Cybercrime against Women in Yemen: Legal frameworks and social change

This paper was produced as part of the training program “Public Policy and Active Citizenship”, a pillar of ARI’s project on Fostering Critical Policy Analysis“. The training program aims to promote evidence-based research by providing up-and-coming scholars from within the MENA region with the theoretical frameworks and technical skills to enable them to write policy papers.

Introduction

Indeed, this can be seen in the phenomenal increase in the rate of cybercrimes in Yemen, where a growing number of women have become the targets of blackmail and defamation through social media. The lack of clear legislation to curb this epidemic in a country already in the midst of a civil war has made it difficult to create deterrents or administer punishments commensurate with the seriousness of these crimes against women and their consequences on society as a whole.

Yemeni legislation on cybercrime is largely limited to the protection of banking operations, specifically Law No. 40 on payment systems and electronic financial and banking operations, issued in 2006 by the Yemeni Legislature. This new legislation was based on a number of articles in the 1994 Crimes and Penalties Law, which refers to assaults on personal freedom or threats to broadcast private secrets, as well as other articles from sections criminalizing wrongful injury, violation of privacy, and blackmail. In most cases of cybercrime, therefore, these latter articles, in addition to Law No. 13 of the Criminal Procedures Legislation, are applied as a kind of partial remedy. The lack of a comprehensive legal framework is coupled with a lack of adequate capacity to deal with the growing scourge of cybercrime.

Yemeni legislators have failed to add amendments and updates to the legal system to deal with the growing number of cases of online harassment, blackmail, and violation of privacy affecting women in Yemen. Recognizing the gravity of cybercrime, as well as the extent to which women are disproportionately its victims, is crucial to remedying this legislative vacuum.

This paper will describe the reality of Yemeni women when it comes to cybercrime by detailing cases of cyber extortion, the role played by the family and society, as well as the types of perpetrators. It will also address the state’s efforts at dealing with such cases in light of the prevailing legislative vacuum and deteriorating security situation that adversely impacts girls and women and often places the blame on them. How do the security and judicial authorities deal with victims, what is the role of state institutions in confronting cybercrime, and what role do feminist movements and advocacy campaigns play in pressuring decision-makers to find solutions to such crimes, which are relatively new to Yemeni society?

Multiple Instances of Cybercrime

Sara sparked a popular movement of solidarity when she shot herself on a street in Taiz, southwestern Yemen. The incident occurred after Sarah went to a police station in Taiz governorate to report that her friend had colluded with a relative to hack her Facebook account in November 2022. Although the security authorities were able to identify the perpetrators, they remained silent and did not take any action against them, leading Sarah to attempt suicide in despair.

Sarah's case is hardly the first of its kind. A number of Yemeni women who have been the victims of blackmail have either taken their own lives or been physically assaulted to death. For instance, 18-year-old Bushra was assaulted, kidnapped, and raped by a group of young men who photographed her and then threatened her with blackmail. When she did not submit to their threats, her photos were published online, prompting her own family to kill her in order to rid themselves of the shame.

Aisha, who lives in the capital Sana'a, was threatened and blackmailed by her former partner, who threatened to post photos of her, her friends, and her neighbors on several fake accounts. As a result of this incident, one of Aisha’s brothers beat her several times and took away her phone, saying that she was “bringing shame to her family and [that] no one will marry her.”

Hanan (pseudonym), a 30-year-old TV presenter who also lives in Sana'a, was blackmailed by her ex-husband, who repeatedly posted private and revealing photos of her across fake Facebook accounts. Bushra (pseudonym), a 32-year-old sales representative for a pharmaceutical company from the capital, also became a victim when her niece's former partner collected personal information about her and posted it on social media.

Attempts by women who fall prey to these crimes to resist or draw attention to them are often incomplete or challenging. In July 2021, 31-year-old Maha’s (pseudonym) Facebook account was hacked. The blackmailers created fake accounts in Maha's name and published personal photos stolen from her account, including those containing her and her sister’s identity information, as well as photos of her and her friends without a niqab/hijab. The blackmailers then demanded $800 to delete the photos, which she refused to do. She additionally refused to meet them at a hotel, ultimately paying the equivalent of about $280 in Yemeni riyals to delete the photos and close the fake accounts. In August 2023, Maha published a post on her Facebook account recounting this experience. Within a few days, one of the extortionists had once again sent her a message threatening to publish her stolen photos online if she continued to talk about the incident.

