‘Husband killings’ become crime phenomenon in Yemen

About 50 Yemeni women were arrested in 2012 for murder, most were accused of deliberately killing their husbands, Yemen’s interior ministry announced this week.

According to a report released by the ministry’s Information Security Centre, the Yemeni women were between the ages of 25-50 and most had committed the crimes with the help of male relatives.

Inequality, domestic violence and “emotional motives” were just some reasons behind such crimes, said the report, adding that the killings took place in Mahweet, Taiz, Hajjah, Sana'a, Amran and Marib.

However, the ministry said that the number of women who were victims of attempted murder was nearly double the number of women involved in killings.

Dr. Mujib Abdul Bari, a specialist in psychiatric and neurological disorders, told AlArabiya.net that constant physical and psychological abuse drastically changes a person.

Daily abuse makes a woman feel despair at her seeminlgy hopeless situation, said Bari, adding that women in such situations “forget their femininity and resort to killing their spouse.”

He said that the most notable crime in Yemen took place on August 7, 2012 in a village in the province of Marib, in which a 40-year-old woman killed her husband and two sons following a family dispute.

According to Bari, the Yemeni government should not only publish the statistics of such crimes but also launch awareness programs that would help women in the country.

The programs would help women to realize that they are contributing members of society and “to learn not to accept humiliation and be able to make their own decisions,” said Bari.

“In case women have taken a wrong decision in marriage, they should resort to legal solutions, such as divorce or going back to their families [who can] help them on a psychological level.”