Yemen Research Carol Chan 10SJ

Government

Country name

Conventional long form: Republic of Yemen

Conventional short form: Yemen
Local long form: Al Jumhuriyah al Yamaniyah
Local short form: Al Yaman
Former: Yemen Arab Republic [Yemen (Sanaa) or North Yemen] and People's Democratic
Republic of Yemen [Yemen (Aden) or South Yemen]

Republic

Capital
Name: Sanaa
Geographic coordinates: 15 21 N, 44 12 E

Administrative divisions:
21 governorates (muhafazat, singular - muhafazah); Abyan, 'Adan (Aden), Ad
Dali', Al Bayda', Al Hudaydah, Al Jawf, Al Mahrah, Al Mahwit, Amanat al
'Asimah, 'Amran, Dhamar, Hadramawt, Hajjah, Ibb, Lahij, Ma'rib, Raymah,
Sa'dah, San'a' (Sanaa), Shabwah, Ta'izz
Independence:

22 May 1990 (Republic of Yemen was established with the merger of the Yemen
Arab Republic [Yemen (Sanaa) or North Yemen] and the Marxist-dominated
People's Democratic Republic of Yemen [Yemen (Aden) or South Yemen]); note
- previously North Yemen became independent in November 1918 (from the
Ottoman Empire) and became a republic with the overthrow of the theocratic
Imamate in 1962; South Yemen became independent on 30 November 1967
(from the UK)

Legal system:
Based on Islamic law, Turkish law, English common law, and local tribal
customary law; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Chief of state: President Ali Abdallah SALIH (since 22 May 1990, the former
president of North Yemen, assumed office upon the merger of North and South
Yemen); Vice President Maj. Gen. Abd al-Rab Mansur al-HADI (since 3 October
1994)

Head of government: Prime Minister Ali Muhammad MUJAWWAR (since 31 March

2007)
cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president on the advice of the
prime minister
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elections: president elected by popular vote for a seven-year term; election

last held on 20 September 2006 (next to be held in September 2013); vice
president appointed by the president; prime minister and deputy prime
ministers appointed by the president

election results: Ali Abdallah SALIH elected president; percent of vote - Ali
Abdallah SALIH 77.2%, Faysal BIN SHAMLAN 21.8%

Legislative branch:
bicameral legislature consisting of a Shura Council (111 seats; members
appointed by the president) and House of Representatives (301 seats;
members elected by popular vote to serve eight-year terms)

Elections: last held on 27 April 2003 (scheduled April 2009 election postponed
for two years)

Election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - GPC 228, Islah
47, YSP 7, Nasserite Unionist Party 3, National Arab Socialist Ba'th Party 2,
independents 14

Political parties and leaders:

General People's Congress or GPC [Abdul-Kader BAJAMMAL]; Islamic Reform
Grouping or Islah [Muhammed Abdallah AL-YADUMI]; Nasserite Unionist Party
[Abd al-Malik al-MAKHLAFI]; National Arab Socialist Ba'th Party [Dr. Qasim
SALAM]; Yemeni Socialist Party or YSP [Yasin Said NUMAN]; note - there are at
least seven more active political parties
Political pressure groups and leaders:

Muslim Brotherhood; Women National Committee

other: conservative tribal groups; southern secessionist groups; al-Qa'ida in
the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)

International organization participation:

AFESD, AMF, CAEU, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt (signatory), ICRM, IDA,
IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO
(correspondent), ITSO, ITU, ITUC, LAS, MIGA, MINURCAT, MINURSO, MONUC,
NAM, OAS (observer), OIC, OPCW, UN, UNAMID, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR,
UNIDO, UNMIL, UNMIS, UNOCI, UNWTO, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO,
WTO (observer)

