Activists protesting in Yemen Sanaa – Ali Rabea y A Yemeni woman stabbed her boyfriend to death and cut off his genitals in a deserted house in Jawf, north Yemen. The 23-year-old admitted the killing and confessed that she feared her partner was losing interest in her because he had managed to take her virginity. She also believed that he was seeing other women.
The young woman explained she used to meet with her fiancé in the house where she killed him.
She told the police she that she has planned to take revenge and brought a dagger with her for their last encounter. She left the scene after the stabbing and threw the dagger in a bin.
A source told Arabstoday the police was called when some neighbours noticed a disturbing smell coming from a nearby house, weeks after the killing. The police found the rotting body shortly after.
The autopsy revealed that the 27-year-old was stabbed nine times in the chest and neck and that his genitals had been chopped off.
This incident is very rare in this conservative part of the country where sexual intercourse is strictly prohibited outside wedlock.
A security source told Arabstoday the girl is likely to face the death penalty.
In another context, a woman has been sentenced to death by a Yemeni court for killing an intruder in her house. The woman, who was on her own at the time as her husband was away on business, thought the intruder wanted to rape her.
The verdict has sparked anger and controversy throughout the country. Human rights and women rights organisations have raised the issue and the story of this woman has spread in the country. Human rights activists say the woman only wanted to threaten her assailant with the rifle. Protesters claim this ruling is unfair as the woman was lonely and scared at the time, and that she was only trying to protect herself and her honour.