Tribal Conflicts through the eyes of a Woman

A story of tribal conflict as told by a female Tribal leader

02.04.2008

Tribal conflicts constitute the biggest challenge not only to development and democracy but also to stability in Yemen. In the eastern governorate of Al-Jawf, conflict extends its damage to all aspects of life and has kept the governorate isolated from the rest of the country and deprived people there from basic development services and efforts until today[1]. Except for the main paved road that runs across main “towns” and the few cars driving on the road, everything else in the governorate takes you hundreds of years back in time.

One of the most violent and complicated conflicts in al-Jawf is the one between the Hamdan and Shulan tribes, a conflict that has been around for over 28 years and has claimed the lives of some 84 people including 5 women, in addition to hundreds of injured people[2]. The fact that the two sides of the conflicts are relatives adds another dimension to the conflict that might be perceived as positive but continued conflict escalation cycle does not seem to support this very perception.

There are different stories about the reasons that led to the conflict and the complexities that are involved in it. Some claim that the conflict was created to weaken the tribes and others claim that political parties played around it. Many, including the sheikhs of the two tribes have put their own analysis and calculations. However, the voice of women remained unheard. I decided to take a step and learn about the conflict from a woman’s perspective.

Sheikha Sayedah Al-Ghanimiyah is the widow of the grand sheikh Ali Mohammed Al-Ukaimi, the grand sheikh of the Shulan tribe. At the same time she is the sister of Abdullah Al-Eragi, grand sheikh of the Hamdan tribe. Sheikha Sayedah finds herself caught in  the 28-year old very complicated tribal conflict that involves her brothers as one party of the conflict and her sons as the other.

A very powerful and charismatic woman in the beginning of her 50s, Sayedah grew up a female tribal leader, a Sheikha, in her family. She got married to a Saudi tribal leader, sheikh, from the Yam tribe. She stayed with him for 5 months, and then ran back to her tribe, pregnant. Her family did not mind her decision. “It is very normal in al-Jawf. If a woman doesn’t want a man anymore, she can simply dump him”, said Sayedah. Her ex-husband brought big tribal leaders to her family in an attempt to bring her back to him but eventually Sayedah got her divorce. His son stayed with her until he was 7 before his father took him.

Four years later, Sayyedah got married to the grand sheikh of the Shulan tribe, Ali Al-Ukaimi who was married to 7 women before her including her cousin. Although it was not their first marriage, the marriage ceremony was very big. She was carried on a camel convoy to her new house. Although under Islamic law and tribal tradition Sheikh Ukaimi could have had other wives, as he had in the years preceding his marriage to Sayedah, she remained his only wife until he died. Sayeda clearly adored her late husband and speaks of his courage and wisdom with great passion. She gave him 8 children, 5 girls and 3 boys. Her relationship with her cousin, ex-wife of her late husband is wonderful. “We are sisters” says Sayedah who speaks very well of her husband’s children and regard them her own. 

Torn in a tribal conflict:

The current grand sheikh of Hamdan is the immediate uncle of the current grand sheikh of Shulan. Sayeda’s niece from Hamdan is married to Rabee, the brother of grand sheikh of Shulan. The sister of the current sheikh of Shulan is married to a sheikh from Hamdan. In total, four women from the Sheikh family of Shulan are married to the sheikh of Hamdan and his sons. Sayeda is not just an ordinary woman living under the conflict. Her brother represents the Hamdan side of the conflict and her son represents the Shulan side of it. Both are the sheikhs of the two conflicting tribes.

Fighting over land and land resources were identified in a recent research to be the main reason  for conflict. A less frequent but still important cause of inter-tribal conflict is competition over government services was also found to be an important reason behind tribal conflicts. Lack of proper planning and implementation of development services without consulting with locals or without sensitivity to tribal conflicts helped spark or create conflicts.[3]  In the case of the conflict between Shulan and Hamdan, the conflict started more than 28 years ago when the government suddenly decided to dig a well within Shulan’s territory and chose an engineer from Hamdan to carry out the job. The grand sheikh of Shulan then asked the Hamdan to stop the digging or to move it 20 meters towards Hamdan. The contracted company refused. The Ukaimis from Shulan then fired at the Hamdani’s to protect the sovereignty of their land.

