Yemeni women with fighting spirits

Photos by Amira Al-Sharif

Najat Al-Suraihi, age 18, was

married at 12 and has a two-

year-old daughter called

Zuhoor. She fled from her

husband’s house following

years of brutal treatment,

returning to her father’s home in

a village near Yemen’s capital,

Sana’a. As the oldest child,

Najat must cook for the family,

look after her brothers and

sisters, work in the house, and

help her father work on a grape

orchard.

Najat has two dreams: to be

divorced and to be a nurse.

For her, reading offers the

chance to feel happy for a

while, to find some relief,

and to learn.

In her family’s dust-filled

kitchen, there is a small

window that lets in light,

lets in hope.

Nurses on a training course in Damar, Yemen.

Amal Ahmed married when she was 15

and has three children. She studies from

home and hopes that her daughters will

have the opportunities that she has been

denied.

Aziza (name changed),

14, returns home from

her daily trip to cut wood,

which her family needs

for cooking and for

warmth.

Women collecting water from a well in Taiz,

Yemen. In rural Yemen, women walk long

distances every day to collect water.

Anisah Mahdhar

Mohammed, age 30,

with her daughter

Khadejah.

Anisah, a widow with

seven children to

provide for, raises

goats and collects

seeds to sell as

animal feed.

Fatimah Ahmed cooks

breakfast in Hajah village.

Children play in Jabal Al-Nar (on the coast near

Hodeidah), where 3,000 people live in makeshift

homes without electricity or water.

Women planting onions as they rebuild their lives in Al Kawd,

Abyan, having fled due to civil conflict over a year before.

Mona Saleh Sheikh, age 20, divorced, takes

Waheed, her only child, to the town of

Zinjibar for a vaccination, because medical

services have not yet resumed in her home

town after the fighting.

Fatimah Awen Salim and her family fled into the

desert when the fighting began in 2011 and have

been living there since, without any facilities.

Wardah Ali

(name changed)

dreams of being

a future human

rights minister in

Yemen.

Yemeni women with fighting spirits

All photos © Amira Al-Sharif