Marriage
Throughout my life, I have heard many stories about women who were married at the age of 15 or who were forcefully married. One of my school friends even married someone she had never met and was only allowed to see one black-and-white picture of him (I still don’t know to this day why there were no colors in that picture).
These stories are by no means strange to me as a woman, but I never knew what the other party, i.e. men, thought.
Familienleben
Jahrelang schickte ich Make-up in den Jemen, an eine Frau, die ich noch nie gesehen hatte. Eines Tages reiste ich meinen Paketen hinterher.
Literature
The Egyptian-British-Canadian author and scientist Shereen El Feki breaks a taboo: She has written a book about sexuality in the Arab world.
Die Jemenitinnen haben sich aufgemacht, das Gesicht ihres Landes nachhaltig zu verändern. Sie prangern gesellschaftliche Tabus an und fordern politisches Mitspracherecht. Doch ob sich ihr Engagement in politische Mitsprache ummünzen lässt, bleibt ungewiss.
Visiting Yemen these days takes courage - and the will to see beyond the headlines. But doing so, there are treasures to be found: People passionately struggling for a new civil society.
To be frank: For my nerves and above all for those of my family and friends it would have been much better if I had fallen in love with another country than Yemen. With Malaysia, perhaps, with Egypt or at least with Oman. “But why Yemen, for God’s sake?”, have I been asked innumerable times. And when I revealed a couple of weeks ago, that I would travel to Sana’a again, the tone of the question became almost desperate.