Women's Rights in danger under Houthis, reports reveal grave cases of torture

 Amid the fight for power, Women and children make up for a segment that has been reported to suffer the most. They are waiting for political or regional driven situations but what they don’t seem to understand is what is their role as individuals in such troubled areas. 

Houthis have been known to suppress women and their rights since they formed a unit seeking power in Yemen and nearby areas. But despite various reports, this issue did not really gain the attention of people. After years of struggle, a former jailor has finally stepped in to highlight the toruture and abuse that women go through under Houthi reign. 

As per new website, Arab News, in recent days there have been cases where civilians have witnessed atrocities against the hands of Houthis and explained one such incident where masked men were seen taking women prisoners to an isolated building specific to female inmates at the Central Prison in Houthi-held Sanaa. 

That is not it, the series of mishandling of these women start from when they enter these prison facilities. As per the people around that area, only a short while after these women are taken inside, their screams can be heard and men shouting at them is also heard. The first hand information was given by Fawzia Ahmed, who was the head of the central prison for a few months. 

Ahmed said, “I could hear the screams of the prisoners, the screams of the children. Everything that happens there; cursing, rape and everything.” She fled from Yemen only to settle in Cairo, Egypt. She explained that she saw how violently these female prisoners were treated in that large prison by Houthi men. 

But in this case, not only men but women too are involved. Ahmed said that she does not know much about those people who were torturing these women but one thing she was sure of was that they were Houthi investigators who were accompanied by Houthi policewomen known as Zaynabiat. 

While talking to the website, she also said that they could not question what was going on and they were also not allowed to reveal the identity of the prisoners. She has been working in this horrific environment since the last two decades till 2019 when she finally decided to flee the capital. 

The central prison is one of those places where the houthis show their strength by tormenting people. They show what they are truly capable of. The Houthis had taken complete control of the prison in 2017, which was after they killed the former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.