For 21 years, the Marxist who controlled South Yemen preached equality among women and men but, after South Yemen merged with much more conservative North Yemen in 1990, it wasn't long before southern women realized how little Marxist rhetoric meant in the new Yemen. For 21 years, the Marxists who controlled South Yemen preached equality among women and men, that both had the same rights to be heard, to work and to be protected by the law. After the country merged with much more conservative North Yemen in 1990, it wasn't long before southern women like Faixa Abdul Rakeeb Sallam realized how little Marxist tenets meant in the new Yemen. The first constitution of the unified country, written in 1990 when the southern-based Yemeni Socialist party still had some influence, decreed that there would be no gender discrimination. The charter was amended in 1994, after northern forces put down communist secessionists in the south.
Women are a small minority among engineers in the region.
The laws of unified Yemen stipulate that wives must obey their husbands, and that husbands alone can divorce almost at will. South Yemen's family law had declared women equal in the home and allowed either spouse to sue for divorce. Aden was ruled by the British before the Marxists took over South Yemen. The north was ruled by the Ottomans and then conservative Islamic leaders before a republic was formed in 1962. Across Yemen today, conservative tribal and religious figures often hold more sway than the central government or any firm idea of nationhood.