06-13-2017. Casa Árabe invited the journalist and blogger Afrah Nasser to analyze the ties linking gender, culture, Islam, power and social change in Yemen.
Taking part in the conference are Afrah Nasser, a Yemeni journalist and blogger, and Leyla Hamad, a researcher for the Political and Electoral Observatory of the Arab and Muslim World (OPEMAM).
The high rate of gender inequality in Yemen means that women have very few rights in terms of education, marriage and medical care, as well as other basic human rights. Moreover, the combination of statutory law, Sharia, traditional tribal practices and customary law leave women vulnerable to violence and discrimination. The current war in Yemen has sharpened these deep inequalities, all of which is made even worse by the humanitarian crisis. Nevertheless, since the popular uprising in 2011, a political culture of feminist resistance has been forming, which must be analyzed and highlighted, with the example of the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to activist Tawakkol Karman.
Afrah Nasser is an independent writer and award-winning blogger whose work focuses on human rights violations, women’s rights and the politics of Yemen. She has worked as a reporter for the newspaper Yemen Observer and began her blog on the uprisings in Yemen (http://afrahnasser.blogspot.com.es) in 2011. That same year, hers was selected by CNN.com as one of the “must-read” blogs on the Middle East, and she was highlighted among the 100 most influential Arabs by the magazine Business Arabian. In 2011, she became a political refugee in Sweden, the country where she completed her graduate studies in Communication at the University of Göteborg, where she is one of the co-founders of the NGO The Yemeni Salon.
More info: http://en.casaarabe.es/event/women-and-political-resistance-in-yemen
