According to Human Rights Watch, the Iran-backed Houthis, who control Yemen’s capital of Sanaa and much of the country’s north, detained 20-year-old Intisar al-Hammadi and three others she was travelling with in Sanaa in February.
The Houthis announced al-arrest Hammadi’s ten days later, claiming she was in a car with a guy accused of narcotics trafficking. Her phone was taken away, and “her modelling images were viewed as an act of obscenity, and she was (called) a prostitute,” according to the New York-based organisation.
The imprisonment and prosecution of Al-Hammadi highlight the Houthi’s mistreatment of women in regions under their control in Yemen’s war-torn country. Women who dare to rebel or simply enter the public realm have become targets in an intensifying crackdown, according to an Associated Press article from last year.
The Houthis have officially accused the actor with lewd acts and drug possession. Al-trial Hammadi’s still proceeding after he appeared before a Houthi-run court on June 5 and June 9.
The Houthis did not react to Human Rights Watch’s demands for comment, according to the organisation. The rebels’ spokesperson could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.
Human Rights Watch cited the actor’s lawyer as saying that jail guards verbally assaulted her, calling her a “whore” and a “slave” because of her dark skin and Ethiopian ancestry.
Al-Hammadi was born to an Ethiopian mother and a Yemeni father. She has been a model for four years and will be seen in two Yemeni soap operas in 2020. Her four-member family included a blind father and a crippled brother, and she was the primary earner.
According to HRW, the Houthis promised to release al-Hammadi in exchange for her assistance in entrapping their rivals with “sex and narcotics.” The rebels appeared to be alluding to the internationally recognised government and a Saudi-led coalition with whom they have been at odds since 2014.
According to HRW, the rebels reportedly threatened to put her through a “virginity test.”
“The Houthi authorities should ensure her rights to due process, including access to her charges and evidence against her so she can challenge it, and immediately drop charges that are so broad and vague that they are arbitrary,” said HRW’s deputy Middle East director Michael Page.
“Al-Hammadi is just one of an unknown number of Yemeni female detainees who are arbitrarily detained and require immediate protection and justice,” Page added.
The star has been incarcerated in a Houthi-run prison with five other women accused of similar indecency-related charges. According to Human Rights Watch, the five have declined to make their cases public for fear of social disgrace and harm to their families’ reputations.
Since 2014, when the Houthi rebels marched from their northern stronghold of Saada province and drove the internationally recognised government out, they have occupied Sanaa and much of Yemen’s north. Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest country, has been engulfed in civil conflict since then.
In 2015, the Saudi-led coalition joined the fight on the government’s side. More than 130,000 people have been murdered in the conflict, which has resulted in the world’s biggest humanitarian disaster.
