The dungeons.. “The women of Yemen are in the grip of Zainabiyyat of the Houthi ruling”

2023

The dungeons.. “The women of Yemen are in the grip of Zainabiyyat of the Houthi ruling”

Entry type: Single project

Country/area: Egypt

Publishing organisation: Masrawy.com
hjfyemen.org

Organisation size: Big

Publication date: 2022-12-31

Language: Arabic

Authors: Maha Salahldin

Bassam Elqady

Shrouq Ghonim

Biography:

Maha Salaheldin:

Journalist, fact-checker, and trainer specialized in digital journalism, data journalism, and investigations via open sources, winner of many Arab and international awards, and a lecturer on data journalism at Cairo University.

Project description:

The investigation, which took a year to prepare, is the first of its kind that was able to document, through audio, video and data, the suffering of Yemeni women, at the hands of the Houthi women’s Zainabibat squads.

We documented 10 cases of women who escaped from Houthi prisons and fled to Egypt, and documented their feelings by drawing human scenes with their hands to express that stage.

We explained the role of the Zainabiyat in tracking down and torturing Yemeni women, through documented stories, and a questionnaire prepared by the investigation team.

Impact reached:

The first effect that represented the terror of the Houthis was the blocking of the Masrawy website, less than two hours after the publication of the investigation, and the presentation of the video of the investigation at the last session of the Security Council.

Techniques/technologies used:

Google Questionnaire, Google Sheet, Excel, Fluorish, R

Context about the project:

We documented 10 cases of women who escaped from Houthi prisons and fled to Egypt, and documented their feelings by drawing human scenes with their hands to express that stage.

We explained the role of the Zainabiyat in tracking down and torturing Yemeni women, through documented stories, and a questionnaire prepared by the investigation team.

It was difficult for a Yemeni journalist to be able to deal with women and tell him about these sensitive human and sexual violations, and it was difficult for an Egyptian journalist to reach these cases.

But with the cooperation of both sides, Bassam was able to connect us to civil society organizations that support these women, and Maha was able to break the ice, communicate with them, meet them more than once, and persuade them to speak.