This international women’s day we would like to draw attention to the issues currently faced by women in Yemen.

Before the conflict, Yemen was ranked last out of 142 countries in the 2014 Gender Gap Index with only 50% of women in Yemen being literate, compared to 83% of men.

Women in Yemen played a vital role in the 2011 uprisings, and began to gain increased political representation. However, since the conflict escalated, women have been negatively impacted in specific ways. Women have reduced their own meals to feed their children and around 522,000 pregnant women currently lack access to healthcare. It is reported that Yemeni girls are increasingly being forced into early marriages as a result of poverty exacerbated by the conflict.