7 December 2009
Amnesty International recently issued a report on discrimination and violence against women in Yemen. The report calls for legal reforms establishing equal rights for women, who are currently treated as second-class citizens under Yemeni law.
The report indicates that forced and child marriages are legal in Yemen, and women are legally bound to obey their husbands once they are married. Yemeni women are denied equal inheritance rights and are punished more severely for “immoral” acts than men. "Honor killings" are common throughout the country, and perpetrators of domestic violence are rarely punished for their actions.
The report also cites several positive improvements for women’s rights in recent years, including the creation of a quasi-governmental National Women’s Committee in 1996. Yemen is also a party to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and a number of local women’s rights NGOs have launched legal reform campaigns.
Compiled from: Yemeni Women Face Violence & Discrimination , Amnesty International (25 November 2009).