Naseem Ali is beaten and forcibly abused by her adversaries, who have taken away a piece of land she owns, which she says belongs to her deceased father. Naseem Ali Mohammed, a 35-year-old marginalized woman, is a divorced woman who supports three children, whose firstborn has a permanently disability, owning nothing but a plot of land in the Dhubhan area, south of Taiz city.
She tells “Khuyut": “After I met the philanthropist who would help me in the process of building a house, to shelter me and my children, and after I bought the stones to start building, the adversaries raided the land place, broke the stones, and severely beat me when I tried to stop them." Naseem speaks with a voice filled with sorrow, pain, and oppression.
Naseem points out that she lives in a dilapidated, almost bare house that is flooded with falling rain water, and also filled with insects and snakes, and on top of that, she is not spared from insults because she cannot pay the rent on time.
She adds, "I want to be rehabilitated and my rights restored because I was unjustly beaten. The court should consider my case as a Yemeni citizen who has rights to litigation like others. Most importantly, they should strip their treatment of me of any racial discrimination, without any procrastination, being a woman, and also “marginalized” with no power or strength.”
After the Yemeni citizen Naseem filed her case with the court, she could not bring a lawyer for her due to her difficult financial circumstances, nor could she pay the judge's fees. Consequently, her case was placed on the sidelines, and it didn't get anyone's attention.
Many women, who are classified by society as marginalized and other discriminatory terms, face shocking practices and violations that strip them of their humanity and the most basic rights. However, it does not stop at physical assaults that go beyond severe beatings and torture, but further, amid complete silence from society and local authorities, which apparently do not include this group of Yemenis among their concerns.
Women in Yemen in general are subjected to violations, but the marginalized ones are the most violated, due to racial discrimination, as society has placed this group on a completely forgotten shelf
"Khuyut" also reviewed many tragedies of Yemeni women who were subjected to assaults and violence for the most trivial reasons. Huda, in her forties, tells of being reprimanded and severely beaten because of what was said to her by the family of an influential figure in one of the areas in Taiz governorate, southwest of Yemen; that "she dared to name her newborn after one of the sons of this family." While another woman tells how the competent authorities refused to accept her complaint regarding a grievance she was subjected to by someone because she is a citizen who is classified as belonging to the group of “Akhdam” (an Arabic term for the marginalized in Yemen), so how could she dare to complain about a citizen with a skin that is different from hers?
Arrests and Violations
In this context, the National Union of the Marginalized in Yemen confirmed in a statement, reviewed by “Khuyut”, that on August 24, 2023, the security department of the Al-Shamaytain district in Taiz governorate raided the home of the citizen, Kifaya Saeed Muqbil. Likewise, the Union also condemned the arbitrary arrest of the two female citizens (Iftikhar and Yaqut) by the Political Security Service of the internationally recognized government in Taiz governorate for no apparent reason, except that they came from the Al-Hawban area, east of Taiz, which is under the control of the “Houthi” authority, to the city.
The political security justified that the two sisters were involved in an intelligence operation by the Houthi group, but the Union categorically denies this and says that the charge directed against the female detainees is slander and a lie.
Noman Al-Huthaifi, head of the National Union of the Marginalized in Yemen, tells “Khuyut”: “When any legal violation comes to us, we assign lawyers from the Union to follow up on the security and judicial institutions,” adding: “If any marginalized woman is exposed to any violation, we are informed by the ‘Uqal Al-Harat’ (neighborhood headband) or the interested organizations, so the Union moves to follow up, with the aim of redressing this vulnerable group.
But not all violations are reported, so there are no accurate statistics for them. Al-Huthaifi points out that there are many violations against marginalized women that are kept silent and untold, for hidden reasons, but the obvious reason is the vulnerability of this group.
Violations against marginalized women continue to expand in public places where they work as cleaners and beggars. Al-Huthaifi believes that violations will continue as long as there is an entrenched culture of discrimination and racism against marginalized women, amid the ignorance of the concerned authorities and judicial institutions about these violations, which can only be confronted with legal legislation that limits racist acts against "blacks" in Yemeni society in general.
In this regard, the legal specialist in the issues of marginalized people, Salah Ahmed, confirms to “Khuyut” that the deterrent laws in the Yemeni judiciary for such violations exist, especially the physical and sexual violations committed against dark-skinned women, but their application burdens the ordinary citizen in terms of follow-up in security and prosecution offices.
He continues: "Yemen is in dire need of laws that are more accessible and flexible in procedures and transactions in general, and it is also in dire need of laws related to the marginalized group with positive discrimination in order to integrate them into society, leading to the establishment of equal citizenship, not just as a law.”
As for the laws that support discrimination, there is no law in Yemen that discriminates against the marginalized group and their women, but systematic social discrimination prevents them from accessing remedies for exploitation. They face systemic intolerance in the judicial system and within the local government and tribal authorities.
The Reality of Marginalized People
Yemeni society refers to the group of dark-skinned people with a racist term, which is “Al-Akhdam (servants)." This group is exposed to the greatest targeting, discrimination, and systematic racism in history. They are treated as second-class citizens; rather, as a matter of fact, the marginalized see themselves as being treated by society as not being citizens at all.
The marginalized live on the margins of social, political, and economic life in Yemen, especially their women. As they are the most vulnerable group, they are subjected to multiple violations in addition to being marginalized women as well.
The legal specialist in marginalized people’s issues, Salah Ahmed, adds: “Women in Yemen in general are subjected to violations, but the marginalized ones are the most violated, due to racial discrimination, as society has placed this group on a completely forgotten shelf, and that the violations that marginalized women are exposed to by society or the family reach the point of sexual exploitation, harassment, and violence against them.”
In addition to the chronic discriminatory practices in Yemeni society, the war and the deterioration of economic and social conditions have contributed to the expansion of violations against Yemeni male and female citizens due to the color of their skin. Ahmed points out that women are the most vulnerable, and therefore they are subjected to violations of rights, not to mention the marginalized ones, as they do not have access to education, job opportunities, or any decent moral and humane treatment.
Further, there are no government programs to protect, rehabilitate, and care for marginalized women, which, according to this legal specialist, exposes them to these terrible violations.
There are many violations committed in the recent period against marginalized women, whose stories have spread on social media, while at the same time, there are also many stories that are kept secret and untold.
For decades, black people have been subjected to social discrimination in Yemen. This discrimination prevented them from obtaining their rights and even gave them a deficient view of themselves, as they are no longer aware of their full rights and do not seek to restore them.
Hence, this inferiority view makes them classified among the most vulnerable groups in Yemen. Therefore, they are subjected to violations of rights openly and secretly, especially their women, as they mix with society's men in the labor market and work in hard jobs suitable for men. Consequently, this makes them more vulnerable to violence, beatings, abuse, harassment, and various types of violations.
