Yemeni women’s situation has become very bad after the coup carried out by the Houthi militia and ousted president Ali Saleh, said the human rights and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Tawakkol Karman. 

In an interview with The Politic issued by the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States (Yale University), Karman said, “The putschists have adopted an exclusionary approach towards everyone, especially women who are additionally suffering from further complications added by war and repressive policies practiced by the coup under different slogans.” 

Mrs. Karman explained that conditions and guarantees for the participation of women in the public sphere in the period before the coup were approved as part of the outcomes of the National Dialogue Conference, which was attended by all political and societal forces, and this was also emphasized in the draft constitution.

“From my point of view, conditions will be ripe for a new start for women if the coup is toppled,” she added. 

She continued that freedoms and human rights have been completely cracked down on, and as a result, women have been badly affected. 

The Nobel Prize laureate emphasized that women’s issues will be taken care under a democratic society, pointing out that talking about women’s rights and issues in the absence of democracy is just a kind of folklore.