and focusing on illiteracy programs. She writes in newspapers since she was 15 years old and considers herself as one of the first women that wrote about women’s issues in Yemen.

She studied Philosophy, with concentrations in Sociology and Psychology in Cairo, and conducted research on political art. In 1980 she was one of the first women to work as a diplomat and in 1982 she moved to India, where she obtained her master’s from Nehru University. Al-Eryani has worked in the field of diplomacy also in Tunisia and in Washington DC. In 2000 she was called to work for the YWU and became the chairperson of the Union. In July 2008 Ramzia al-Eryany was again unanimously elected to hold the YWU’s leadership.

Yemen Observer (YO): - When did you first hear about the Vice and Virtue Committee?

Ramzia al-Eryani (RAE): -Actually, the very same day that they held their conference in July. Maybe I heard something about them before but I did not believe it, and when they held their conference and I read it in the newspapers I could not believe it either. That same night I called my colleagues and set a reunion for next day. Early that morning we prepared a letter that we sent right away to the speaker of the parliament.

In the letter we provided proof from the Qur’an in order to remind that women’s political participation has never been forbidden by Islam and that the fatwa issued by the VVC against a quota that would reserve 15 percent of the seats at the parliament for female candidates is against Islam. Al-Zindani wanted civil society to follow his Virtue Committee, but the society reacted in a very different way.

When they talked about virtue they only focused on women, on nothing else. We are treated as objects, not as human beings. But the Qur’an does not treat women like this, for men and women are the same thing. However, no one talks about the rights Islam provides to women. Our Prophet said that women must be educated but the Virtue Committee now acts against this. Women need the possibility to participate in the political life of the country.

YO: - Why do you think this is happening now?

RAE: - This is not something new, the people that conform the VVC have been arranging this since long time ago. Their conference congregated around 3000 people and they cannot organize such a gathering from one day to another. Before the VVC held their conference I did not hear about them in the sense of them being any sort of authority, but many people started to talk about acts here and there in the country that we now connect to this committee.

It is a coincidence that they held their conference the same week that the president declared that the war in Sa’adah was over, but this is just a coincidence because they have been preparing this long time ago. Somehow, they were given the possibility to become an authority and they are using it now, months before the parliamentary elections of 2009. It is a good moment for them, the government is busy with the end of the war in Sa’adah, with establishing the elections committee and with all the discussions that issue is provoking.

YO: - Besides the note to the speaker of the parliament, what other actions is the YWU taking regarding the VVC and in reference to a female quota?

RAE: - We are holding several seminars to increase women’s political participation and we will continue with these activities. We went to Ta’iiz, Mahwit, Shawa and many other places in Yemen training women, making them aware about the need of their political participation, giving them the tools to become candidates and explaining to them the rights they have following the Qur’an. Also we are holding workshops to create awareness about the families from Sa’adah that are in need of help after the war. This is our work as a non-governmental organisation but also we want to issue another fatwa against the one the VVC issued. We will not keep quiet. I am responsible for Yemeni women, and not only for myself.

YO: - What can you tell us about other women activist’s reactions?

RAE: -We are also working with women members of the Islah party and they are somehow divided. Some of them are against the VVC, some of them with it. There are women that do not agree with everything the VVC says, mainly with their stand on women’s political participation. It is necessary to remember that members of Islah from Hodeidah and Ta’iiz were candidates for the Local Council elections in 2006, so of course they have a different opinion on what is going on inside Islah.

On our side we are going to continue with our workshops in order to increase women’s participation in the upcoming elections and so as to generate women’s leadership at all levels. The workshops are our fight and this is one of our ways to raise awareness about women’s rights in Islam. We have to go ahead with our ideas. Women candidates for the 2009 parliamentary elections need to start building actions, awareness, political projects, from now.

Written By: Anahi Alviso-Marino