SANAA – With a Saudi-led bombing campaign leading to severe fuel shortages in Yemen’s capital, men in Sanaa have been forced to innovate. Some have run motorbikes on paint-thinner, others have hooked their car engines up to cooking-gas canisters to avoid the extortionate price of petrol.
But women in the capital, also trying to adapt to the turmoil, face an obstacle men do not: tradition.
Last week, when freelance photographer Bushra al-Fusail told her friends that she was considering riding a bike to work, they warned her against it.
Female bike riding is almost unheard of in Yemen – many conservative Yemenis believe it’s immodest or reveals too much of a woman’s body.
But after creating a Facebook group, ‘Let’s ride a bike‘ on Friday, Fusail convinced some of friends to join her on a women-only bike ride across the city, the first of its kind in Yemen.
“It is totally unfair that men can move easily by using their bicycles when women are expected to stay home. No more fuel means that we can’t go to work, that we are unable to provide and help our families. Join us!” Fusail posted on the group.
At noon on Saturday, 20 young women converged on al-Sabeen, a busy highway that runs past the presidential palace.
Most wore veils and didn’t themselves own bicycles but the few who did cycled for an hour and a half, looping around the mosque as Fusail snapped photos on her camera.
