Tawakul Kerman: Major female leading figure in Yemen’s Islah party

Noura Bandai

The political leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood in Yemen plays a strong role in controlling events within the party. One of the most prominent female leaders of the party whose membership has recently been frozen, is Tawakul Kerman. The party is keen on using the women to disseminate the Brotherhood’s thoughts inside and outside the community, and rely on it in the processes of stirring the public opinion and adapting it.

The internal regulations of the Yemeni Congregation for Reform Party have laid down a large area for women since its establishment in 1990. It worked on exploiting women by all available means in an attempt to draw the image of women playing a strong and active role, thus contributing to raising the Yemeni woman’s status. The party exploits them only for the purposes of the group.

The party involved women in the Preparatory Committee, the Constituent Assembly and then the General Secretariat. Immediately after its establishment, an office was established in the General Secretariat of al-Islah party under the name of “Women’s Office”. It was then developed into the women’s sector. In 2007, a department affiliated to the General Secretariat of the party was set up along with branches in various provinces and districts.

Highlighting the main objective for which women are involved in partisan tasks within al-Islah party, Dr. Ali al-Assad, a political science lecturer at Sana’a University, said that women in the party are teaching the new members of the group and attracting others to the party, especially uneducated women, because they are the category that can be deceived by this destructive thought. Women in the Islah party also work through charities, which represent a curtain to attract more members to the party.

In statements to the Reference, al-Assad said that women in al-Islah party raise their children on the principles of loyalty and obedience to the party, and pressure their husbands to change their loyalties and affiliations, not only that, but also convince everyone they know that the party was established to consolidate the teachings of Islam.

Tawakul Kerman is a model
The journalist Tawakul Kerman is one of the most prominent female models in the Islah Party and the most prominent supporter of the Brotherhood’s ideology. She also extended her support to the terrorist group in Egypt and to fight the June 30 revolution by participating in a bloody sit-in at Rabaa al-Adawyia mosque.

It also led many demonstrations against the regime of late president Ali Abdullah Saleh. Recently, the Islah Party froze its membership on January 4, 2018, following its attack on the Arab Coalition for the Support of Legitimacy in Yemen, in a move interpreted by observers as saying that the the party is trying to push away from it accusations about its relationship with Qatar and Turkey.