Progress Amid Resistance

YEMEN 569female health workers inhibits women’s access because they are reluctant toconsult male doctors. Weak logistics and supervision systems are chronicshortcomings that lead to unreliable services. 62Yemeni women are not protected from harmful, gender-based traditionalpractices. Early and forced marriages, as well as female genitalmutilation (FGM), are seen as part of Yemeni culture. FGM is also widespreadamong the refugee communities, especially the Somalis. It is oftenpracticed among Yemeni Sunni Muslims living in the coastal and southernareas of the country, but is not practiced at all among Yemen’s Zaydiand Ismaili Shiites. While national figures hide regional variations, the1997 Demographic Health Survey reported that FGM prevalence amongnewborn girls was as high as 97.3 percent in Hodeida, 96.6 percent inHadramout, 96.5 percent in Al-Mahra, 82.2 percent in Aden, and 45.5percent in the capital, Sana’a.There is no law against FGM, although a ministerial decree that tookeffect on January 9, 2001, did prohibit the practice in both governmentand private health facilities. 63 According to the UN news agency, the firstpublic discussion of FGM in Yemen took place in 2001, at a seminar onwomen’s health issues sponsored by the Ministry of Public Health andfunded by the U.S.-based MacArthur Foundation. Campaigns to eliminatethe practice have since been carried out across the country. Someof the largest public and private NGOs devoted to women’s issues haveshaken off their previous hesitance to tackle this issue and run publicawarenesscampaigns on television, radio, and in community gatherings todiscourage the practice. For example, the Girls’ Health Project, conductedby the National Committee on Women in Aden and International Healthand Development Associates (IHDA), sponsored 12 local organizations tocarry out awareness campaigns across the Aden governorate between 2001and 2003. 64 The Yemeni government, supported by UN agencies, has alsostarted in the last two years to target refugee communities with awarenesscampaigns against FGM.Yemeni civil society is active and vibrant despite increased reports ofofficial harassment of NGOs working in the field of human and woman’srights. It is widely accepted that around 2,900 NGOs are registered andworking in Yemen. 65 However, no reliable records exist regarding the numberof women’s NGOs participating in and influencing community life,public policies, and social development at local levels. Despite this lack of