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Following are excerpts from a report about Yemeni women demonstrating in Sana', which aired on Al-Jazeera TV on April 17m 2011:
Anchor: Tens of thousands of women from Al-Hudayda and Hadramaut protested against what the Yemeni president said about the "intermingling of men and women in the protest squares," and against his declaration that this was prohibited by Islamic law. Some of the demonstrators at Al-Taghyir Square in Sana' expressed their strong resentment with regard to Saleh's statements.
Yemeni woman A: This is a disgrace. We took to the streets as rebels, and women participated in the Islamic conquests. Women have a role to play. What does he want? Does he want us to become chickens, who sit at home all day? All because we came out against him, and said: "No to tyranny?" Wake up and smell the coffee, Ali Abdallah Saleh!
Yemeni woman B: We, the women of Yemen, will be the ones who will drive you out of Yemen, the ones who will place you on trial, and the ones who will kill you, just like you killed our sons. Don't you ask yourself why the women of Yemen have taken to the streets? It is because you killed their sons and oppressed them. You are the reason we have come out of our homes, to protest the oppression, the poverty, and the tyranny.
Yemeni woman C: Of course I am pleased at the number of women here. We did not expect so many. Everybody has come to protest against this corrupt regime, to topple it. He does not know what to say. He is confused, he has lost control. All his supporters are being paid by him. But we are demonstrating in this square. We are respectful, we have good taste and moral values – long before he came "to teach us." If he had known this, he could have run this country.
Yemeni teenager: You are bad to an indescribable degree. You make us nauseous.
Yemeni woman D: The aspersions he casts on us will not deter us.
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