Young people will drive change in Yemen

Yemen is undergoing a democratic revolution, says young Yemeni journalist and activist, who spoke at a public rally in Copenhagen last week in support of  the democratic winds currently blowing in the Arab world

Standing before the teeming crowd in Copenhagen’s town hall square Rådhudspladsen, Wojoud Mejalli urged her listeners to see Yemen as the next serious contender for change in the Middle East. Wojoud, a student at a Danish graduate school with the support of IMS, spoke on behalf of Yemeni activists at a large demonstration last Friday supporting democratic protests in the Middle East

Young people will drive change

Weeks of protest in Yemen against the 32-year rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh follow in the footsteps of anti-autocracy protests around the Middle East, most successfully in Egypt and Tunisia. Wojoud used her speech as a platform to speak about Yemen’s place in a regional youth revolt against totalitarianism.

– People say that Yemen is more complicated than Egypt and Tunisia and that change won’t come but I tell them one thing…the change to Yemen will come, whether they like it or not, and the youth will be the ones driving that change!

In an interview with IMS, Wojoud voiced her concern that Danes and Westerners see Yemen as an outlier state, plagued by civil strife and poverty that could not possibly play host to a revolution. However, her experience as a freelance journalist for the Yemen Times gave her insight into the community frustrations driving the demonstrations in the country.

– In Yemen we have corruption, unemployment, and problems with education but the government does not focus on these issues. Now, after the revolutions that have been going on in the Middle East, more people are paying attention to the politics of the country – what’s going on now is a revolution of awareness.

She points to the lack of independent media as a barrier to greater awareness of the issues in Yemen. The majority of print media is state-run and the government runs the only television and radio stations in Yemen. (More about the Yemen media sector)

When Wojoud pursued her own articles on community issues in Yemen, she was accused of being too critical. Her co-authored article on young marriages garnered international attention and was addressed in the Parliament. However, her fellow Yemenis harshly criticized her work.

– People said ‘Why are you talking like this? They said I was betraying Yemen because I was giving a negative picture of it, but that’s not true. It’s actually being good to Yemen because I’m representing reality and then you can find a solution for it.

Troublemaker

Wojoud admits that she has always been somewhat of a troublemaker. As a young girl growing up in Sana’a, she frequently challenged her family’s rules and the traditional restraints placed on women in her community. Though she has spent the last three months in Denmark completing a course in global studies, her plan is to return to Yemen to pursue dentistry, journalism and perhaps a political career in the Parliament.

– I know that I will be back, I have to go back, I have to do something. It is not good that Yemen is always lacking, standing behind, not doing anything. In Yemen, it is difficult to be a politically active woman but I promised myself I would go back and try to do something in the country.

In support of democracy

A coalition of human rights and political organizations staged the public event on March 11 to show Danish support for the democratic protests in the Middle East and North Africa. The event featured musical performances, comedians and notable politicians such as Integration Minister Soren Pind and former Foreign Minister Mogens Lykketoft.