Two prominent Sheikhs from a neighboring governorate intervened to resolve the conflict. “Shulan honored[4] the verdict but Hamdan didn’t”, said Sayedah. Her late husband managed to keep the conflict at a minimum level for 15 years. He started implementing the land demarcation according to the verdict of the Arbitrators but he died before the job was finished. War broke again. When his son took over, peace treaties were observed and renewed for 10 years until he died. War broke again. His brother Ameen Al-Ukaimi took over 4 years ago but since he took over the conflict has escalated and war broke for the third time.

Sayeda’s son-in-law whom she calls son, named Ameen, the sheikh of Shulan and her brother Abdullah the sheikh of Hamdan have been trying ever since to resolve the conflict and stop the blood shed. Efforts have ranged between involving prominent tribal leaders to calling upon the President to intervene personally. More than one time her son Ameen (Shulan) and his immediate cousin Hassan (Hamdan) traveled to Sanaa[5] and shared a room in the jail in a desperate attempt to find a solution[6]. Two years ago Hassan and Ameen were both in Jail and were both determined to not go back to their areas until the state finds a solution to the conflict. Hassan suddenly left the jail and was shot in Sanaa shortly after that. The situation then escalated further.

“They shot Hassan because they want to undermine Ameen. They want to divide the Eragi and the Ukaimis so that they can get rid of the two Sheikhs” said Sayedah who believes that the conflict involves more than a fight over land or resources. She believes that there are “hidden hands” from the outside working to break the bond between the two strong tribes. Sayedah suspects that political parties play the game. She also suspects that there are big sheikhs who are playing behind the scene to weaken those Eragis and the Ukaimis who want a resolution for the conflict. She believes that those who stir the conflict are young men (Jefareen) who “get paid to do the killings” in order to maintain the war.

Sayedah who very much admire the commitment of her son-in-law believes that the problem is in Hamdan’s lack of commitment and inability of her brother to get his people commit to resolving the conflict. When a committee of tribal leaders was send by the president to mediate in the conflict a year ago, Ameen Al-Ukaimi told them that he would go to even accepting or paying blood money if that would end the conflict[7]. Sayedah thinks that the problem lies in the fact that the grand sheikh of Hamdan could not control his minor sheikhs. “Shulan authorized their Sheikh Ameen Al-Ukaimi and committed to obeying/living up to his decision while Hamdan failed to do so with their Sheikh Abdullah Al-Eragi” she said.

Sayedah is the “peace bird”. As a woman she has access to both tribes[8]. Sometimes she managed to get the two sides to at least stop fighting with heavy weapons. But then she believes that the complexities of the conflict are bigger than her and her two families.” The Eragi’s and Ukaimi’s are one family but then the Jefareen get paid by some to keep the conflict going on”.

Sayedah showed me around in her house. From the roof of her house I took pictures of the house of her brother and of the clear marks of bombs and heavy fires on the walls of the house and surrounding area. “I am in continuous pain and worry. My nephews and sons want to kill each other. If my son leaves the house in the morning I don’t expect him to come back, I worry that my family would kill him. If my brothers leave the house I expect my sons to kill them. I was in Sanaa for medical check ups for 5 days. All the time I was worried that my sons would get killed by their uncles” said Sayeda. “When there is firing my daughters and I stay inside and cry. There is simply nothing that we can do”.  

Sayedah knows very well how to use guns. “But I would never use it against my brothers”, said Sayedah. But her daughter karamah who is a school principle in Aljawf happened to carry the gun and shoot at the Hamdanis to support her brothers.

Sayedah’s Proposal to end the conflict:

In a phone conversation with the President Sayedah urged him to interfere personally to resolve the conflict. She respects President Saleh but she thinks that he simply could not control the trouble-makers in the conflicting tribes. Sayedah’s supports the proposal put forward earlier by her husband. She says that the President should stop payment of government salaries to the people of the two tribes till they agree to stop the fighting. Then he himself should send a committee of arbitrators who would set up a tent in the area over which the two tribes are fighting. The committee then should give a 1/3 of the land to the Hamdanis and 1/3 to the Shulani’s and make the 1/3 in the middle a government property. The government then should invest in that land.

