Yemen 24: A Webblog about Yemen

By Moneer Al-Omari In its 2007 report, the Geneva-based World Economic Forum ranked Yemen the last (128) as to the Global Gender Gap and estimated the gap in overall rankings to be 45 percent.  The report measures the volume of the gap between women and men in four areas: economic participation and opportunity, political empowerment, educational attainment and health and survival. With exception to United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, the performance of Arab countries remains low and needs more activation. "Most Arab world countries not only continue to perform far below the global level, but also do not show much improvement over the last year or have deteriorated," said the report.   Women and economy The report indicated that women's participation in labor force is 31 percent; however, observers believe the report is inauthentic and does not reflect the reality because Yemeni woman has achiev

Moneer Al-Omari According to a recent study by the Yemeni Polling Center (YPC), many socio-cultural hindrances including lack of equality, customs prevent the full integration of women into the society and their advancement in public life and Yemen's democratic and political project; however, most obstacles are not inherited, but rather alien to the society.  The study addressed numerous aspects including marriage, divorce, custody and other social and political rights. It was conducted on 434 citizens divided in half to males and females in four governorates: Sana'a, Ibb, Aden and Hadramout. The respondents were chosen from different educational backgrounds and different age groups. Majority of Yemenis condition that both proposed couple should make a medical test in order to ascertain the other party's fitness before marriage, considering it to be an important reason for a happy marriage. There have been varied reasons fo