The worst place on earth to be a woman: violence against Yemeni women in peace and war

In 2011, in common with women in other Arab states, Yemeni women dared to raise their voices in the public sphere and to call for change. Evidence of their revolutionary engagement throws into question assumptions of female powerlessness and silencing in Muslim societies and, by exploring multiple forms of violence against women, my article asks whether and to what extent Yemeni women’s behaviour during the revolution and afterwards was a departure from their previous roles. It will also reflect on more far-reaching processes of change in Yemeni society by asking whether the radical upheaval of 2011 may be capable, in the longer term, of challenging entrenched patriarchal structures in order to create a more genuinely inclusive citizenship. In the article, I contrast Yemeni women’s activism and their presence in public spaces with the various forms of violence that limit their mobility and choices. I will argue that, although they have been able to utilize the limited tools at their disposal in order to demand their rights as citizens, these rights are by no means guaranteed; they are threatened by the violence of tradition and, more recently, the violence of conflict and emergency