Tradition or Restriction?

By Raghda Mohammed

In a country shaped by the weight of history and the authority of custom, Yemeni women stand at a visible crossroads between the rights granted by modern law and the limitations imposed by tradition. While legislation affirms their right to education, work, and public participation, these rights often remain suspended in front of a deeply rooted social power that treats women as beings destined to follow a predetermined path from the moment they are born.

Traditions, often presented as a fortress of values and authenticity, can in many cases turn into an invisible cage. This cage is not enforced through force, but through social expectation, collective silence, and fear of stepping beyond the norm. In Yemen, this reality manifests strongly in areas such as education, marriage, and employment, where life-defining decisions are made in the name of tribe and custom rather than the individual. This article seeks to examine how these norms restrict women’s freedom of choice and highlights their impact on society as a whole.

Education… A Deferred Space

A girl’s right to education is not determined solely by the existence of schools, but by the community’s position toward her learning. In many rural and even urban areas, university education for women is viewed as an unnecessary luxury or a doorway to potential risk if it requires leaving the family’s geographic circle.

The belief that marriage is a woman’s inevitable fate becomes deeply rooted, and the phrase “A woman has nothing but her husband” rises from a casual saying to a decision with binding force. Its consequences have not been confined to one generation, but have continued to cost many girls academic and professional opportunities that could have altered the course of their lives.

Marriage… A Family Decision, Not an Individual One

Early marriage remains one of the most prominent reflections of customary dominance. In some Yemeni communities, girls are still married before they are physically or emotionally ready, often without being consulted. Marriage is also structured through tribal logic, where unions are imposed with a cousin or within the tribe, at the expense of compatibility, personal desire, and free choice. The result is marital lives that begin with emotional costs rarely acknowledged in public.

Work and Public Participation… A Closed Field of Potential

Despite the presence of outstanding Yemeni women in many fields, the path to the labor market remains heavily obstructed by social norms. Some families refuse to allow women to work even when they excel academically. A personal example sheds further light: after graduating with distinction from the Faculty of Law and aspiring to defend vulnerable women in court, the author was confronted with the barrier of tradition long before the barrier of opportunity.

Even women who are allowed to work face other forms of struggle, such as discrimination, occupational stereotyping, and verbal or physical harassment, along with being limited to socially accepted fields tied to caregiving or service roles.

What Yemen Do We Want? And Where Did Bilqis Go?

Empowering women in Yemen cannot be accomplished through legislation alone, it requires a courageous cultural reassessment that redefines the relationship between authenticity and personal freedom. It is inaccurate to claim that Yemen lacks historical female leadership models, since history itself offers Bilqis, a wise and powerful queen who ruled successfully.

Her presence stands as evidence that women’s leadership is not foreign to Yemeni identity.

The pressing question remains: how did we move from a society that celebrated a woman’s leadership to one that fears her ambition? How did tradition transform from a source of collective strength into a wall that isolates half of society?

Liberating women from restrictive norms does not mean abandoning identity, it means reshaping it in a way that is more just and in harmony with the needs of modern life. When women acquire real autonomy over their educational, professional, and personal decisions, the entire society benefits, not just individuals.

The Yemen of tomorrow is one that regains its balance by empowering all of its people, not only half of them.

Raghda Mohammed — Independent writer and researcher specializing in women’s rights and social transformation

The opinions expressed in this article are solely the author’s and do not represent the views of Nisaba Media.