In February 2022, Afraa (pseudonym), a 31-year-old woman from the southwestern Yemeni governorate of Taiz, received a text message threatening to share her photos and videos and asking her to hand over her phone and laptop. Afraa ignored the message. A few days later, she received a number of photos of private conversations with her friend, accompanied by a request for $1,300, which she also ignored. Two months later, in April 2022, the blackmailer posted her university graduation photos on a fake Facebook account with her name. Ironically, when Afraa was held legally accountable for a suicide attempt7 resulting from the psychological pressure she was subjected to by the blackmailer, who was later identified as her neighbor's son.

Most members of society try to distance themselves from the social stigma brought on by such cases by blaming the victim and questioning her actions. However, such cases can have a wider societal impact, causing harm to the individual woman in question but also to the other members of her family. This is amply evident in the case of the Abu Ammar family, who were subjected to inappropriate treatment and contempt from the community when a young man in the Ibb governorate in central Yemen published a photo of one of the family's girls. Eventually, the entire family was forced to leave the province.8 Because of this strong threat of ostracization, cases of cybercrime in Yemen are resolved in one of two ways. Victims either try to buy the silence of perpetrators without their family's knowledge, or families may kill the victim “so as not to be a stain” on her tribe and family.

Cybercrime in Yemen

Cybercrime is any act that violates the law using information and communication technology to target networks, systems, data, websites, or technology and facilitate the commission of a crime. Because such crimes violate the privacy of the victim by obtaining personal data and information without their knowledge, it endangers their lives and may even amount to committing murder. This is often the case for women who are targeted in Yemen because many of them are threatened after their private accounts are hacked, causing some victims to commit suicide.

The data shows that 25 girls and women are subjected to social media abuse in Yemen every single day. Young women between the ages of 21 and 24 are the biggest targets, as they are frequent users of social media platforms, which increases their vulnerability to pressure and blackmail. Older victims tend to be targeted because they are public social figures or activists, and their relative ignorance of digital security methods may make them more vulnerable to blackmail through communication sites. Between 2020 and 2021, the number of attempts at hacking women's accounts or withdrawing personal photos while repairing mobile phones or laptops reached a total of 5000 cases.

The Global Cybersecurity Index (GCI)13 issued by the International Federation, assesses the level of development and engagement of all countries based on five pillars (legal measures, technical measures, organizational measures, capacity development, and cooperation) Yemen ranked 22nd in the Arab world and 182nd globally (out of 182 countries) in the 2020 Global Cybersecurity Index. According to the 2020 assessment issued by the Academy of e-Governance (NCSI), Yemen scored only 6 out of 77 indicators used to assess the country's cyber capabilities.This shows the fragility of the infrastructure and the absence of laws to combat cybercrime, which has led to its widespread prevalence in Yemeni society.

These violations have prompted many feminist movements in Yemen and those working in the field of human rights and digital security to demand that women be protected from those who seek to violate their privacy and to hold the state authorities responsible for the lack of a dedicated law to combat cybercrime. Indeed, the absence of a law on cybercrime has resulted in these cases being dealt with according to the Yemeni Penal Code, which does not protect the victim or provide for appropriate penalties, as the maximum penalty does not exceed a small fine. There is also a tendency to resolve such cases within police stations under the pretext of preventing possible honor crimes resulting from these violations in conservative Yemeni society. This situation has prevented many victims of these crimes from reporting them to the competent authorities and contenting themselves with silence or committing suicide to avoid the stigma that may be attached to them or their families.

