The First Yemeni Female Ambassador Amat Al-Aleem Al Sosowah “The deprivation and suffering the Yemeni women are prone to without numbers” [Archives:1999/49/Interview]
December 6 1999
When we talk of any generation of women, e.g. from the beginning of the sixties up to this year, Mrs. Amat Al-Aleem Al-Sosowah appears to be one of the most distinguished pioneering woman representing a great figure among Yemeni women.
Since her childhood, she has been engaged with mass media. She worked as a host in Taiz radio while she was eleven years old at a time when the political forces were still coming into being. No one can deny the role played by Taiz radio to encourage people to fight for freedom against the abhorrent colonization in southern Yemen at that time.
Q: How did you get your start in work?
A: I started working when I was 11. I was working for Taiz radio when my father died. In fact, my work was not a passion or to enjoy my childhood as some may think. It was rather a matter of self-dependence to stand strong in life. The one who browses my biography will think that it is time for me to retire because of the long period I have spent at work.
Although it was only for a short period, my work for Taiz radio played a crucial role in shaping some features my character. When I moved from Dhamar to Taiz it was a center for knowledge. I moved to Taiz with my father when he was appointed to be a judge there. Most of my brothers and sisters were born in Taiz. I was very lucky to spend my childhood in Taiz which was a center of knowledge and culture. Due to the many schools established there after the revolution and due to the encouraging social atmosphere to get knowledge, I entered school. Unfortunately, my elder sisters did not get this chance because they did not live in Taiz. This period, in fact, helped form many aspects of my personality. As I grew older, I indulged more in political and cultural activities. In addition to my work for the radio, which was the reason behind my stability, self-confidence and self-dependence, I joined the Scouts. Together with a lot of men and women, we established the scouts organization which was one of the most important youth movements, especially in the 70s. It was this period that really shaped my character. Whenever I feel bored or down, I just try to recollect all of those moments and feel how difficult it was. That period of my life now looks beautiful to me but it was also a period of suffering. As there was encouragement from society, there were also many objections to my work. Society was not used to accepting a woman mixing with men. Fortunately I was not alone. There were some other women of my age or younger or elder than me.
Youth was motivated by the open and encouraging atmosphere. It was a natural period and had to be so. No doubt, my family encouraged me to go on in my education and work, otherwise I couldn’t have been able to study or work. It was my parents’ understanding and appreciation of what I was doing that encouraged me to continue my studies as well as my work. They taught me how dealing with others should be and that was enough to save me. Without that encouragement to go on, I would have stopped like many other women who stopped at various stages of their lives, some in the midway and very few of them managed to run the whole distance or were able to face up to the social tradition and conventions.
Q: How do you assess the period of your work as an undersecretary in the Ministry of Information?
A: Appointing me for an administrative post did not surprise me because I initiated my career in an administrative job when I first worked in TV. For example in 1981-82, I was appointed an assistant program manager and that was the first administrative job to be entrusted to a woman in TV. There were many hostesses, but to appoint a woman to such an administrative job was something new. Before this time, namely, in 1976-79, I worked as a director of all TV newscasters and anchors. It was a great responsibility to hold. Managing TV programs is rather a tough task. It is more difficult and demanding than being Minister of Information because here you become responsible for all programs that are watched by most of the people.
In fact, I can not evaluate my work in the Ministry of Information. Although it was a short period, it was perhaps my gateway to enter the world of information administration. When I was appointed information undersecretary in 1991, my work was not limited solely to administration but rather I was in the heart of political and information activity. This is due to the fact that during the period when I occupied that job a lot of political events were taking place in Yemen. However, I felt as if I was captured by the administrative aspect of the work because the greater part of my work was in administration.
I did my best to be a (neutral) administrator and I hope I was successful at that task.
After the Parliamentary elections of 1997, the Minister of Information was one of the candidates and I had to run the Ministry affairs in his stead. It was a critical time for me and, of course, I can not evaluate my work during that period. However, I can not say that I am satisfied with what I did either as assistant undersecretary or as undersecretary because in both positions you don’t hold all the keys of political work in your hands.
Q: Right after the parliamentary elections of 1997, there was some leaked information about a woman getting a portfolio and many people thought it was you. What are your comments?
A: In fact, the issue of women participating in government was discussed before the parliamentary elections of 1997, but we can say that the issue was more prominent after the elections. I hadn’t thought of being a minister. All I hoped for was to be able to have the freedom to carry out my job. I did not think of getting a portfolio because in most ministries the post of undersecretary was of equal importance to the post of minister. So these rumors were not true and I understood them as signs of love and appreciation from feminists. However, law and constitution do not prevent women from assuming such posts. There are women working as judges in Yemen but I don’t understand what hinders a woman from being a minister.
Q: What are the reasons behind the absence of women in press?
