By: Zuhur al-Yemeni

In a way that has no precedent in the history of Yemen, the Houthi militias committed the most heinous crimes against women in all the Governorates under their control, deliberately insulting the dignity of Yemeni women and exaggerating their humiliation.

Over the past years, the Houthi militia formed the so-called Zainabiyat faction and armed and trained it in combat and intelligence.

Since its establishment, this faction has adopted terrorist methods through which it has committed the most heinous violations against women, extending beyond all values, moral principles, international and humanitarian norms and local laws.

Lawyer Nusaiba spoke about the most prominent violations that have been practiced by Zainabiyat against women detainees in Houthi prisons, saying: “With an accelerated pace and with different tasks, the influence of the Zainabiyat brigades increased, where the militias replaced the female security component in prisons with women with a criminal record, the Houthis called them Zainabiyat. The task of these women is to torture female prisoners and human rights activists. Through my coming into contact with many women detainees in Houthi prisons, I can confirm that the Zainabiyat carry out horrific acts inside those prisons. They work to facilitate rape in Houthi secret detention centers and supervise guarding and investigation work. They are also accused of sexual assault, beating and torturing women, especially those women who are active in political and human rights work in case they are arrested, in addition to recruiting imprisoned women to join clandestine prostitution networks supervised by the organization and recruiting girls from villages and poor neighborhoods.

She added: Through my follow-up to the cases of the detained women who are imprisoned in the Houthi prisons, as well as those women who were released, it became clear to me that the Zainabiyat are responsible for all the crimes and violations that the detained women are subjected to. One of the released women detainees, who was arrested by a battalion of Zainabiyat raided her house and hid her in a prison without her family knowing anything about her fate until she was released. This detainee spoke that the Zainabiyat had taken upon themselves to torture her physically. In each torture session, the Zainabiyyah were taking turns beating her with batons and copper cables, electrocuted her and sprayed her with cold water and some acids in the areas of the wounds scattered in different parts of her body, which caused her severe pain that made her loses consciousness several times, and she is still suffering from the effects of that torture until today".

And she continued: "There are some women detainees who told me that the Zainabiyat practice all immoral offenses, in addition to practicing homosexuality with each other, and that they make the imprisoned women as their servants to meet all their needs in cleaning toilets, rooms, cooking, as well as taking care of the abducted children."

And she said: “From my sources that I trust, I recently learned that teams of Zainabiyat abducted a number of girls from the streets of the capital, Sana’a, and took them to an unknown destination, to then exchange their freedom in consideration of attending sectarian courses that organized for them, and then luring and attracting a number of their female friends, training them, and enrolling them in the ranks of female soldiers. In addition, they recruit dozens of girls imprisoned on moral or immoral charges to attend sectarian courses and then train them militarily to carry out the tasks assigned to them by the leadership of the Houthi militia".

 

The Zainabiyat Battalion is a network of dirty missions:

In its periodic report on Yemen, the team of the United Nations Committee of Experts revealed a dark side of Zainabiyat’s tasks, where it stated that the network was involved in the repression of women who oppose the militias, through the arbitrary arrest and detention of women, looting, sexual assault, beatings, torture and facilitating rape in secret detention centers.

The report stated that this network has today become an intelligence apparatus for dirty tasks with the Houthis and an intelligence apparatus directed towards women.

The report also reported facts and testimonies about the women elements of the Zainabiyat playing a pivotal role in the rapes of the abducted women who were detained by the Zainabiyat in private homes, and some of these arrested women were charged with prostitution.

Here, it should be noted that a previous human rights report issued by the Organization of Sam for Rights and Liberties, entitled "What is left for us?", highlighted for the first time the formation of "Zeinabiyat" with the details of this apparatus and its dirty tasks.

The report revealed at the time that the Zainabiyat is a group of highly trained women elements to carry out incursions and arrest women activists, in addition to other special tasks such as espionage, catching opponents, monitoring opinions and prosecuting women activists in private meetings and workplaces.

