In most Yemeni regions, women suffer from society's negative views toward educated or university-educated women, which makes them vulnerable to discrimination, persecution, and deprivation of their most basic rights in life and work.
Many girls bear double burdens due to their insistence on continuing education and obtaining the most basic rights in a society governed by conservative customs and traditions, violations, and extremist discourse, all of which restrict women’s education and work, as is the case with many girls in Ibb governorate in central Yemen, who pay a high price, as this investigation reveals, because of their education and the deficient view of the society towards them as university girls, which elevates the status of males and makes them dominate over females.
During our visit to some schools in the city of Ibb, we found, based on the statements of employees in private schools unlike girls who are uneducated or who have received a simple amount of education, that one out of ten educated women holding the position of school principal, missed the marriage train.
“Khuyut” tried to get closer to this issue and find out the reasons for the reluctance of educated young men to marry an educated or employed girl. In this regard, Hana Abdullah, an educator, says that her sisters who left school early all got married, while she chose for herself education and spinsterhood at the same time. Hanaa adds that she chose the university education out of a strong desire and that she had two choices: either to continue education or get married early. She confirmed in her interview with “Khuyut” that the girls in Yemen are required to pay a tax and a high price in exchange for exercising and extracting their human rights. The reason is the backward customs and traditions that still dominate society's consciousness.
This comes at a time when the importance of the role that women play in supporting their families is increasing. It is no longer limited to contributing to economic development as much as it is linked to ensuring the lowest standards of decent living for poor families, whose numbers are increasing day by day as the war continues.
On the other hand, Yemen is suffering from a very difficult and catastrophic humanitarian situation. More than 76% of Yemenis need humanitarian aid due to the crisis that Yemen is experiencing as a result of the conflict and war, which is greatly reflected in the situation of women and girls in Yemen. 4.6 million women and 5.5 million girls need help, in addition to increasing the severity of gender inequality. Yemen ranks 155th before the last position in the Global Gender Gap Index for the year 2021, compared to 115th in 2006, despite the intensive efforts and supporting programs in this aspect.
Thus, the conflict and war have led to a deterioration in Yemen's human development situation. Yemen is ranked among the lowest-human development countries and among the lowest countries in the world, ranking 179 out of 189 countries globally in the World Human Development Report for the year 2020.
Men by nature like to control women, especially the Yemeni man, who is not accustomed to a mixing environment. The Yemeni man is looking for romantic relationships with other girls or women, but refuses them when they are with his female relatives. He considers others to be morally deviant and deals with them on this basis. Further, he encroaches on their freedom, reputation, and honor while considering himself and his family an example of honor, integrity, and morals.
In this context, the sociologist, Hisham Al-Qadhi, says that he cannot, according to his interview with “Khuyut”, understand the way some people currently think about educated women and girls, through invoking the traditions and customs that have disappeared and vanished, to discriminate against them, in their most basic rights, such as: education, work, life, and marriage. This has contributed to the growth of violations against women, which exploit these customs and traditions, the deficient societal outlook, and the extremist religious discourse towards women. Therefore, everyone must realize that women represent a safety valve for the stability of society and for ensuring social cohesion among its members, and any intervention directed towards women has a positive impact on society as a whole. Further, policies and interventions in the field of women's economic and social empowerment are of great importance and have positive effects on a wide scale that includes all members of society.
Living in Fear of the Future
Huda and Amani, two university students studying at the Faculty of Arts at Ibb University, express their fear of the future, which heralds an open celibacy, as they say. This is due to the multiplicity of pretexts that made the university young man refrain from marrying an educated girl, including the high cost of dowries and the costs of marriage in the city. Moreover, they criticized what they described as the continuous, fierce attack on the university girl by some people with obscurantist ideas who stigmatize her with the ugliest qualities.
Besides, Amani believes, in her interview with “Khuyut”, that the problem is with the young man and not with the girl, because he wants a girl who obeys him in right and wrong, and he is truly delusional that life is possible under this logic, pointing out that life is based on participation and understanding, and the young man must know that an educated girl is a necessity and even better than the uneducated girl, because she will raise the children in the right way, and she may also be an employee and help him with the difficult burdens of life.
Likewise, there are also those who believe that the reluctance of young men to marry a university girl is due to the fact that the young man prefers to marry a younger girl. Therefore, he believes, according to the student Hiam Mohammed’s interview with “Khuyut”, that the university girl who is studying with him is the same age as him, and when she graduates, she will be over twenty years old. This is an age that is not preferred for marriage, which makes some of them prefer to marry from rural areas, and because they believe that a university girl is often romantically involved with a colleague or with another person. Meanwhile, Shams Al-Khawlani, a student at Ibb University, believes that all Yemeni men in general practice coercion and oppression over women. The man welcomes working with his female colleague and refuses to allow his wife or sister to have a job. He agrees for his sister to go to university and refuses to marry a university girl. This is the brightest type of contradiction in society’s consciousness.
Further, there are many opinions regarding young men’s preference for rural women for marriage at the expense of women living in cities. This is due to the emergence of other factors in marriage that are not related to customs, traditions, or the deficient view towards educated and university women but rather have other economic connections in view of the high cost of dowries, poor living conditions, and difficulty in obtaining job opportunities.
As for Maryam Hamdan, a university student, she tells “Khuyut” that requesting extravagant dowries and the high marriage costs are two of the many reasons why an educated young man chooses a village girl who may not have enough education. While, Yahya Al-Ghaithi, a civil employee, believes, in his interview with "Khuyut", that the university young man, who is basically coming from the village, prefers the rural girl because she is more patient and more tolerant of the burdens of daily life.
