In Yemen, Some Women Remain Prisoners Long After Their Sentences End

After years of enduring domestic violence at the hands of her husband, Amina* came home one day to find him dead. She immediately reported the incident to one of his close friends and the police. But when security forces arrived, both she and her husband’s friend were arrested and taken into custody. Months later, after a lengthy investigation, the friend was released on commercial bail. Amina remained behind bars.

Under Article 184 of Yemen’s Criminal Procedure Law, defendants who have not been convicted are entitled to seek provisional release on bail. But lawyers say the reality is often more complicated for women. Decisions over whether to grant bail can be influenced by social norms and customs that discourage the release of women from prison.

Amina spent three years waiting for her appeal to be heard, despite her right to a fair and timely trial. The delay had no apparent legal justification. Prolonged judicial proceedings in Yemen can have devastating psychological consequences for detainees, particularly women held in long-term cases.

On June 4, 2020, after years in detention and with no resolution to her case, Amina died by suicide, hanging herself inside a prison in Sana’a.

Female inmates told rights groups that the prison administration responded not by introducing measures to prevent further suicides or provide psychological support, but by imposing additional restrictions, including limiting communication between prisoners and their families. The measures deepened inmates’ isolation and, according to advocates, intensified the psychological pressures many were already facing.

Hanaa* says she signed financial documents at her husband’s request to help him establish a company. When the business later collapsed, investors sought repayment and both she and her husband were imprisoned because the documents were registered in her name.

The pair were eventually sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to repay the debt jointly. But while her husband secured release on bail, Hanaa remained behind bars. Not long afterwards, she lost contact with him. The next news she received was divorce papers.

Hanaa remained in prison for nearly a decade despite repeated promises of assistance from the Public Authority for Zakat. According to a report by the Association of Mothers of Abductees, I Fear to Die and No One Will Know, she was physically abused by security personnel in 2020 and made multiple suicide attempts amid what the group described as harsh treatment and intense psychological pressure.

For many women in Yemen, the consequences of arrest extend far beyond prison walls. Whether convicted, accused or merely suspected, women can face social ostracism, family rejection and lasting damage to their reputations.

Hifaa Ali, 31, was arrested in Amran after a dispute between a Houthi supervisor and her brother. She spent 20 days in detention and says the experience upended her life. Her fiancé ended their engagement and her family refused to take her back.

“I thought everyone would appreciate me after I was imprisoned on behalf of my brother,” Hifaa told More to Her Story. "But my family refused to receive me.”

Without a male guardian to collect her, Hifaa remained in prison for several additional months. During that time, she says she faced bullying from other inmates, who insulted her “honor” and questioned her character.

“After my release, no one received me,” she said. “So I left Sana'a.”

For Hifaa, the sentence did not end when she walked out of prison; it followed her into every aspect of her life, costing her family, her marriage and her place in society.

Amina Al-Salam Al-Hajj, head of the Association of Mothers of Abductees, told More to Her Story that the conditions of female prisoners in Yemen are “tragic.” Some families abandon women once they enter prison, which exposes them to continuous violations, starting from investigations conducted late at night without a lawyer or family presence to harsh and abusive treatment.

The ongoing war in Yemen since September 2014, following the Houthi takeover of state institutions, has further worsened the suffering of women in prisons, with deteriorating detention conditions, increased arbitrary detention, social stigma, and lack of legal protection.

For many women, release from prison becomes a new crisis, as some prisons refuse to release women after the end of their sentence under the pretext that their families “refuse to receive them” or due to the absence of a male guardian. This is despite the fact that Yemeni law does not stipulate such a condition, and in fact criminalizes continued detention after the end of a sentence.

 The Yemeni Constitution states that “the state guarantees personal freedom and preserves citizens’ dignity and security, and the law defines cases in which freedom may be restricted. No person may be deprived of their liberty except by a ruling from a competent court.”

Detaining a female prisoner after the completion of her sentence is a clear legal violation reflecting systematic abuses by prison authorities,” Yemeni Minister of Legal Affairs Ishraq Al-Maqtari told More to Her Story. “Direct responsibility lies with the Public Prosecution and the judiciary, which are supposed to conduct regular oversight of prisons and verify inmates' legal status and sentence duration.”

Ms. Al-Maqtari explained that the deeper issue lies in the requirement of family consent for the release of women, a practice that has no legal basis in Yemeni law but rather reflects the dominance of social custom over legal texts, reinforcing gender discrimination, as men are released without similar conditions.

This is further compounded by the weak legal awareness among female prisoners, a shared responsibility of law enforcement, judicial authorities, and civil society. Naturally, these cases are not exceptions but an extended phenomenon across Yemen that contradicts all applicable legislation.

According to official statistics (as of March 2020), there are 376 female prisoners across Yemen, 57 of whom have completed their sentences but remain detained—17 in government-controlled areas and around 40 in areas controlled by Ansar Allah (the Houthis). Human rights sources indicate that the actual number is significantly higher.

Sara Adel, 16, was arrested in Sana’a after a dispute with a Houthi school supervisor following her refusal to chant the group’s slogan. After two weeks, she was released through tribal mediation, with her family agreeing to take her back. However, she was treated with extreme harshness and abuse; her family arranged a forced marriage for her during her brief detention to a man twenty years older, without her consent, and prevented her from continuing her education.

Sara said in a statement to More to Her Story: “My family forced me to marry as the only way to escape shame. They said I would become a social outcast and no one would accept me in work or even speak to me unless I married. They said marriage would restore my honor.”

Psychiatrist Yusra Ahmed told More to Her Story that women who survive Yemen's prisons face a double stigma: their families deny them the right to a normal life after release, and resist even more strongly the idea of psychological treatment — viewing it as an additional source of shame — pushing most families toward shortcuts such as forced marriage. This reality leaves deep psychological consequences, driving women in many cases toward homelessness, illegal activities, or suicide, due to social isolation, stigma, and relentless psychological pressure.

Dr. Yusra recommends establishing independent psychological support programmes that bypass family gatekeeping, explicitly criminalizing forced marriage as a response to stigma, creating shelters for women whose families refuse to receive them after release, and reinforcing these efforts with awareness campaigns targeting families directly.

*Names have been changed for safety reasons.