There are times, doing the kind of work that I do and interacting with the people of the countries I'm in, that I just have to take a step back and breathe. I try to remind myself that rarely does one person ever change anything in any great magnitude by themselves. The small steps of many tend to be required for real change.
Yemen is such a beautiful country in so many ways. What they say about Arab hospitality is true; people in this region are generally very kind, warm, and helpful. However, Yemen is an extreme. People here will literally jump over fences to help you. Just yesterday morning I was walking and passed three Yemenis squatting in the streets sharing a plate of food that was really meant for one, and still they offered me a place to sit with them to share what they could.
That being said, the multitude and magnitude of the issues here overwhelm me at times. When I was interviewing Yemeni students for the Zeytun program I was distressed by the qualifications that the applicants brought to the table. All were well educated and students of politics or of the like, yet many couldn't answer the most basic of politically or culturally oriented questions. The educational system in Yemen fails on many levels.
The other day, during a meeting between the Zeytun students and an NGO that focuses on encouraging women's rights, the topic of polygamy in Islam was raised. The students and the organization talked back and forth about the legitimacy of polygamy in modern times and the double standard of men being allowed to take multiple wives, but not the other way around for women. During the discussion, one of the Yemeni women argued that it had been proven scientifically that a woman's body is more sensitive than a man's to disease and that women physically cannot handle multiple sex partners. She explained this was one reason why prostitutes have so many sexually transmitted diseases.
While I would expect something like this from one of the men in the group (and have heard statement's that boasted similar ignorance and discrimination towards the opposite sex), to hear that argument come from a supposedly educated women was hard for me to swallow on many levels. One of the students from Amsterdam responded stating that this was not the case, but at that point it was almost irrelevant.
Yemen is such a beautiful country in so many ways. What they say about Arab hospitality is true; people in this region are generally very kind, warm, and helpful. However, Yemen is an extreme. People here will literally jump over fences to help you. Just yesterday morning I was walking and passed three Yemenis squatting in the streets sharing a plate of food that was really meant for one, and still they offered me a place to sit with them to share what they could.
That being said, the multitude and magnitude of the issues here overwhelm me at times. When I was interviewing Yemeni students for the Zeytun program I was distressed by the qualifications that the applicants brought to the table. All were well educated and students of politics or of the like, yet many couldn't answer the most basic of politically or culturally oriented questions. The educational system in Yemen fails on many levels.
The other day, during a meeting between the Zeytun students and an NGO that focuses on encouraging women's rights, the topic of polygamy in Islam was raised. The students and the organization talked back and forth about the legitimacy of polygamy in modern times and the double standard of men being allowed to take multiple wives, but not the other way around for women. During the discussion, one of the Yemeni women argued that it had been proven scientifically that a woman's body is more sensitive than a man's to disease and that women physically cannot handle multiple sex partners. She explained this was one reason why prostitutes have so many sexually transmitted diseases.
While I would expect something like this from one of the men in the group (and have heard statement's that boasted similar ignorance and discrimination towards the opposite sex), to hear that argument come from a supposedly educated women was hard for me to swallow on many levels. One of the students from Amsterdam responded stating that this was not the case, but at that point it was almost irrelevant.
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