Women and Resistance

Women and Resistance

Dr. Nabila Saeed

Head of the Women's Sector in the Supreme Command of the Supreme Council of the Popular Resistance

I had the honor of participating in a two-day workshop for women leaders in Taiz titled "Empowering Women in the Resistance: Between Reality and Hope." The workshop was organized by the Women's Department of the Supreme Council of the Popular Resistance. The two-day workshop addressed enhancing women's capabilities in political and societal spheres and organizing women's resistance work, starting with awareness-raising efforts to align around a comprehensive national project that mobilizes the forces of Yemenis, free from partisan affiliations, narrow loyalties, and exhausted components. It also focused on remaining in a state of waiting while time continues to creep toward the unknown, and Yemen endures conditions of political fragmentation and significant humanitarian failure.

I wouldn't be exaggerating if I said that I heard strong, honest voices thinking about the Yemeni state as if it weren't facing the major challenges represented by the deteriorating economic situation and the difficulty of achieving a decent living, without the most basic requirements for human survival.  Can anyone imagine that the Houthis, who support Gaza, are killing so many in their own homeland by besieging a city that resembles Gaza in its dreams of freedom and human dignity? This is the reality glaringly obvious to Yemenis, and one that is being distorted globally. The city, under siege for nearly 11 years, continues to lose more of its people every day due to mines planted in the alleys, or due to the constant movement from one high-rise building to another in search of a life similar to the one the Houthis defend in a country other than their own, while they are afflicting their own people with every form of killing, displacement, and targeting.

In besieged Taiz, demands for life and a decent living persist to this day. There is a different kind of resistance: women stand in the streets, calling for the right to life, pursuing education and awareness as a side battle in support of the political and military action that has borne no fruit and has been greatly weakened by the legitimate government. Hopes are currently pinned on the resistance of the people and those involved in the resistance.  Perhaps the resistance that sparked it in 2015 will restore the radiance of this moment in time and space, and every inch of Yemen will be liberated. Many have come to base their expectations and expectations solely on a purely Yemeni act of resistance. Perhaps the grueling conditions in Taiz have created many male and female resistance fighters who embrace a choice that every Yemeni is honored to stand with and on the side of the resistance; a position only those who are zealous for a country that is eroding over time, its wealth stolen, and its capabilities undermined can take.

We encouraged the dialogue of the female activists within the workshop during today's closing meeting, to confirm that Yemen is well as long as there are women with such culture, awareness, and participation. Undoubtedly, there will be action that will be reflected in various communities after the workshop. The spark of the women's revolution that erupted months ago in the city of Taiz to demand the right to live is sufficient to illuminate other geographical locations and move towards a unified national path with one unavoidable option: the liberation of the nation as a whole.  What this workshop brings to mind is that it is capable of creating a different mood for resistance action and encouraging the souls that have withered from waiting for liberation to work again in a more hopeful way, more prepared to reclaim the republic and build the state. Every Yemeni, in our view, has reached the complete conviction that Yemen will only be liberated by its own people, and this is what we can only count on.

Loss and hope are the map and compass that guarantee the continuation of the wait for the great homeland to be liberated day after day. There will be no loss if its people perform a partial task every day until the liberation scene is complete. This requires constant reflection on hope and a shift away from thinking about what we are losing. This is the philosophy of reclaiming rights, upon which the purpose of the struggle is achieved. Between weeping over what has been lost and hope, there is a deep distance of challenge and hard, responsible work, which can ultimately only lead you to the righteous path of building a just Yemeni state.

https://scpr-ye.com/resistive-voice/zxz