Four women beaten up for marching with men in Yemen

At least four women activists were beaten up and eight men were arrested by extremists for walking together in a march demanding the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a human rights activist said on Sunday. "Extremists from the Islamist party, Islah, and soldiers from the defected troops of General Ali Mohsin have mercilessly beaten up the women and men who were marching together late on Saturday near the university," said human rights activist Abdul Rashid Al Faqih. "No activists in the history of modern Yemen have been beaten up like these women activists," Al Faqih said. Arwa Othman, Huda Al Tas, Jameela Ali Raja, Wadad Al Badwi and Sara Jamal were among the liberal women who were beaten up by the extremists.At least eight men who were walking along with the women during the march were arrested by the defected soldiers and put in the custody of the 1st armoured division of the defected General Mohsin. "The eight men were released after we held a sit-in at the gate of the defected division," said Al Faqih. "We condemn such barbaric style of the extremists, and we'll continue our marches and protests in our own way, and everyone has the right to struggle in his or her way," Al Faqih added. The anti-Saleh Islamist protesters have been trying to impose their brand of social mores from the beginning of the three-month-old protests seeking the ouster of Saleh. Sit-in squares Meanwhile, the Yemeni general prosecutor ordered yesterday investigations into a complaint by hundreds of women who claimed that Saleh had defamed them in his speech last Friday. "We call for separating women from men in the sit-in squares, because this is not Islamic," Saleh said. Meanwhile, three journalists received death threats for criticising prominent cleric Abdul Majid Al Zandani. The journalists — Abdullah Mohammad Bishr, head of Al Jemhur Establishment for press, Adel Abdu Bishr, editor-in-chief of Al Jimhur weekly, and Yahya Al Abed, editor-in chief of Sawt Al Omal — called on human rights groups to condemn such threats.