Women’s groups praise move to qualify women judges

Yemeni women’s groups have praised a recent government decision to begin qualifying females to become judges. “This is an excellent decision, which we consider a good step towards improving women’s positions in a male-dominated sphere,” said Huryah Mashhoor, deputy chairperson of the Women’s National Committee. “The presence of women in the judiciary system as judges has become a necessity.” The Ministry of Justice announced on 18 March that women will be accepted, for the first time, in the Supreme Judiciary Institute (SJI) to be qualified as judges. The prospective new class this term of 104 students, she added, includes four women. “There’s no legal constraint anymore for women to join the SJI. Four women have applied this year,” explained Judge Taha al-Ansi, SJI manager for educational affairs. “There are criteria for final admission, which all the students have to meet. There’s no problem having women work as judges .” In South Yemen, women frequently worked in judiciary positions prior to unification in 1990, with women’s empowerment featuring high in the agenda of the Yemeni Socialist Party, the then ruling party in the south. “The qualification of women as judges stopped after 1990 due to a conservative and religious culture that doesn’t recognise women as judges,” said Mashhoor. She added that there were previously 34 female judges in the south. Now, Mashhoor said, they carry out administrative duties at the justice ministry. Fathia Abdulwase, a lawyer and head of the legal department at the ministry of information, said that South Yemen had been a pioneer, in the country, in its appointment of female judges. “Women there have been running courts and prosecution with distinction,” she said. “They even outperformed men in handling public lawsuits.” SJI students, meanwhile, expressed different opinions about the move to accept women. Naser Shmasan, for example, objected to the decision. “Some clerics say that women aren’t born to become judges,” he said. “This is a very challenging task, which needs strong people.” Shmasan’s colleague, Mohammed al-Houthi, however, had a different opinion. “I don’t have a problem with women joining us here,” he said. “They’re even better than men, because women don’t take bribes.”