SANA, Yemen — Early in Yemen’s uprising, about 20 women with banners demanding equal rights marched into the heart of the capital, joining the thousands who were calling for the ouster of the president. They were greeted with cheers.
The women settled into a spot below the stage in the middle of Change Square. But as the days passed, “the women’s section” became off-limits to men. A fence went up around it. Straw mats were slung over the fence to conceal the women. The area was policed by bearded males, and Yemen’s traditional gender segregation had insinuated itself into the center of the revolt.
Women are fighting to keep demands for their rights at the center of Yemen’s uprising and resist efforts to sideline them.
The main goal of the protests is an end to President Ali Abdullah Saleh and his regime, in place for nearly 33 years. But the liberals who launched the campaign nine months ago have broader hopes for blanket social change in a country where tribe and religion dominate, no matter who is in power.
Women’s role in the uprising was recognized globally when Tawakkul Karman, a female icon of the protest movement, won the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize. But here in Sana, the reality is that every woman who joins the rallies has to rebel against the heavy pressure of social codes.
“They are systematically excluding us women,” said Wameedh Shaker, who wears the hallmarks of liberal Yemeni womanhood — jeans, knee- length coat and a scarf covering her hair.
She remembers the exhilarating welcome for that first march.
“We felt like everything we can dream of will come true,” said Shaker, 31. “Coming into the square was like going to a paradise of respect and compassion. It was like the best men and women of Yemen gathered at one place.”
About a fifth of those taking to the streets every day in protests are women — a level of participation that in itself represents a revolution for Yemen, where women are discouraged from inserting themselves into the public eye, much less the public debate.
Hooria Mashhour, who works with an independent women’s group, insists women’s time has come. The post-revolutionary state, she said, “will have to include women in numbers that mirror the magnitude of their role in the revolution.”
Arab Unrest
SYRIA: Violence erupts in center of protest, killing five.
Violence erupted Saturday in the city of Homs, killing at least five people as tank shells slammed into an area that has turned into one of the main centers of both protest and reprisal during the seven-month uprising, activists said.
Also Saturday, the Syrian government lashed out at the Obama administration for “blatant interference in Syrian affairs” after the State Department advised people in the country against surrendering as part of an amnesty offered by the regime.
Syria accused Washington of “inciting sedition, supporting the acts of killing and terrorism,” the official Syrian news agency said, quoting an official source at the Foreign Ministry.
SAUDI ARABIA: Libyans free to participate in Muslim pilgrimage.
Libyans long denied the opportunity to make the hajj usually reserved for Moammar Khadafy’s cronies were among the millions of Muslims ascending a holy mountain Saturday to begin the annual week-long pilgrimage.
A red carpet has replaced the Khadafy green at the Libyan tent camp, and those given preference this year to fill the North African nation’s quota were relatives of fighters killed trying to oust the longtime dictator.
Denver Post wire services
