Yemeni women post images wearing traditional clothing to disobey Houthi dress codes
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Alaina
- . January 17, 2023
- . Update: January 17, 2023 3:42 pm
Yemeni women are defying Houthi clothing restrictions and the militia’s intensifying crackdown in areas under their control by posting pictures of themselves online while wearing vibrant traditional attire.
Numerous women from inside and outside of the nation have shared photos of themselves on Facebook and Twitter with the hashtag #Yemeni identity. Social media is a popular platform for activists to express their outrage.
A Yemeni writer named Mozen Senan stated, “Our grandparents used to wear colourful clothing and our tradition is full of colours and joy,” as he posed for a photo with a buddy while donning a colourful abaya and a headscarf.
Ansar Allah wants to cover us in black and determines what we should wear. even if we don’t dress the same as our grandmothers anymore. She referred to the Houthi as “this is who we are today, and these are our colours.
The Houthi officials in Sanaa told tailors that women’s abayas should be loose-fitting and black roughly a week before to the start of the internet campaign.
Read | Iranian AK-47s seized by US Navy to arm Yemeni militants
These Houthi clothing restrictions are a part of a broader campaign against women that also forbids them from travelling between cities alone by men. The gang is notorious for kidnapping artists and accusing them of alleged moral offences.
Human rights campaigner Ebtehal Al-Komani claimed that historically, women have never dressed their complete bodies in black attire.
“Yemeni women never wore black (clothing). a strange practise that is widely practised in Yemeni society. She posted pictures of herself and other female activists dressed in traditional attire on Facebook and declared, “It neither belongs to us nor does it belong to us.
Fatima Muthanna, a Yemeni singer, also published images of herself. She wrote on Facebook in a post that received hundreds of likes and comments, “This is our vibrantly hued identity.”
Five well-known online celebrities have been kidnapped and held captive by the Houthis since December for criticising the militia’s inability to improve the country’s economic situation and root out corruption in government.
Following the Houthis’ armed takeover of power in late 2014, thousands of Yemenis have either fled the nation or relocated to areas under government control.
Entesar Al-Hammadi, a Yemeni model and actress who was abducted in a Sanaa street for allegedly violating the Islamic dress code, is still in the Houthis’ custody.
