Radhia Ihsan (1933-2020), was a Yemeni women's rights activist, Politician (

Yemeni Socialist Party The Yemeni Socialist Party ( ar, الحزب الاشتراكي اليمني, ''al-Hizb al-Ishtiraki al-Yamani'', YSP) is a political party in Yemen. A successor of Yemen's National Liberation Front, it was the ruling party in South Yemen until Y ...

) and author. She went to college in Syria and studied law in Baghdad, and Islamic studies in University of Punjab in Pakistan. After having completed her education, she returned to Aden, where she was employed as director of Ihsan Allah Hotel, as manager of the Al-Baath Printing Press, and as a professor of Arabic languages and Islamic law at the University of Aden. She contributed to the Liberation movement against the British colonization, and was arrested and imprisoned twice by the British, but released after a hunger strike. In the 1950s, she became a leading pioneer in the new women's movement in Yemen. In 1956 the Adeni Women's Club engaged in favor of unveiling on the initiative of Radhia Ihsan. Most women still lived secluded in gender segregation and could not appear in public unveiled. When women were stopped from attending the concert of the popular Egyptian singer

Farid al-Atrash Farid al-Atrash ( ar, فريد الأطرش; October 19, 1916 – December 26, 1974), also written Farid El-Atrache, was a Syrian-Egyptian composer, singer, virtuoso oud player, and actor. Having immigrated to Egypt at the age of only nine ...

in Aden, the club on the initiative of Radhia Ihsan arranged a demonstration against the veil - and thus against gender segregation - in Aden.Amel Nejib al-Ashtal, 'A Long, Quiet, and Steady Struggle: The Women's Movement in Yemen', in Pernille Arenfeldt, Nawar Al-Hassan Golley, eds.,
Mapping Arab Women's Movements: A Century of Transformations
', p.280 Six unveiled women, followed by about thirty unveiled women by car, attended a procession through the streets of Aden to the office of the news papers '' al-Ayyam'' and '' Fatat al-jazira'', were they issued a press statement condemning the veil as a hindrance against the participation of women in public society. During the

People's Democratic Republic of Yemen South Yemen ( ar, اليمن الجنوبي, al-Yaman al-Janubiyy), officially the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (, ), also referred to as Democratic Yemen (, ) or Yemen (Aden) (, ), was a communist state that existed from 1967 to 19 ...

, she held several important posts as a member of the

. She was a member of the Executive Committee of the Yemeni Socialist Party, General Secretary of the Arab Women's Association of Aden, member of the Diversified Industries Syndicate in Aden, and a member of the Council of the Aden Governorate.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ihsan, Radhia 1933 births 2020 deaths Yemeni feminists Yemeni women's rights activists 20th-century Yemeni women politicians 20th-century Yemeni politicians 20th-century Yemeni women writers Members of the Supreme People's Council Yemeni socialists