Women Prisoners’ Conditions: Harsh & Distressing [Archives:2001/17/Local News]

Due to many deep rooted traditional, cultural factors and stock social conventions, in the first place, women prisoners remain ostracized and shunned by the society. The society’s attitude is rigid in this regard. The time a woman comes to law enforcing authorities, she is stigmatized by the whole society. The society does not savor the idea that women can take to crimes. The society is still looking at them from the traditional point of view. However, due to the social changes and economic hardships that have befallen all the people of the society, women have started going out looking for jobs to help the men folk meet the the difficulties of life. As a result they became more vulnerable to crime.
Yemen Times covered a seminar on “Women’s Conditions in Prisons” held in the al-Afif Cultural Corporation last Monday. In the seminar Mrs. Shatha Nasser, lawyer, presented a paper based on a survey conducted in Sana’a Central Prison in this regard. She highlighted the hardships and miserable conditions of women inside the prison due largely to a state of neglect and indifference by the authorities concerned and the rigid attitude of the people. The deliberations of the seminar were enriched by the contributions of prominent personalities who attended the seminar. Full coverage of the heating issue “Women in Prisons” will be given in the next issue.

——
[archive-e:17-v:2001-y:2001-d:2001-04-23-p:./2001/iss17/ln.htm]