Sexual harassment against women in workplaces and streets has become widespread in Yemen. It has also become a source of interest for researchers. 

The spread of mobile phones with built-in Bluetooth technology has helped increase the reported cases of sexual harassment, especially in workplaces. Women face harassment from their fellow employees or others in their work place, as if they were meant to be  there for fashion and will never be taken seriously. 

However, such matters are always kept top secret, and very few victims report harassment. There are also insufficient information and statistics on this matter due to the conservative nature of society. The majority of women experiencing such problems wish not to reveal it, and very few dare to disclose what happens to them. Others refuse to disclose anything fearing disgrace, scandals, or situation sensitivity.

Areas surrounding female schools and institutions are one of the typical places in which women face harassment. Insolent young people exist there where they throw rude words at women or female students passing by. Sometimes, they take pictures of them with their mobile phones. 

Such cases are on the increase day after day forcing those concerned with protecting and promoting virtue to ask for solutions through preventing such manifestations. They also ask for exercising utmost punishment against those who pay less care to social norms and values.

Last month, a group of scholars including Hamoud Hashim Al-Dharhi and under direct supervision of Al-Eman University Rector Sheikh Abdul Majid Al-Zindani called for establishing an authority for promoting virtue and prohibiting vice. This committee has seen wide controversy over the last month as a conference headed by Sheikh Zindani was conducted last week, hoping to launch the committee soon.

"Among general conditions for accepting a woman in private jobs are for them to be young, good-looking and unveiled. Female employees, especially those in direct contact with customers, are subjected to harassment," said 26-year-old school teacher Bushra Nathem, who is happy to hear that there could be an authority for promoting virtue and prohibiting vice.

However, all the blame cannot be put on the man. In numerous occasions, woman themselves contribute to their harassment as they intentionally wear tight clothes, prompting people to hunt after them or at the least get attracted to them.

"Incidents of sexual harassment in Sana'a streets can be seen on a daily bases, as we find groups of young people harassing women walking in streets with bad verbal words" said 31-year-old journalist Khalid Al-Safani. He added that the absence of law discourages women, especially those working in private sector, to report or inform about harassment cases to their employer. 

Religious scholars blame the increased harassment on different social, educational and psychological reasons. They also blame media outlets, particularly satellite channels telecasting programs and songs full of sexual allures.   

"When people start losing religious values then expect anything to happen. When people start to change their way of life as if it was only culture and not religion, it will be the begining of harassment against women in our society," said Qazi Mohammed Ismael Al-Amrani, a renown scholar in Yemen. "Why should we encourage women to leave their houses if they will be harassed by others. These women are our daughters and sisters, and no one would want their family member to go through what they go through."

Secondary female school manager in the capital  Mona Ali revealed that sexual harassment involves both unveiled and veiled girls, emphasizing that young boys, when getting a welcoming attitude by a girl, will directly follow the route. She added that the girl herself is sometimes the  reason for that, especially if she wears improper clothes. 

In today's Yemeni society, young people are keen for building relations with young girls and modern technology has helped a lot in this regard. Young generations use mobile phones to exchange photos, comments, video clips, etc. some of which are considered offensive.

Nevertheless, women who experienced such matters in the past mention that they find great difficulty in trusting people, or to build relationships with men.

Others also hold that sexual harassment has affected their academic achievement in universities and schools; however they manage to overcome such problems by changing their appearance.

"Concerned authorities at universities have not treated sexual harassment as a serious problem though it has catastrophic effects on young women," pointed out 26-year-old university graduate Rua'a Ahmed Mutaher, who says that she suffers daily from the harassment she faces.