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Yemeni Women React To Vice and Virtue Committee and Parliamentary Quotas

By Howard M. Friedman

In Yemen in July, religious and tribal leaders announced the formation of a Vice and Virtue Committee to report violations of Islamic law to police, and to oppose the government's plan to encourage political participation by women. (BBC News).One of the Committee's first actions was to issue a fatwa (legal pronouncement) against the government's planned quota system that would allocate 15% of the seats in Parliament to women. Currently only one woman sits in Parliament. (Yemen Observer). This month, the Yemen Observer has published a three part series interviewing Yemeni women with differing views about the Committee and its opposition to the planned women's quota. Part I featured an interview with Hooria Mashoor, Deputy Chairperson of the Women National Committee. Part II featured a conversation with Ramzia al-Eryani, Chairwoman of the Yemen Women Union. Part III, published last Saturday, featured Tawkkol A. Karman, member of the Majlis al-Shura (Consultative Assembly).

Full post as published by Religion Clause on September 15, 2008 (boomark / email).