When it comes to gender equality, Yemen is ranked worst in the world, and women and girls have suffered massively in the country’s five years of fighting. Yet CARE gender activist Suha Basharen sees glimmers of hope.
Walking along Berlin’s Spree River as fall sets in, Suha Basharen comments how “nice it is to be in a calm country.”
“There are no worries,” she says. “You can walk around peacefully. But then you remember what’s going on at home.”
Home for Basharen is Yemen, where a civil war has been raging since 2015. The violence has killed tens of thousands of civilians and left the country mired in a devastating humanitarian crisis, with women and girls often bearing the brunt of the daily struggle to survive.
Basharen lives in Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, with her husband and two young sons, ages eight and ten. Her children have hardly known peace. For Basharen on a personal level, the war means reassuring her kids that things will be alright, even as air strikes sound around them.
“We try not to be scared, even though you want to collapse,” she tells DW. “Even if you try to keep the news away from them, they hear it at school, so then you have to make up another lie to make them feel safe.”
On a professional level, Basharen is trying to create a hopeful future for women in the war-torn country. As a gender specialist for the NGO CARE Yemen, she works to reshape social and cultural norms. Education on hygiene and health, active involvement of women in peace-building efforts, and food security are all crucial elements.
Despite the conflict, the situation could still “open windows of opportunity for these women,” she says.
Worst gender equality in the world
Basharen is motivated in part by her own success. Born in Aden, on Yemen’s southwest coast, she studied at university both in her home country and in the UK. But the idea of a university education and independence remains a luxury for many of Basharen’s female compatriots, particularly in rural Yemen.
While suffrage was granted to Yemeni women more than 50 years ago, economic, social and cultural rights continue to be limited. For 13 consecutive years, Yemen has been ranked the worst country in the world in the Global Gender Gap Report, published by the World Economic Forum. Female genital mutilation continues to be tolerated and in many cases, women are denied hospital treatment without the permission of a male relative.