Foreign Aid:
At the time of unification, South Yemen and North Yemen had vastly
different but equally struggling underdeveloped economic systems. Since
unification, the economy has been forced to sustain the consequences of
Yemen’s support for Iraq during the 1990–91 Gulf War: Saudi Arabia expelled
Yemen Research Carol Chan 10SJ

almost 1 million Yemeni workers, and both Saudi Arabia and Kuwait
significantly reduced economic aid to Yemen. The 1994 civil war further
drained Yemen’s economy. As a consequence, for the past 10 years Yemen has
relied heavily on aid from multilateral agencies to sustain its economy. In
return, it has pledged to implement significant economic reforms. In 1997 the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved two programs to increase Yemen’s
credit significantly: the enhanced structural adjustment facility (now known as
the poverty reduction and growth facility, or PRGF) and the extended funding
facility (EFF). In the ensuing years, Yemen’s government attempted to
implement recommended reforms—reducing the civil service payroll,
eliminating diesel and other subsidies, lowering defense spending, introducing
a general sales tax, and privatizing state-run industries. However, limited
progress led the IMF to suspend funding between 1999 and 2001.[2]
In late 2005, the World Bank, which had extended Yemen a four-year US$2.3
billion economic support package in October 2002 together with other bilateral
and multilateral lenders, announced that as a consequence of Yemen’s failure
to implement significant reforms it would reduce financial aid by one-third over
the period July 2005 through July 2008. A key component of the US$2.3 billion
package—US$300 million in concessional financing—has been withheld pending
renewal of Yemen’s PRGF with the IMF, which is currently under negotiation.
However, in May 2006 the World Bank adopted an assistance strategy for
Yemen under which it will provide approximately US$400 million in
International Development Association (IDA) credits over the period FY 2006 to
FY 2009. In November 2006, at a meeting of Yemen’s development partners, a
total of US$4.7 billion in grants and concessional loans was pledged for the
period 2007–10. At present, despite possessing significant oil and gas
resources and a considerable amount of agriculturally productive land, Yemen
remains one of the poorest of the world’s low-income countries; more than 45
percent of the population lives in poverty. The influx of an average 1,000
Somali refugees per month into Yemen looking for work is an added drain on
the economy, which already must cope with a 20 to 40 percent rate of
unemployment. Yemen remains under significant pressure to implement
economic reforms or face the loss of badly needed international financial
support.[2]
At unification, both the Yemen Arab Republic and the People's Democratic
Republic of Yemen were struggling underdeveloped economies. In the north,
disruptions of civil war (1962–1970) and frequent periods of drought had dealt
severe blows to a previously prosperous agricultural sector. Coffee production,
formerly the north's main export and principal form of foreign exchange,
declined as the cultivation of khat increased. Low domestic industrial output
and a lack of raw materials made the YAR dependent on a wide variety of
imports.

Public finances

Public debt 31.8% of GDP (2008 est.)

Yemen Research Carol Chan 10SJ

Revenues $9.097 billion (2008 est.)

Expenses $10.55 billion (2008 est.)

Economic aid recipient: $2.3 billion (2003-07

disbursements)
Data Source from CIA WORLD FACT BOOK

Religion Law (Sharia)

Sharia is the sacred law of Islam. Most Muslims believe Sharia is derived from
two primary sources of Islamic law; namely, the divine revelations set forth in
the Qur'an, and the example set by the Islamic Prophet Muhammad in the
Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of Sharia to
questions not directly addressed in the primary sources by including secondary
sources. These secondary sources usually include the consensus of the
religious scholars embodied in ijma, and analogy from the Qur'an and Sunnah
through qiyas. Shia jurists replace qiyas analogy with 'aql, reasoning.

Sharia deals with many topics addressed by secular law, including crime,
politics and economics, as well as personal matters such as sexuality, hygiene,
diet, prayer, and fasting. Where it enjoys official status, Sharia is applied by
Islamic judges, or qadis. The imam has varying responsibilities depending on
the interpretation of Sharia; while the term is commonly used to refer to the
leader of communal prayers, the imam may also be a scholar, religious leader,
or political leader.