For his part, Jaber Al-Odaini, a specialist in social service, believes, in his interview with “Khuyut”, that the reason for the university young man fleeing to the village to choose his life partner stems from his perception that the university girl will be preoccupied and will not take care of her husband and her family responsibilities. In addition to the high financial costs required to marry a university girl or an employee woman, unlike rural girls and women, there are also the expenses of forming and managing family affairs with her. Likewise, it is no secret to everyone that the deteriorating living situation of many Yemenis due to the war and conflict in the country has made marriage a secondary matter for some, given its costs and wide demands.
Husband and Education Degree
There are those who believe that the husband prefers to have a higher educational level than his wife. He also refuses the university girl because her requirements are many, and he is jealous of her going out to work and interacting with men. Likewise, there are also female university students who refuse to compromise on their education, as student Maha Ahmed tells “Khuyut”: “It is impossible for me to leave my university degree or job in order to get married.” Because, in her opinion, a degree is the guarantee for a girl in today’s world, and education is very important for girls and women in general. Maha likens a girl who stops her education to get married to someone who throws herself into the sea, stressing that the man is not guaranteed, while the education certificate is the future.
As to Howaida Qassem, a student at the Faculty of Arts, Department of Arabic Language, Ibb University, she says: A man by nature likes to control women, especially the one who is not accustomed to a mixing environment. He is looking for a romantic relationship with another girl or woman, which he rejects if it is among his female relatives. He considers others morally deviant and deals with them on this basis.
Many Yemeni women have proven their distinguished presence in education and their competence in their fields of work. According to Amatullah Thabet, an employee, to "Khuyut," "Today, girls far outperform boys at all educational stages. A young man does not like to marry a girl who has a strong personality. As for me, if someone proposed to me and asked me to leave the university in order to marry me, I would immediately refuse him."
From his side, the university student, Nouraddine Badr, believes that there are young men who suffer from jealousy because they could not complete their education, and they see the girls competing with them in science, work, and excellence. Adding to that, there are educated and semi-educated men who imagine that when a woman learns, she will give up her need for a man and may rebel against him, and then his role becomes marginal in his wife’s life, while the man always likes to be the center and the focus of his wife’s attention and to feel his masculinity with her in everything. Therefore, they are looking to marry a young girl who has not yet completed her education so that they can gain control of her.
A social researcher says: "This phenomenon may have begun to recede relatively due to the economic factor. It no longer exists on the same scale as it was ten years ago. Today, most wives are university graduates. On the contrary, there are young men married to girls who have not completed their education, and we see them encouraging their wives to complete their education".
In this respect, human rights activists say that there are many practices that demonstrate a dangerous tendency to undermine women’s presence in public life and to end all the gains that women have struggled and fought for over the years, stressing that women do not need virtue guardians or more restrictions, but rather respect for their rights and personal freedoms, and whoever violates those rights should be held accountable.
Human rights organizations point to the expansion of practices that seriously undermine the rights and freedoms of women and girls and endanger them, as is the case through greatly restricting women's travel without a mahram and issuing more than one circular imposing a stereotypical vision of how to dress “in accordance with Islamic law” for women. In addition to prohibiting mixing in research and graduation ceremonies in a number of universities, to the point of prohibiting mixing between male and female university students in classrooms at Sana’a University, women were prevented and expelled from jobs. In addition to the campaigns carried out by some clerics that target women and expose them to the risk of violations,
Has the Phenomenon Begun to Recede?
According to the latest estimates issued by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in 2021, more than two million school-age girls and boys are out of school, of which about 47% are girls. There is another reason other than customs and traditions for pushing girls to education from the basic stages, not only university, which is represented by the deteriorating financial security within the family in light of the loss of many people in Yemen of their available means of livelihood over the past years. However, there is still a prevailing culture that gives priority to boys and men enrolling in education at the expense of girls.
Accordingly, depriving girls of access to education or discriminating against them and depriving them of their opportunities in life, whether at work, in marriage, etc., are among the most worrisome issues, in light of the weakness of taking urgent measures in this regard. These percentages and figures warn of the difficulties facing efforts to provide comprehensive education for all and reduce the gender gap. The bias against women in education reaches 45.3% in the Social Gender Standards Index, according to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) report issued in 2022.
The social researcher, Hadeel Majed, stresses to “Khuyut”, the need for society to respect educated women and their role in public life at all levels.
Besides, Majid believes that this phenomenon may have begun to recede relatively due to the economic factor. It no longer exists on the same scale as it was ten years ago. Today, most wives are university graduates. On the contrary, there are young men married to girls who have not completed their education, and we see them encouraging their wives to complete their education.
This is due to the high level of awareness among young people and the belief of some that an educated and employed woman may help in facing difficult living conditions. In addition, there are young men who do not think about marrying a university girl because the university girl is equal to him in age and in the prevailing societal culture.
The professor of psychology at Ibb University, Ahmed Al-Majeedi, has another opinion in a statement to “Khuyut ”, in which he enumerates the reasons for the young men’s reluctance to marry university girls, the most important of which are the customs and traditions that encourage marriage from young girls, and therefore the university girl has become old and is not suitable for marriage. Also, because of mixing with non-Mahram men, this is due to the motive of jealousy. The university girl is seen as a girl who likes mixing and talking to non-Mahram young men in the university environment. Therefore, approaching her has become a dangerous point, as she is seen as having interacted with and had contact with men.
Accordingly, the choices of university youth for their future wives remain a controversial issue associated with several factors and personal motives. However, what can be concluded from the overall opinions presented is that the erroneous mental image about the female university student is unjust and causes a lot of psychological and social harm to female university students. It even creates a social problem with its clear features and undesirable repercussions. The time has come for society, with all its categories, to get rid of those unjust impressions about the university female student.