Sayedah as a public figure:

It is true that Sayedah’s life with her husband gave her wider influence and social prestige and that she recognizes that. However, Sayeda believes that she was born as a sheikhah and talks with pride about her tribe. “I was a sheikha since I was born. You Ukaimis did not make me one” she says to her daughter who was asking her when she married her father indicating that it was the time when she became a sheikha.  

Very active in public life, Sayedah is the head of the ruling party branch in the governorate. She is also the Chairwoman of the Women’s Union Branch there and also she also runs a local women’s NGO. She has a say and influence. In 2003 she mobilized voters to vote for her cousin who is a ruling party candidate in the Hamdan Parliamentary Constituency against the wish of her son Ameen, Sheikh of Shulan, who wanted her to mobilize Hamdanis to vote for his fellow opposition candidate there[9]. “Ameen stopped visiting me for a year after that incident” said Sayedah with a smile.

She is a business woman. She owns a farm and runs the farm business herself and spends all revenues on poor people in her community. There are two doors in her house, one for men and one for women. The doors are open all the time in case people need to come.  “It is my husband’s will that we don’t shut the doors in the face of the needy and guests”, she said. Even when there is no man in the house, Sayedah and her daughters do their “duty” towards guests and the needy.

“Everyone respects Sayyedah. She comes from a very respectable family. Unlike women in this region, Sayedah understands politics and social life issues” Said Sheikh Ali Alajji, a tribal leader from Hamdan.

Sayedah is a role model. Women in the tribe follow her steps. She was asked by her son[10] who is the Sheikh of the Shulan to wear black gown and the veil outside the house. When she did so, the rest of the women in the village did the same.

She believes that the tribal conflict affects most the lives of women and children. “there are 20 widows and many orphans in Hamdan and more in Shulan”, she said. Conflict hinders boys and girls education. Her own daughter could not attend to school for 2 years because of the conflict.

Sayeda’s believes that education and work are basic rights for women. Her daughters are all educated. One of them is a school principle. Another one is a teacher and the rest are still in high school. She always encourages her children not to have many kids in order to be able to raise them well.

A message from the Sheikhah under fire:

Sayedah lives in a house that lies under bombing with heavy weapons most of the nights. Marks of bombs and Bazookas are all over the house, some she renovated, some she turned into small windows and others remained as they are. From her roof in Shulan, I could clearly see the houses of her brothers and family in Hamdan and I could see the zone they are fighting over. “I don’t want money, I don’t want anything. I just want peace between my sons and my brothers”, she said.

[1] Forty night to 60 percent of the populations in the governorate are poor  according to Yemen Poverty Assessment, 2007. can be seen at  http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTYEMEN/Resources/310077-1197206771664/Volume_I_Main_Report.pdf

[2] An interview with Ameen Al-Ukaimi, grand sheikh of Shulan in alwasat newspaper

[3] NDI, 2007

[4] To honor the verdict means to accept it and show commitment to implement it.

[5] Sanaa is the capital of YEMEN.

[6] It has been a tradition the government uses with tribes that it put the sheikhs of conflicting tribes in the jail to force them to stop fighting and commit to arbitration. In the case of this conflict, the Sheikhs themselves requested that they stay in jail until the president does a serious business to end the conflict.

[7] According to tribal culture, it is a big shame to take blood money from the perpetrator or his tribe. Ukaimi’s willingness to do that demonstrates his desperation to end the conflict even at the expense of violating such a cultural rule.

[8] According to tribal culture women and children and old people have access to any place during wars. Killing a woman even by mistake is considered a black shame and takes heavy penalties that can reach 44 folds of blood money of a man.

[9] GPC is the ruling party in Yemen and Islah is the Islamist and biggest opposition party. Shulan and Hamdan have different parliamentary constituencies.

[10] He is the son-in-law to Sayedah but she likes to call him my son.