Yemen in Times of Change

16Oct09

Published January 7, 2008 by The Sherbrooke Record

Are girls slowly gaining ground in this largely male-dominated country ?

“Teacher, you smilling means every thing for us”, one of my students has written on a little sticker that she hands me at the end of class. It is one of the many moving experiences during my time as an English conversation teacher in a girls’ school in Yemen’s capital Sana’a, an ancient city with magnificently decorated houses, lively and colourful souks (markets), and extremely gentle and hospitable people. 

In the school, bright and ambitious Yemeni girls with meaningful names such as Magic, Dream, Midnight, and Purity are preparing themselves, against all odds, to become future leaders of a still very conservative Muslim society in which many women do not even know how to read and write.

In this school, however, girls learn subjects like computer and research skills, and sit in on seminars in health science, human rights, and environmental issues. They converse daily in English and are taught leadership, communication, and networking skills.

Lately, Yemen’s illiteracy rate has been falling steadily thanks to a recent government action to increase the number of schools and literacy programs nationwide. Add to this calls on mosque preachers to stress the importance of good education. Yet, illiteracy is still rampant in the rural areas where about 75% of all Yemenis (about 20 million people) live. There are not always schools and teachers available in the many far-away hilltop villages , or the quality of education, classroom facilities, materials, and teachers leaves much to be desired.

Poverty also plays a decisive role, as most families cannot afford to send their children to school (43% of Yemenis live below the $2 a day poverty line), or prefer to use their children as cheap labor.

The illiteracy rate is especially high among women and girls, because tribal tradition does not encourage girls to attend school. According to a recent UNICEF report, Yemen’s gender gap in education is among the highest in the world, and it is estimated that only one in three Yemeni girls aged 6 to15 attends classes on a more or less regular basis. Instead, girls are supposed to help their mothers with household chores, take care of younger siblings, fetch water or wood, or prepare for their own marriage at an often frighteningly young age.

In these rural, conservative families, the father and son are the undisputed decisionmakers, and girls are often treated as inferior, with only marriage and childbearing to provide them with some status in society. Tribal law still enjoys a high degree of social acceptance, and is rarely violated. Moreover, the lack of official law enforcement and policies to protect children only reinforces and perpetuates the status quo.

Another obstacle to getting girls in school is the lack of availability of female teachers in the villages. Most parents do not allow their daughters to be taught by a male. 

In order to break the cycle of illiteracy and disempowerment among Yemeni women, a few young and educated women, lucky enough to have been sent to school by parents who did value education, founded the first learning centre in Yemen exclusively for girls. This was nine years ago, when The Girls’ World Communication Centre started on a small scale in a private home in Sana’a. Soon, however, the school could expand to its own building and provide full and partial scholarships to underprivileged girls thanks to donations of several national and international patrons. In 2005, the centre even branched out into another initiative, a Business Enterprise Centre which provides training, internships and job placements to young people aged 18 to 25.

So far, attending classes at both centres has not only changed the lives of many girls themselves, but also of those around them. “My father did not want me to finish school. I had to stay home and help my mother” says a very bright and articulate Sameera in fluent English. “But my school teacher did a good word for me, and finally my father agreed, mainly because this is a girls school with only female teachers. In the first few months, my brother had to bring me every morning, and pick me up again in the afternoon. My parents were too frightened that I would speak to a man, or be exposed to bad influences. Besides, what would other people think and say about our family”! But she quickly adds with obvious pride: “Now I am allowed to take the bus by myself. And what’s more, my sister is now in school too, my mother takes computer classes, and my cousin is doing volunteer work in the centre”.

Says Antelak Al-Mutawakel, English literature professor and co-founder of the centre: “We know that change needs time to develop fully in Yemen. But we trust that with a good balance between respecting traditional values and providing education to become critical thinkers, the girls will be able to make the right decisions for themselves in the end. Witnessing them slowly change from the moment they come in until the day they graduate, the ripple effect their learnings and gained awareness brings about in their families, and the success stories of past students who have now obtained leadership positions in our still strongly male-dominated communities and society, that’s what keeps us all passionate about the work we are doing here”!

The students in my conversation class firmly believe that one day they will become prominent doctors, lawyers, and business women. One girl even sees herself as the future president of this land of the Queen of Sheba. But behind their veils, they seem to do a lot of day-dreaming about something quite different as well: their engagement to an ideal suitor – to be arranged exclusively by their elders – who will bring them gold, pure bliss, and a happy life ever after…..

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