A: In fact there is no such thing as women’s journalism. However, since 1993, there have been some magazines and newspapers interested in women’s issues. These experiments in themselves are, of course, very important because they fill the gap that the political magazines and newspapers have neglected. When writing about women these newspapers, whether state-run or party organs, are used to allocating one page to talk about some very stereotyped issues: ‘For you Lady,’ ‘A whisper in Your Ear,’ ‘Housekeeping,’ and other such matters that unfortunately don’t deal with issues that are important to women. The present situation is rather successful. For example, there are ” Al-Mar’ah” newspaper (woman newspaper), “Adam & Eve,” Al-Yamaniah and another newspapers that have begun to focus on women’s issues. For example, if you read the “Al-Thaqafiah” newspaper you will find that women writers sometimes outnumber men. It is a good experience and it helps show that there are women who should be heard. There are also women political writings which aren’t confined to specific columns or pages. There are also newspapers managed and published by women which focus on issues which previously were handled only by men.
Q: Some people say that women are not qualified enough for press? What do you think?
A: There are qualified women, but they are not to be found when decisions are taken on appointments in media, whether state-owned or party organs. For example, Al-Wahdah newspaper could have been run by a woman. What is wrong with that? What is wrong if a woman becomes the chief editor of the Yemen Times, Al-Wahdawi or Al-Soura? There are women who are able to do that. In fact, there should be a woman who is experienced in the art of managing newspapers so that others can have the chance to judge their success or failure in this field. However, it seems that men are afraid of this. So we can not say that there are no qualified women. Some official newspapers are managed by women. Unfortunately, this has not been seen in any party organs. This, in fact, is due to men’s wrong belief that women can not do some kinds of work. So it is difficult to say something general like what you said in your question. This matter is related to society and its acceptance of availability in positions that have been limited to men for a long time. Sometimes I feel like laughing when I read some of the opposition newspapers claims to be liberal while they have not a single female name among their editorial staff despite the availability of many qualified women.
Q: Have woman really benefited from your book “Yemeni Woman in Figures?”
A: The book contains figures about women that I quoted and analyzed. In fact, it was somehow difficult to get information on women before the establishment of the Man & Woman’s Statistics Administration whose main concern is obtaining information, details, figures and facts about people and presenting them to the decision makers. Before this we used to hear sentences like, women are backward, women’s condition is very bad, women have acquired highest positions in the government, etc. without any real details. So I thought I must fill that gap and I did it enthusiastically. I also wanted to embarrass the concerned authorities who were supposed to take care of this matter. In 1996 I finished the first book of ” The Yemeni Woman in Figures,” and in 1997 I finished the second one. I intended to write the third book, but the Central Organization for Statistics and Administration saved me the effort needed to do so. In my two books I depended on figures and information from the Central Organization for Statistics and Administration and some surveys and books.
The thing that both sexes in Yemen suffer from is the lack of education. Education opens many doors. It helps one respect himself and believe in his abilities. So I have found that what a woman suffers from most is being away from education. Unfortunately, this is due to some conventions that do not agree with our religion which urges all people to learn and study. Some people accept women participating in work when wages are not to be paid for it and such contribution will, of course, be at the expense of the poor exhausted woman who works for more than 18 hours on farms. However, if another worker is hired he is to be paid for what he does. Even worse than that, is that these women who work for this long time in fields or the like are supposed to go home and do her household duties. All this is done with no return. And after all this she must be kind and obedient.
There is also a matter which is related to education facilities. Many people refuse to send their daughters to mixed schools. If no girls’ school is available, the first thing these people do is prevent their daughters from going to school. This helps widen the gap between women and men. When these daughters become adults, they might by unable to understand what is going on around them. In some specific places, women eat only what remains from men’s meals. I also included many examples of the deprivation and suffering the Yemeni women are prone to without numbers. For example, depriving women of inheritance, and forcing them to get married while they are still too young. It is true there has been a remarkable improvement in women’s conditions but there are still some places where such phenomena are seen.
Q: The woman has now got a seat in the parliament, has that given the Yemeni woman something?
A: We shouldn’t be unfair to ask only (two) women members of parliament out of 301 to hold them responsible for the 55% proportion of the population that is represented by women. In my opinion, the two female members of parliament are champions because they are presenting a new example to women. I was really surprised at the PGC for not nominating any woman in any of the Northern governorates. Women in the Northern governorates had to be supported at least to break the rule that says women in these governorates are backward.
Q: Is the National Committee for Woman an alternative for the Federation of Yemeni Women?
A: The National Committee for Women is a governmental consultative body, but a decision has been taken lately on re-establishing it in such a way that it actually has an official stamp. We have now more than thirty non governmental organizations that are members of the National Committee in addition to heads of women sectors in all of the political parties, so in this way I think that the committee will be complete. Actually the committee started with eight volunteer women and we are still working on a volunteer basis with an annual budget not exceeding YR 4 million.
Q: What about appointing you as an ambassador?
A: The decision has been passed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs but, as usual, people had anticipated it.
Q: To which country?
A: I can not say to which country before an official decree is issued.
Q: What do you think woman should do as she enters the third millennium?
A: Let’s think about what Yemen should do to face the third millennium. In my opinion, it depends upon a transitional mechanism and not upon a specific time. The whole world is receiving the third millennium with a lot of changes: globalization and technology which are preparations to enter the third millennium. As far as Arabs are concerned, I think that they have slept throughout this century because preparations for any century must be done during the one preceding it.
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