Progress Amid Resistance

YEMEN 565Although Yemeni political parties claim to support women as full partymembers with equal rights and duties, women are separated into distinctunits and premises by most of the political parties, and generally occupyfew leadership positions. 47 The Islah party underwent an internal transformationin 2006 after its female members demanded to be fully integratedinto leadership positions. That year, women were elected for the first timeto Islah’s General Secretariat and Shura Council. They now represent 38.1percent of the General Secretariat, the top leadership body in the party.In March 2009, the 5,000-member assembly of Islah unanimously votedagainst a Salafi fatwa, or religious edict, that had denied women the rightto political participation in these decision-making bodies.Despite an agreement between the ruling and opposition parties in2006 that called for all to support women’s legal rights, half of the partiesdid not nominate any female candidates. Chief among them was Islah,which adhered staunchly to its public rejection of female candidacy despiteits acceptance of women in the internal party hierarchy. Due to Islah’sstance against women’s nomination, the five leading opposition partiesthat had formed a coalition with Islah were hesitant to name female candidatesfor fear of undermining their own electoral chances. 48 The YemeniSocialist Party (YSP) was the only party that offered additional support toits female candidates. 49In general, women’s ability to participate in the political arena and in -fluence decision making is consistently and severely compromised by widespreadnegative attitudes toward their involvement. This problem is rootedin the belief—shared by many women as well as men—that women inherentlylack the capacity to fully engage in public life. Moreover, Islamic fundamentalistshave targeted the few gains made in women’s political rightsin recent years on religious grounds. In June 2008, a group of Salafistsheikhs issued a small handbook that petitions against quotas for women’spolitical participation, arguing that “opening the door for women to leavetheir houses and mix with men will lead to sexual chaos.” 50Women remain significantly underrepresented in the judiciary and theexecutive branch, although some positive developments have occurred inrecent years. The first female judge was appointed to the Supreme Courtin September 2006. Also that year, women ran for president for the firsttime in Yemeni history: three women were among 49 potential candidatesin the run-up to the September presidential election. According to Article66 of the Elections Law (No. 13 of 2001), the application of a potential