WUNRN
YEMEN - WOMEN SAY LIVES WORSE SINCE REVOLUTION
- OXFAM FOCUS GROUPS
September 25, 2012 - Following the revolution in their country, four out of five Yemeni women who spoke to the international group Oxfam said their lives, beset by hunger and violence, had worsened in the past year.
“We wanted jobs, security, an end to corruption and an improvement in services,” one woman told the group. “Instead we can’t afford food, there’s no electricity and there are guns everywhere.”
Oxfam
said the food crisis is so grave that it poses a major threat to positive
change in
But
it is still grappling with grave problems after the revolution, many of which
hit women especially hard, Oxfam found in focus groups that included 136 women
across
The World Food Program estimates 10 million Yemenis -- almost half of the country's population -- do not have enough food. One out of four Yemeni women between the ages of 15 and 49 is severely malnourished, one of the highest adult malnutrition rates in the world, according to Oxfam.
To survive, some women have pulled their children out of school to beg, Oxfam found in its interviews; in extreme cases, some have turned to prostitution. Men and boys in some areas, meanwhile, are turning to smuggling the narcotic khat leaf to try to provide for their families, women told Oxfam.
The
United Nations estimated that it would require more than $676 million to aid
more than 6 million people in
On top of the strains of hunger, Yemeni
women are also grappling with danger. Security incidents grew 10% over the last
year, Oxfam says, as women and children were menaced by the spread of land
mines and explosives, bombardment from above and gun battles in the streets of
The
threats had pushed many women away from their homes in the southern
While
they faced these perils, women told Oxfam they have been shut out of government
decisions, something they found especially frustrating after rallying along
with men for political change. Activists want
"We don't just want food," a female villager from Haradh district told Oxfam. "We want to know the government is with us and wants to hear our views on how we can be supported to address our problems."