The Forgotten Frontline: Women at War Zone: Yemen’s case

In situations of war, women and children suffer some of the utmost health and social inequities. The effects of war go far yonder than the conflicts itself. They are the victims of human rights violations, suffering and death acts. At the end, women and children are supposed to bear the consequences of the war.

United Nations reports have shown three months after conflict flared up in Yemen, the violence is still escalating across the country. Over 2,800 people have been killed; over a million people have been exiled, with many enforced decisions by armed clatters, bombing and airstrikes.

Women have been unduly affected by the conflict. Their access to indispensable services, livelihood and protection needs were limited and have been complicated by gender inequalities.

According to Amnesty International report, that highlighted that at least 6 children under the age of 10 were killed in airstrikes on Sana’a on 26th March, in wealthy nations, death cases like these are rare to happen and when it does, it makes headlines. This is simply one of many episodes where the innocent women and children of Yemen have paid the heavy price of the western-backed airstrikes and internal conflict of the country.
Yemenis women carried stories of sadness because of what war caused of social and economic consequences on their lives; some of them were forced to marry and others were victims of continues violence incidents. And they are supposed to accept these conditions as they have no other choice.
Violence was always a significant issue facing women in Yemen. In the country’s 2013 demographic and health survey, 92% of women claimed that violence against women most happened at home.
This current internal conflict in Yemen has even degenerated conditions for women. Many of Yemenis women are struggling on how to support and finance their families, when their husbands have gone to fight. Others have been exiled, with little or no access to health services, education and work opportunities.

As women and children are regularly the most pretentious by war-conflict, it is hence vital that women play a fundamental role in peace discussions and post-conflict renewal.
In Yemen’s conflict case, women continue to be absent from formal peace negotiations in Middle East and especially in Yemen. There is little space open for women to engross in peaceful protests, and this is not because women lack the resolution to fight for peace. But, it is the male-controlled mentality of Saudi-inspired Salafism that has detached women from participation in building the peaceful Yemeni society.
Meanwhile Yemeni women peace activists have been calling outside the country for an end to the fighting and the obstruction of necessary needs that has shaped an unrelenting humanitarian crisis.

The effects of war remain for years after the conflict ends. Women become widowed and children orphaned. Women face struggles to bear with livelihoods needs of their families.
The crucial role of women in development, peace, security and human rights cannot be denied, It is thus of countless importance that women should play a noteworthy role in limiting the effects of violence. Women must be actively engaged in the peace discussions process at the regional, national, and local level.

While women remain a minority, everyone will be suffering.

Sana AFOUAIZ