Haneen Al-Wahsh – Women in Development and Peace
As much as the deterioration of security and political conditions in Yemen motivated several journalists, both male and female, to work from abroad, it equally contributed positively to the emergence of several female media voices that have notably stood out in various countries around the world, becoming influential members in decision-making and guiding public opinion.
The escalation of the armed conflict has significantly increased migration rates in Yemen, with journalists, media professionals, and human rights activists having the largest share of migration; seeking safety, stability, and a dignified life.
Wa’ad Muhammad, a Yemeni media professional living in Cairo, says that she found in the diaspora the space she lacked inside Yemen due to increasing harassment, allowing her to express her opinions and stand at the crossroads of the Yemeni crisis without fear.
She adds that abroad, she remained safe from the social harassment resulting from misguided customs and traditions in a patriarchal society that managed to impose a series of false rules and mandatory conditions unjust to women’s movements and societal roles.
In Search of Safety
Manar Al-Hakimi, a Yemeni journalist migrant in Cairo, is a living example of migrant Yemeni voices calling for the rejection of disagreements and working towards social and political reform in the country, resorting to dialogue, and activating mechanisms of governance and good rule, involving the community – particularly women – in decision-making.
Al-Hakimi advocates for equality between men and women and for giving women their social entitlements; to play their role in enhancing community awareness of peace and freedom values, prioritizing the public interest, and moving towards comprehensive reconciliation and true transitional justice.
She says her motivations for working from abroad came from the great struggles she endured in search of her rights as a woman, including her right to work, employment, community participation, and activating a supervisory mechanism on the authorities’ performance, which is one of the main functions of the media she belongs to.
As for Najwa Al-Athwari, another Yemeni journalist, she left the country in 2018 heading to the Arab Republic of Egypt as the armed conflict intensified. She explains that the marginalization faced by Yemeni female journalists in Yemen, in addition to the difficulty of obtaining information, pushed them to think about leaving the country in search of a platform that provides them with the right to impact and continue their struggle. She says, “You have to be an editor or correspondent for a foreign agency, newspaper, or website to get your fair share of the right to access information and delve into sensitive events that expose you to danger, unlike if you were a correspondent for a local media outlet.”
Inspiring Stories Overlooked by Media
“The challenges faced by Yemeni women in the diaspora are highlighted through media outlets. However, their presence in local media is almost limited to rare seasonal community news coverage,” says activist journalist Abdul-Malik Al-Namri.
Al-Namri believes that the involvement of Yemeni media in hosting Yemeni female journalists in the diaspora is barely mentioned compared to the rate at which male journalists are hosted, something he perceives as a reflection of the male-dominated patterns controlling the course of events in Yemen.
He believes that Yemeni media could achieve a positive impact by covering the stories of Yemeni women in the diaspora, as these are experiences and success stories beneficial to Yemeni women from various social segments and backgrounds.
From the perspective of journalist Abdul-Alim Bajash, Yemeni female journalists in the diaspora have enriched the cultural and media landscape in Yemen with numerous cultural, literary, and intellectual productions; because the social and economic conditions were favorable for them, having escaped the conflict zones in Yemen which cast their shadow on women, to spacious and stable environments that encourage progress.
He confirms that their contributions are evident in amplifying the voices of other women through their personal social media accounts, as well as adopting several women’s issues that local media failed to embrace and address.
In a journalistic report published on a UN website in 2018, Yemeni journalist Afrah Nasir, residing in Sweden, showed during her participation in the “Dag Hammarskjöld Journalism Fellowship in New York,” that she is a positive model for Yemeni women challenging all the circumstances their country is going through to achieve her goal of being an independent journalist.
Afrah works as a journalist correspondent and a blogger focused on human rights violations, women’s issues, and press freedom. She has received numerous awards, including the International Press Freedom Committee award in 2017.
Afrah holds a Bachelor’s degree in English from Sana’a University and a Master’s degree in Communication from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. She expressed her happiness upon receiving these awards, saying, “For more than ten years, journalism has represented a passport to me; I feel I was born to write.”
Regarding the challenges she faced within Yemen, she mentioned that she suffered from a lack of appreciation for her writings and journalistic achievements in her surroundings in Yemen, particularly from a university professor who belittled her capabilities.
The Crisis of New Media
Activist Ali Ja’boor believes that new media has succeeded in providing a fertile space for women to express their social and political opinions regarding public affairs and to defend women’s rights, especially for migrant women, given the safe opportunities provided by the host community for expression.
However, he notes that new media has been a double-edged sword; while it has enabled women to make their voices heard, it has also become a platform for extremist voices to attack women’s rights and expose migrant women to accusations of moral degradation, preventing most of them from returning to their homeland out of fear of being targeted.
Ja’boor believes that the crisis faced by new media might contribute to narrowing the space for women’s discourse and promoting hate speech, which contradicts their rights to representation, expression, belief, access to information, and participation in political life.
He sees that the programming landscape of Yemeni media lacks any serious coverage of the success stories of migrant Yemeni women, emphasizing that this is confined to some social media pages, like the “Yemeni Expat in America” page, which uniquely published a report on the success stories of Yemeni businesswomen in the United States.
He confirms that positive media engagement with these success stories could help alleviate misguided social beliefs about women and their right to work; this would contribute to reducing unemployment and create more jobs by diversifying projects that utilize the tools and capabilities women possess.
Bilal Al-Murairi, Secretary at Al-Jumhuria newspaper, also confirms that many migrant Yemeni female journalists, despite the challenges they face, have achieved notable accomplishments in their countries of migration. He says, “There are many examples of colleagues working in prestigious global media outlets, producing high-quality journalistic content that sheds light on important issues.”
He added that they have contributed to building communication bridges between Yemeni communities and the societies they live in. Al-Murairi emphasized that supporting migrant Yemeni female journalists is not just a moral duty but an investment in Yemen’s future, believing that “the return of these competencies to the homeland could contribute to developing the Yemeni media sector and enhancing freedom of expression.”
He called on Yemeni media and concerned institutions to combine efforts to provide the necessary support for these journalists and encourage them to participate in building a better future for Yemen.