women carried food and messages to fighters. In
Aden, women’s role was merely political. They led
demonstrations, initiated strikes in schools, took
care of the wounded, and carried arms and hand
grenades under their cloaks. In the women’s soci-
eties, activists confronted the British and recruited
more participants to the struggle.
After independence in 1967, women’s issues only
came to the fore after a radical leadership in the
National Liberation Front gained power in 1969.
Women were now called to join the labor force,
educate themselves, and use the newly available
health services. A committee formed of pro-revolu-
tionary religious scholars, juridical experts, and
women’s activists began drafting a family code that
would reflect the spirit of the 1970 constitution
which gave women rights equal to men. The Family
Law (law no 1 of 1974) deviated from the Sharì≠a in
placing the obligation to support the family on
both men and women, limiting polygamy to cases
of the wife’s barrenness or incurable illness (subject
to court hearing) and prohibiting unilateral divorce.
The law was in congruence with classical Sharì≠a
law on marriage payment (mahr) and the wife’s
waiting period after divorce or widowhood (≠idda).
In line with the constitution, the law declared
marriage to be a contract between a man and a
woman equal in rights and duties, and outlawed
child marriages and marriage of a woman below 35
years to a man 20 years older. Saudi Arabia and
conservative Yemeni circles targeted the law as un-
Islamic. Ordinary women saw it as allowing them
free-choice marriage and giving them rights for the
first time.
In Aden during the 1980s and 1990s women
reached high positions in working life, even super-
vising large factories (see Figure 4), while in the
countryside achievements were smaller and women
activists had to struggle to get local women to visit
health clinics. In Aden girls’ enrollment in second-
ary education was high; in some rural areas families
did not allow daughters to finish primary school. In
leaders’ speeches, misogynism was attacked and
men were taught to treat every woman as if she
were his sister. Working women in Aden remained
critical of the lack of public childcare and the fact
that they worked a double shift at home, but at the
same time responded positively to the state policy
of women’s liberation (ta™rìr al-mar±a). Few women
reached high positions in the state hierarchy and
women remained the minority in the ruling party
apparatus. After the unification of Yemen in 1990,
northern traditionalists who held that women had
too many rights demanded adjustment, and this
was echoed by some southern leaders. The Personal658 political-social movements: revolutionary
Status Law (law no 20 of 1992) accomplished this
in relation to family affairs; but while women lost
most of their earlier legal rights, progressive judges
in family courts continued defending vulnerable
women. After unification, the nomination of the
first ever female full cabinet member has remained
one of the few accomplishments.
In Dhofar, guerilla movement against the de-
spotic Sultan Sa≠id bin Taymùr and the British mili-
tary started in 1965, quickly developing into a
people’s struggle with women fighting alongside
men. The Dhofar Liberation Front was established
in 1964 by exiled Omanis with Nasserist and radi-
cal Arab nationalist ideas, with women leaders
who had become politically active while studying
in Beirut. The organization soon incorporated
activists from other Gulf countries and adopted the
name Popular Front for the Liberation of Occupied
Arab Gulf. In 1968, the front launched an educa-
tional campaign to spread socialist ideas among the
population to complement its literacy campaigns.
Females aged twelve and upwards participated in
camps with political and military training.
Slavery was abolished in the liberated areas and
women engaged in the dual front of armed struggle
and the fight against backwardness. Women were
seen to face double oppression, that of a repressive
social system and as victims of men. Young country
women were reported to have developed con-
sciousness of the role reactionary men have had in
alienating Islam from its progressive message.
Guerilla actions continued until 1981 when they
were finally defeated by the new ruler, Qabùs, son
of Sultan Sa≠id bin Taymùr, with the aid of foreign
troops. Dhofar was showered with development
money from neighboring countries and schools,
clinics, and roads were built. However, reforms
were carried out in order to strengthen the tradi-
tional social structure where a woman’s place is at
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