Among the tasks of these Zainabiyat are also other works related to the ideological aspect of the militias, such as giving lectures, organizing seminars at social events and being active on social media to promote the Houthi ideology.

In the same context, in a press conference, the Marib Police Director, Brigadier General Yahya Humaid, stated that the investigations of the security services with a number of Houthi soft cells that were arrested revealed that the secret apparatus of the Zainabiyat is linked to the militia leader and mostly operates under the cover of relief and civil organizations.

He added that the secret service is attracting and drawing women from poor families, recruiting them by security, training them to carry out terrorist acts and spying on the targeted people, then sending them to carry out tasks in the internationally recognized government areas, especially the city of Marib.

Humaid indicated that the Houthi militias are working to implicate women and children in immoral cases with the aim of putting pressure them and to ensure that they do not retreat and carry out the required terrorist missions.

 

This is because of your gossip:

In the areas under its control, the Houthi militia doubled the security oversight on women and planted soft female spies “Zeinabiyat” to count the women’s statements in their meetings until the situation reached the point of women refraining from speaking in their private meetings or criticizing the militia’s ascendancy and its violation of citizens’ rights.

Umm Abdullah, one of the victims of the Zainabiyat who punished her because she spoke about issues that are on the minds of all Yemenis.

Umm Abdullah spoke to me after she took God’s covenant from me that her name would not be mentioned, where she said: "The Houthis surrounded us even in our own meetings, so we can no longer talk about our miserable situation or criticize them even with just a word. A year ago, I was in one of the condolence gathering for one of my relatives, and there was one of the Zainabiyat who was being pushed by the Houthi to such meetings with the aim of giving a lecture in which she was supposed to pray for mercy for the dead and the patience of his family, but she gave a lecture in which she urged women to push their children to the battlefronts, enumerating the extent of the reward that their children will receive.

She added: “I did not like her talk about this, especially since women cannot respond to her for fear of themselves, so I interrupted her and asked her: Why don't you push your son for jihad to get the reward? Why don't we see the sons of the supervisors and those in positions go to the fronts to be blessed with al-hoor al-'ayn, as you mentioned? Her response to me was by accusing me of being an ISIS collaborator, and two days after that incident they arrested my son and then sent me a message that this is a discipline for me.”

She added: My son stayed in their detention for three months, where I begged and resorted to everyone who could help me until they could release him from prison, and the answer was: This is because of your gossip: After mediations and payment of large sums of money, my son was released."

Umm Abdullah concluded her speech by saying: "The Houthi has mobilized the Zainabiyat in women's gatherings to monitor and transmit the conversations that take place between them in order to take revenge on them, as they did with me, or as they did with one of the teachers, where they dismissed her from her job."

 

They forced me to drink alcohol and practice prostitution:

The Independent newspaper published a report accusing the Houthis of practicing sexual violence against women and forcing them to work in prostitution. And the report talked about the supermodel Intisar al-Hammadi, who was arrested last February.

The Independent quoted the Organization of SAM for Rights and Liberties as saying that Intisar al-Hammadi told the delegation of journalists, lawyers and members of the judiciary who visited the central prison last month that Houthi security officials escorted her and other girls to several homes, and "forced them to drink alcohol and sleep with people."

When she accused the Houthis of prostitution, they replied: “It is okay, as long as it is in the service of the country.”

It is noteworthy that the abducted girl al-Hammadi attempted suicide several times, as stated by her lawyer Khaled al-Kamal.

The Independent indicates that al-Hammadi's case is not unique, where al-Kamal confirmed to the newspaper that cases of forced abducting, torture and sexual violence against women have escalated since 2015, and that he is defending other people in ten cases similar to al-Hammadi's case.

The newspaper also confirmed that Noura al-Jarawi, head of the Coalition of Women for Peace, stated that between December 2017 and 2020, about 1,181 women were arrested.

It is believed that the actual number of women languishing in Houthi-run prisons is "much higher because there are secret and illegal sites that are often located in hard-to-reach areas."

And through speaking to five survivors, lawyers and human rights activists, The Independent says it has learned that sexual violence against women is widespread in Houthi-run detention sites in Yemen.

