Yemeni Women's Union

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Yemeni Women's Union
Ittihad Nisaa al-Yaman
AbbreviationYWU
Formation1990
Type
Sana'a
Websitehttp://yemeniwomen.org

The Yemeni Women's Union (YWU) is a Non Governmental Organization (NGO) founded in 1990. Its purpose is to promote women's civil rights and to empower women in Yemen. The current chairperson of the Yemeni Women's Union is Fathiye Abdullah.[1]

About

The YWU is headquartered in

Sana'a and has 22 different branch offices and 132 smaller offices throughout Yemen.[2] Each branch offers women microcredit projects, literacy, health care and vocational training programs.[3] Branches have also conducted legal workshops for women on commercial and tax laws.[4] Other workshops have covered amendments to marriage laws and custody rights for women.[5]

There are about thirty-two staff members and ten "elected volunteers" at the Executive Office.[2] Many YWU branches include men in their outreach, citing that women's problems in Yemen "cannot be resolved without men's support."[6]

The YWU runs shelters with undisclosed locations to protect women who have fled from violent or abusive family situations.[7] The YWU also runs a hotline which allows women to report domestic abuse so that they can be "transferred to a safe house and assigned an attorney."[8]

Literacy and education are also important to the mission of YWU. The organization manages over 10% of all literacy classes in Yemen and helps raise awareness about the importance of education for women.[9]

The YWU also helped establish the country's first detention center run exclusively by women in 2005 and helped release 450 women from police custody in 2004 and 2005.[10] YWU also helped change a law which did not allow women to be released from prison unless they were "collected by a male guardian."[11]

YWU is also active politically and in religious matters. In 2008, when

Muslim clerics issued a fatwa against women running for office, YWU's former chairperson, Ramziya al-Iryani, responded stating that the fatwa was "against Islam, against equality between men and women stipulated by the Quran."[12] Another issue YWU has been involved with politically has been on the question of allowing the use and cultivation of qat.[13]

History

During the

Aden Women's Association before independence.[3] The project to merge these groups was supposed to take two months, but instead, it took nearly a year to merge into the Yemeni Women's Union.[15] Some of the difficulties in unifying the groups was due to political differences: the southern branch was Marxist and the northern branch was controlled by women who worked with the Islah Reform Party.[3] It wasn't until 2000 that the political differences between the members of the groups were resolved.[16]

The YWU was led by Amat Al Alim Alsoswa starting before its incorporation, from 1989 to 1991.[17]

In 2013, the combined membership of YWU was estimated at around 4,000 members.[3]

References

  1. ^ Al-Mohattwari, Asma (1 March 2015). "Yemeni Women Dream of an Equal, Modern and Stable State". National Yemen. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
  2. ^ a b "Yemeni Women's Union". Nakweh. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
  3. ^
    ISBN 9780810868588
    .
  4. ISBN 9781437905229
    . Retrieved 5 August 2015.
  5. ^ "YWU, German Embassy Discuss YWU Projects". Arabia 2000. 24 August 2009. Retrieved 5 August 2015 – via Newspaper Source - EBSCO.
  6. ISBN 0855985143
    .
  7. ^ Murray, Rebecca (5 January 2013). "Yemeni Women Struggle to Step Forward". Inter Press Service. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
  8. ^ Qaed, Samar (27 May 2013). "Need Help? Hotlines Provide Safe Space for Yemeni Women". Yemen Times. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
  9. ^ "Yemen Long Battle With Illiteracy". Yemen Post. 7 March 2013. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
  10. ISBN 9781780772318
    . Retrieved 5 August 2015.
  11. ISBN 9780855985936
    .
  12. ^ "Yemeni Group Slams Fatwa Banning Female MPs". Al Arabiya News. 21 July 2008. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
  13. ^ Al-Sakkaf, Nadia (28 August 2014). "Politics of Qat by Peer Gatter: The Long Awaited Conference on Qat - 2002". Yemen Times. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
  14. ISBN 978-0-8156-3121-7
    .
  15. ISBN 9780415617734
    .
  16. ISBN 9780810855281
    .
  17. ^ "Amat Al Alim Alsoswa". Center for International Private Enterprise. Retrieved 5 August 2015.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Yemeni_Women%27s_Union&oldid=1119528935"