Sovereignty over Their Bodies: Rethinking the Determinants of Women’s Reproductive Health in Yemen

Abstract

Samira was married to a distant relative nearly fifteen years her senior when she was fourteen years old. Although she did not feel ready, she did not object. Her older sister had been married just a few months earlier and Samira knew that there was nothing she could do to avoid the arrangements that had been made between the two families. However, during the first year of her marriage she not only suffered two first-trimester miscarriages, but also had to endure her husband’s sexual proclivities, which she described as disgusting, demeaning and painful. Afraid of his temper, she felt unable to withdraw from physical contact with him. But her shyness and her tears only caused him to become even more upset and impatient with his young wife. Although he refrained from ‘really’beating her, the angry words and curses hurt more than a hundred lashes. His persistent bad mood and his roughness were intimidating, but his repeated threats to divorce her for her disobedient behaviour and her failure to fulfil her marital obligations were even more terrifying. With this kind of shame attached to her, Samira knew that she would have nowhere to turn; her father would be deeply disappointed with her and would refuse to take a rebellious and disobedient daughter back into his home. Relations with her husband became more bearable when she became visibly pregnant, eventually carrying her third pregnancy to term. But the improvement in Samira’s life did not last for long. The complications during the prolonged process of delivery were so severe that Samira intermittently gave up hope of ever seeing her child. She bled for ten days after the birth. Keywords Miscarriages, Divorce, Women’s Reproductive , Health, Yemen.