{{Expand Swedish, date=November 2022, Adeni Women´s Club
Adeni Women's Club was a women's organization in
Yemen
Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...
, founded in 1943. It was the first organisation of women's rights in Yemen, and the beginning of the women's rights movement in Yemen.
In the 1930s, several clubs were founded for men in Aden, but Yemeni women generally lived secluded in
purdah
Pardah or purdah (from Hindi-Urdu , , meaning "curtain") is a religious and social practice of female seclusion prevalent among some Muslim and Hindu communities. It takes two forms: physical segregation of the sexes and the requirement that wom ...
in the
harem
Harem (Persian: حرمسرا ''haramsarā'', ar, حَرِيمٌ ''ḥarīm'', "a sacred inviolable place; harem; female members of the family") refers to domestic spaces that are reserved for the women of the house in a Muslim family. A hare ...
s. In 1943, the Adeni Women's Club was founded by the Colonial British Council in an attempt to get the secluded Yemeni women to break gender seclusion and take part in public life.Amel Nejib al-Ashtal, 'A Long, Quiet, and Steady Struggle: The Women's Movement in Yemen', in Pernille Arenfeldt, Nawar Al-Hassan Golley, eds., Mapping Arab Women's Movements: A Century of Transformations ', p.280
Few Yemeni women were however allowed by their family to attend the Club, and initially most members were foreign women such as British, Indian and Persian women: the Persian women were described as the only Muslim women in Yemen at the time to appear unveiled in public.
Initially, the Club was simply a social Club. It offered English language lessons, English language films, courses in handicrafts and similar activities. In 1954, Nabiha Hasan Ali became the first Yemeni woman elected President of the Club. After this, most members of the Club were Yemeni women, and the Adeni Women's Club had transformed from a social club to a political club and active in favor of women's rights. It as the first political women's organisation in Yemen. The Club arranged discussions with male intellectual and clergy to discuss women's rights. It informed women of their rights and spoke in favor of women's right to education and work. It also engaged in anti Colonial work and held lectures and plays which sided with the liberation from colonial rule.
In 1956 the Adeni Women's Club engaged in favor of unveiling on the initiative of Radhia Ihsan. Most women still lived secluded in gender segregation and could not appear in public unveiled. When women were stopped from attending the concert of the popular Egyptian singer
Farid al-Atrash
Farid al-Atrash ( ar, فريد الأطرش; October 19, 1916 – December 26, 1974), also written Farid El-Atrache, was a Syrian-Egyptian composer, singer, virtuoso oud player, and actor. Having immigrated to Egypt at the age of only nine ...
in Aden, the Club on the initiative of Radhia Ihsan arranged a demonstration against the veil - and thus against gender segregation - in Aden. Six unveiled women, followed by about thirty unveiled women by car, attended a procession through the streets of Aden to the office of the news papers '' al-Ayyam'' and '' Fatat al-jazira'', were they issued a press statement condemning the veil as a hindrance against the participation of women in public society.
After the foundation of the
People's Democratic Republic of Yemen
South Yemen ( ar, اليمن الجنوبي, al-Yaman al-Janubiyy), officially the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (, ), also referred to as Democratic Yemen (, ) or Yemen (Aden) (, ), was a communist state that existed from 1967 to 19 ...
in 1967, all women's association were banned in favor of the single state women's organisation General Union of Yemeni Women.