Women's campaign in Yemen protests Houthi dress code rules

Culture

AL-MONITOR Staff

Jan 17, 2023

A Yemeni woman shops at a market in Yemen's third city of Taiz, on December 15, 2022. - Yemeni society, although deeply conservative, has traditionally allowed space for individual freedoms. But this is changing under the Huthi movement, which was founded with the aim of pushing for a theocracy. (Photo by AHMAD AL-BASHA/AFP via Getty Images) — A Yemeni woman shops at a market in Yemen's third city of Taiz, on Dec. 15, 2022. Yemeni society, although deeply conservative, has traditionally allowed space for individual freedoms. But this is changing under the Houthi movement, which was founded with the aim of pushing for a theocracy. — AHMAD AL-BASHA/AFP via Getty Images

Yemeni women are taking to Twitter to defy the Houthi rebels' strict dress code.

What happened: Yemenis have been posting on the social media site using the Arabic-language “Yemeni identity” hashtag. The posts consist of pictures of Yemeni women in colorful traditional clothing and are in response to the strict dress code imposed on parts of Yemen controlled by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

The Iran-backed Houthis took power in 2014 and have recently tightened dress code rules for women in Yemen, Al-Araby and Arab News reported.

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Women's campaign in Yemen protests Houthi dress code rules

Houthi forces require women to wear a black abaya that covers their entire bodies.

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