Tribes
Yemen is still a largely tribal society.[45] In mountains of northern Yemen live
some 400 Zaydi tribes.[46] The African-descended group known as Al-Akhdam
form a kind of hereditary caste in Yemen
Including
Azd, Bakil, Banu Hamdan, Banu Judham, Banu Lakhm, Beni Ḥassān, Hashid,
Maqil, Qahtanite, Sabaeans

Women
http://www.gildedserpent.com/articles12/livinginyemen.htm

\From April 1996 to March 1999 I lived in Yemen. I was there with my husband who was working to promote the
country as a tourist destination. It was wonderful. Many are surprised to hear this, imagining me locked up, veiled
and bored out of my mind. I was anything but that; I loved living in Yemen.
Yemen Research Carol Chan 10SJ

Although Yemen is a very conservative Moslem country, Yemeni women are allowed to drive and vote. Many
women are in the Yemeni work force as teachers, nurses, doctors and even as businesswomen and television
announcers. At the time we were living there, 13 women were in the Yemeni Parliament.

The veiling of women is not law in Yemen as it is in Saudi Arabia. Many younger, educated women merely cover
their heads, but not their faces, and some do not veil at all. Those who do, do so in deference to tradition, not to
law. Foreign women are not expected to veil and I myself never did. Veiling provides women with a kind of
anonymity, which, I was to learn, has certain advantages.

However, in the beginning, veiling posed a distinct problem for me. I kept getting separated from my
friends when in the crowded "Suq" or marketplace because I was unable to tell the veiled women apart.
They all looked alike to me!

The most common cover-ups are the black "Abaya", also worn by women in many other Arab countries, and the
"Sharshaf", the traditional Yemeni women's outer garment, also black. The "Sharshaf" was brought to Yemen by
the Ottoman Turks who occupied Yemen in the 16th century and again in the 19th century. Upper class Yemeni
women first started wearing the "Sharshaf" because they considered it fashionable.

The original cover up is the colorful "Sitarah". It is still worn by the more traditional women in the old city of Sanaa
or by those who need a quick cover up. The "Sitarah", with its bright red and blue patterns, resembles a tablecloth.
Many foreigners, including us, actually used it for one. This, of course, evoked giggles and loud shrieks of laughter
from my Yemeni friends the first time they came to visit my home.

Traditional Yemeni women get up early in the morning, bake their own bread, prepare breakfast, do housework,
and then prepare lunch, the main meal in Yemen. Afterwards, they are usually free to get together with their women
friends, often at gatherings called "Tafrutas".

On the second day after my arrival I met my neighbor, Arwa, a traditional veiled Yemeni woman, who invited me to
visit her the following afternoon. A friendship developed between us. Arwa could always understand my less than
perfect Egyptian Arabic, even when the other women couldn't, and I could always understand her.

Yemeni Arabic is quite different from other Arabic dialects and the women additionally speak a dialect all
their own. I later learned that this was to insure more privacy and to avoid being understood by the men!

Arwa introduced me to all her friends and I started accompanying her to the "Tafrutas".

The women sat around exchanging gossip, drinking tea steeped with cardamom and flavored with sugar and milk.
They primarily gossip when they get together, taking about all of the neighbors' lives, the husbands, and the
children. They also discuss, their and their families concerns and
problems. At my first afternoon gathering I discovered that the women knew everything about the men's lives,
although the men know nothing of theirs! They knew all about my husband, what he looked like, where he went
every day. One of the advantages of veiling is that the women can see every thing while remaining unseen!

Some of the woman chewed Qat, a plant with a mildly narcotic effect, which is very popular in Yemen. The leaves
of the Qat plant are put in the side of the mouth until a ball is formed. Swallowing the juice of the leaves leads to a
state of mild stimulation. In general, women chew much less Qat than men, often chewing only on Thursdays and
Fridays, the days when weddings are celebrated. (Many men chew Qat everyday.)

Social Class: