by WorldTribune Staff, May 7, 2017

Life, for those who have survived, is incredibly difficult for women in Yemen living in areas controlled by Iran-backed Houthi rebels, rights groups say.

Between September 2014 and March 2016, 459 women were killed and 1,281 injured in Houthi attacks, according to the Human Rights Information and Training Center.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) said that 10,000 cases of violence against women were reported in 2016 alone.

The Houthis subject females to constant verbal and sexual harassment and prevent them from working or going to school, the groups say.

Women “have suffered the greatest share of abuse and harassment at the hand of militias in cities and areas under their control,” said Riyad Al-Kaabari, Yemen’s representative to the Arab League in Cairo.

Journalist Bushra Al-Amri said that Yemeni women journalists suffered attacks, especially those who condemned the practices of the Houthis, which undermine womens’ rights and freedoms, particularly of journalists.

Wessam Basandouh said that the rights of many women were violated, whether by torture or kidnapping, over and above the tragedy of having to face bombing of their residential areas and assassinations.

In its report to the plenary session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, the Human Rights Information and Training Center stressed that women and children have been subjected to serious violations by the Houthi rebels and loyalists to ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The center also reported that children form one third of the fighters in Yemen, and that the Houthi and Saleh militias recruited 72 percent of the documented cases of children pushed to fight.

  Human Rights Information and Training Center, Iran-backed Houthi rebels, journalists in particular, Report: Women, suffer constant abuse in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, United Nations Population Fund, WorldTribune.com