Houthis torturing, abusing and killing Yemeni women

Aya Ezz

The Iran-backed Houthi militia keeps suppressing the people of Yemen, despite international efforts to bring an end to the crisis in this Arab country.

New episode

The Houthis took a new step in their oppression of Yemenis in the last few hours by forcing restaurant owners in the Yemeni capital to sack all female workers, according to a number of Yemeni media outlets.

Amnesty International said in a statement on January 29 that preventing women from working in the restaurants was a disappointing development.

It expressed solidarity with working women in Yemen in their struggle for their rights.

The Houthi move was part of a general campaign for separating women from men, even in the workplace in the areas the militia controls in Yemen.

It said the presence of men and women in one and the same place broke the rules of what it called “piety”.

Women usually work in the sections specified for families in the restaurants.

6 tough years

Since overrunning large parts of Yemen, the Houthis stripped women of many of their rights in the areas they control.

However, this is not about work alone. The whereabouts of over 200 women continue to be unknown. Some of them are subject to torture and sexual and physical exploitation, according to a woman who headed one of the jails in Yemeni capital Sana’a.

The woman said she received threats from the Houthis when she refused to enforce their orders.

The same woman was then accused of trafficking drugs and punished for three weeks.

The Houthis, she said, follow diverse torture methods against female prisoners.