And she adds: "The Houthis did not differentiate between women, whose ages range between 13 and 55 years during their efforts to silence dissent."

The newspaper pointed out that the Houthis "broke the pelvis of the girlfriend of al-Hammadi and tortured another woman until she was paralyzed and lost consciousness, and even some girls were married off to men from members of the group by the Houthis."

Al-Jarawi told The Independent that “women and their children, who were in the custody of the Houthis, were subjected to rape,” adding that the Houthis use coercion, blackmail and intimidation to trap the women.

She stated that when the 31 years old Sonia Ali Ghabbash refused to work in the intelligence to help in targeting figures outside Sanaa, the Houthis imprisoned her, beat her with electric stunners and cold water, and then raped her, according to The Independent.

In the process of systematic recruitment of girls, Zainabiyat took advantage of the need of poor families who were exhausted by destitution, during the summer vacation, by convincing families and girls to join summer centers, especially girls who are still in school, with a promise to provide school tools, books and other study requirements.

The female student "k. A." is among the girls who joined one of the summer centers, which soon left the summer center after joining it.

She told us about the reasons why she left the center, saying: "At the beginning of the summer vacation, one of the Zainabiyat visited my mother and tried to convince her that I should join the summer center, and when my mother told her that our financial situation did not allow me to be registered, the Zainabiya promised her that she would take care of all the necessities represented in notebooks, pens and means of transportation and that it would make it easier for my family to obtain gas, in addition to a marginal source of income in return for joining the center, and with all these tempting offers, my mother agreed to enroll me in the summer center.”

And she added: "There was no entertainment or cultural curriculum, as the Zainabiya told me, but rather, there was a curriculum prepared by the Zainabiyat with the Houthi female supervisors, which consisted of memorizing the content of the lieutenant of Abdul Malik al-Houthi by heart, in addition to listening to lectures urging us to contribute to spreading Houthi ideologies and persuading us to join the Zainabiyat. Three weeks after joining the center, I left it out of fear for myself because they brainwash female students with their sectarian ideas that have nothing to do with religion, in addition to mobilizing them to work with them even if the work included religious and moral violations. Even the female students enrolled in the Quran memorization centers were not spared them, as the Zainabiyat tempted them to leave the memorization centers and join their own centers.”

She concluded her speech by saying: "There are two female students who joined the summer center have become Zeinabiat, and this is not surprising because the female supervisors of these centers make a great effort to recruit girls into their ranks, and for this reason, I left their center."

Zainabiyat training by international organizations:

 

International organizations train the Zainabiyat:

The legitimate government accused international organizations of financing incitement and sabotage activities and training a number of Zainabiyat, and demanded, through Information Minister Muammar al-Eryani, the European Union delegation, the GIZ International Organization and German Cooperation, to clarify the rationale for funding training courses for women affiliated with the Houthi militia’s military, security and media formations.

In tweets on Twitter, al-Eryani said that the tasks of the formation of the Zainabiyat are to suppress Yemeni women.

The minister published a participation card showing the logos of the European Union mission, the GIZ International Organization and German Cooperation for a training course entitled "Training female media professionals to develop media discourse in the face of aggression", in reference to the war media of the Houthis.

And al-Eryani revealed that the course is organized by the so-called "Yemen Independent Media Foundation" affiliated with a member of the Houthi militia, to train a number of women affiliated with the formation of Zainabiyat.

Al-Eryani considered that the financing of these activities is an example of the extortion practiced by the Houthi militia in its areas of control, and the tampering practiced by some international organizations operating in Yemen to finance the militia's seditious and sabotage activities and the so-called "war effort" instead of employing it in providing humanitarian and food aid to those who deserve it.

The minister stressed the need for international organizations and bodies working in the field of relief to review their performance, not submit to the dictates and blackmail of the Houthi militia and implement their activities in accordance with the stated standards and objectives.

He pointed out that the activities of these organizations are supposed to be at the fore in providing humanitarian and relief support to those affected by the war triggered by the Houthi coup, in addition to contributing to peacebuilding.