Sumaya Ali Raja (born c.1954) is a Yemeni journalist and political activist. [1] In December 2005 she became the first woman to announce herself as a candidate for the Presidency of Yemen.
Ali Raja grew up in Taiz, in a family of seven children. Her father encouraged her and her three sisters to break with taboos and appear in public unveiled. After some education in Yemen, she followed her sisters aged 14 to study at a North Carolina high school, and on to study political science at Southwest Missouri State and broadcast journalism at the University of Kansas. In the late 1970s she and her sister Jamila were among the first female TV newscasters in Yemen. [1]
She later lived in England, doing consultancy work for the BBC and Channel 4. She married and brought up two children in Paris. After the September 11 attacks she created and ran the Yemen-French Forum to help explain Yemen to French policy-makers. Following her divorce, she returned to live in Yemen. [1]
Ali Raja announced her candidacy at an Arab women's conference, 'From Words to Actions', held in Sana'a in December 2005. She was later joined by Rashida al-Qaili who was a satirical journalist who also stood for president. [2]
In January 2007 she announced her intention to established a liberal political party, Al Bushra Party, "to achieve equality between men and women, preserve heritage, and enhance the rights of children". [3]
Ali Abdullah Saleh al-Ahmar was a Yemeni politician who served as the first President of the Republic of Yemen, from Yemeni unification on 22 May 1990, to his resignation on 27 February 2012, following the Yemeni revolution. Previously, he had served as the fourth and last President of the Yemen Arab Republic, from July 1978 to 22 May 1990, after the assassination of President Ahmad al-Ghashmi. al-Ghashmi had earlier appointed Saleh as military governor in Taiz.
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Amat Al Alim Alsoswa is a Yemeni journalist, and Yemen's first female ambassador and minister.
Women in Yemen suffer from gender-based discrimination due to the highly patriarchal character of Yemeni society. Although the government of Yemen has made efforts to improve the rights of women, many cultural and religious norms stand in the way of equal rights for women. Poor enforcement of the legislation by the Yemeni government exacerbates the problem.
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Tawakkol Abdel-Salam Khalid Karman is a Yemeni journalist, politician, human rights activist, and revolutionary. She leads the group "Women Journalists Without Chains," which she co-founded in 2005. She became the international public face of the 2011 Yemeni uprising that was part of the Arab Spring uprisings. In 2011, she was reportedly called the "Iron Woman" and "Mother of the Revolution" by some Yemenis. She is a co-recipient of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the first Yemeni, the first Arab woman, and the second Muslim woman to win a Nobel Prize.
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Women played a variety of roles in the Arab Spring, but its impact on women and their rights is unclear. The Arab Spring was a series of demonstrations, protests, and civil wars against authoritarian regimes that started in Tunisia and spread to much of the Arab world. The leaders of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen were overthrown; Bahrain has experienced sustained civil disorder, and the protests in Syria have become a civil war. Other Arab countries experienced protests as well.
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