When I moved to Sweden, I thought I had left my political and social struggle behind me for a while, only to realise that a new battle is waiting for me in Sweden: the fight against misconceptions about Arab Women. In Swedish and Western media outlets alike, I, as an Arab Woman of Yemeni nationality and Saudi upbringing, am often portrayed as a victim of the Islamic law, a victim of misogyny, oppressed, and powerless woman. These stereotypical images used to push me to the corner in formal and informal meetings, where I had to explain over and over again the complexity of the local context of women’s conditions, as well as different factors which interplay in forming women’s status.
I am not in a state of denial about the bleak situation for women in my region, but I strive to deconstruct the simplified binary of victim or rebellious image. I seek to claim my story, present my narrative of the struggle, and shed light on my definition and method to combat violations of girls’ and women’s rights.
Now again, I sit in the corner of the public eye as the negative perceptions persist and appear on the surface again, with the screening of the Yemeni movie "I Am Nojoom, Age 10 and Divorced" in Sweden. The Movie, directed by award-winning Yemeni filmmaker Khadija Al Salami, depicts the story of the heroin young girl of 10 who went to the court asking for a divorce from her elder husband. The movie “Nojoom”, based on a true story of the child Nojood, who were married off in a traditional arranged marriage at a very young age. The story portrays the cycle of physical and sexual abuse that the young girl had to endure, and takes us into the dramatic scenes of the courtroom. Nojood's determination for divorce in 2008 caught international attention to the issue of early marriage in Yemen. It has been eight years since the story of Nojood broke through globally, yet the situation for young girls in Yemen is far from improving, and the general living conditions for Yemenis aggravated by a devastating war that has been raging since last year. Prior to the current war, nearly half of the Yemenis lived below the poverty line of ($2 a day). Currently, 80% of the Yemeni population are at the edge of starvation according to UN reports. The country is in desperate need of food, clean water and medical supplies.
Swedish media coverage of the complexity of child marriage at the backdrop of the film screening did not exceed a mere simplification and reproduction of the same limited perceptions on Yemen and Yemeni women. I scrutinised all articles and news pieces which have been published about the movie during last week in the Swedish press. The central dominant themes in the articles are the following: “oppressed,” “a patriarchal tribal society”, “women are a commodity”, “obedience”, “female emancipation”, “sex and domestic slaves”, stone age habit”, and “segregated society”. The problem with these types of statement that it only confirms the writers' pre-set conceptions about girls and women in the Yemeni society. Moreover, it looks at the social phenomenon of early marriage in Yemen from a Western standard, disregarding the local context and the causes. Hence, it fails to address its degree of complexity and encourage responsibility. These various complexities presented in Salami’s movie, but Swedish writers have chosen to overlook them.
The 2005-study based research on “the Early Marriage in Yemen”, by the Gender Development Research and Studies Center at Sana’a University, concludes that poverty causes the widespread of "child-bride" phenomenon in Yemen. Limited resources often play a critical role in driving families to marry off their daughters to alleviate economic burdens. For instance, dowry which is money or other material gifts are given to the bride and her family by the groom before marriage is considered a source of mitigating economic hardship. Some parents’ decide to marry off daughter simply because of hunger, hoping that the family-in-law could feed their daughters.
Furthermore, Illiteracy rate in Yemen is high, which indicates the fact that many girls are out of school because poor parents are not able to afford education cost. Illiteracy breeds ignorance. Therefore, ignorant men who marry young girls do not reflect on the marriage’s negative impact on the girls' emotional and physical developments.
The central government in Yemen has always been weak and failed to deliver services to its people, and this forces the population to develop their survival mechanisms, marrying off girls being one of them, alas. Lastly, the neighbouring country Saudi Arabia has been exporting its puritanical version of Islam to the Yemeni society, which justifies the social phenomenon of child marriage. Paradoxically, Saudi Arabia, which is known for shackling Saudi women with rules that prevent them from travelling free and driving cars, have a low rate of early marriage in compassion to Yemen. Instead, the local media in Saudi Arabia speaks of the increasing number of single women in society. This drop in child brides attributed to the oil-based economic system which gives women access to free education and limited job opportunities. The case of Saudi Arabia confirms that strong state's economy-among other reasons- play a role in decreasing the phenomenon of child-bride.
In Yemen, it is shameful for a breadwinner to admit failure to feed his kids; instead, the decision to marry off a daughter is rationalised by associating in it to tradition, tribal custom and to preserving the girl’s moral virtue.
Before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Yemen was divided into The Yemen Arab Republic, (North Yemen) and The People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, (South Yemen). In the latter, women enjoyed a unique family law of 1974, which stipulated provisions benefiting women. Such as bride’s consent to marriage, a minimum age for marriage (18 for men and 16 for women), a woman’s right to apply for divorce, and woman’s right to the custody of her children. If the former South Yemen were able to adopt and enforce the family law which was unique for its time and context, then there would be room for change if there were a political will and appropriate economic conditions for empowering girls and women.
I am aware that war and poverty are bizarre to grasp for Swedes who enjoy a peaceful country and economic prosperity. Hence, it easier to watch the “Nojoom” movie and jump to the conclusion of oppressed women in a patriarchal and misogynist society. Understanding the early marriage phenomenon requires an understanding of the causes and dealing with them, not reinforcing the prevailing misconception on girls and women in Yemen, which will lead to nothing but perpetuating stereotypes.
Hana Al-Khamri
Yemeni Writer on Saudi Arabia and Yemen with a background in Journalism and Peace and Conflict Studies. The founder of political and culture platform The Yemeni Salon in Sweden.