Prevailing Customs and Absent Legislation

In Yemeni society, women are exposed to many violations, whether within the family or in society, and the legislative vacuum in dealing with these means that they are often neglected or dismissed. The security authorities rely on Article No. 313 of the Yemeni Penal Code, which stipulates that “a term of imprisonment not exceeding five years or a fine shall be imposed on any person who intentionally causes a person to fear harm to them or any other concerned party and induces them to hand over to him or any other person any money or legal document or anything they sign with a signature or seal that can be converted into a legal document.” This penalty is discretionary. The fine in this case reaches up to 70,000 riyals, which is between $25 and $130 due to the difference in exchange rates between the regions of Yemen. However, very few cases even reach the police stations, and in the rare instances that they do, the matter is often resolved by the victim's family withdrawing the complaint for fear of scandal.

In addition, the judge's authority is itself based on the legal provisions of the Yemeni Code of Offenses and Penalties, which is currently implemented as a kind of partial response to such crimes. However, gaps and loopholes in these provisions may allow perpetrators to either avoid paying the penalty or being subjected to the full array of potential consequences. An example of this is the case filed by a woman whose university classmate blackmailed her via Facebook in an attempt to pressure her into marriage, even going so far as to threaten her in person with a weapon. On January 30, 2023, the West Taiz Court sentenced the perpetrator to six months in prison and a compensatory fine of one million Yemeni riyals (approximately $4,000 USD) under Article 254 of the Yemeni Penal Code. Despite this, two key adjustments were made to reduce the severity of the consequences. First, tribal mediation was allowed to intervene in lieu of the compensation being imposed, meaning that the perpetrator never paid his victim. Secondly, the execution of the sentence was postponed for several months to allow “the perpetrator [time to] complete his exams.” This is just a sample of the difficulties of law enforcement in Yemeni courts.

The inability of the security authorities to deal with such cases is another aspect of the difficulties that women face in police stations and prosecution offices. Women's struggles with the legal system begin in police stations and investigation offices, where they are characterized by several difficulties, including the law enforcement officials’ lack of ability, knowledge, or experience in dealing with cybercrime. These officials often have to employ the services of a special investigator or digital crime expert to trace information and conduct investigations. The women, who are the victims, are then asked to bear the full financial cost of this procedure, and many of them may have to additionally pay bribes to police officers and prosecutors to open investigation files for their complaints.

Some women who filed complaints at police stations reported that officers asked them to pay bribes to cover the costs of a number of legal procedures such as issuing arrest warrants, traveling to deliver the warrants, refueling the vehicles used to arrest suspects, hiring experts to extract information from phones, and enforcing prison sentences. One victim reported that she had to pay $400 to cover the costs of judicial procedures, arresting defendants, and transporting one of the perpetrators to the prosecutor's office for interrogation.19

In addition to these practices, a number of girls are subjected to verbal abuse and violence by the security personnel themselves as women “compromising their honor” and “morally degenerate.” The authorities accuse the victims of taking pictures of themselves and sending these pictures and videos to the blackmailer. Victims are also stigmatized, especially when they refuse to reconcile with the perpetrator or withdraw their complaint, as is often the outcome in such cases.

As a result, these cases are transformed from a case of blackmail and personal intimidation to a case of violating public values and morals, and victims subsequently have to face aspersions on their family honor and fight a battle with the security authorities and society at large. The solidarity shown by the prosecution with the perpetrators forces many women to withdraw or close the case out of fear of punishment from the family and community and due to the lack of protection they are afforded by state authorities.

Absence of state institutions and feminist advocacy efforts

Governmental institutions and media outlets are absent from the scene despite the gravity of cybercrime and its impact on societal culture. There is no talk about the seriousness of cybercrime, the possibility of addressing these crimes or to redress the legal system, nor any attempt to highlight the effects of these crimes with regard to the increasing number of cases of violence against girls and women. The role of the Ministry of Education is quite weak in this matter, with only one program led by the Department of Education in the Mukalla District of Hadramawt Governorate, in partnership with the Safe Space Initiative of the Human Access Foundation. The first phase of this awareness-raising program on the subject of electronic blackmail targeted ten high schools and educational institutions and was conducted within the framework of the Security and Police Department of Mukalla District’s community initiative on educating members of the community, especially girls, on how not to fall prey to electronic blackmail and limit its spread.

It is important to note that these programs focus on girls only, without including boys. This is an indication of social mentalities and the way government agencies think and embody the idea that girls are the source of “stigma” despite the fact that they are the real victims in these cases. Indeed, the educational administration has not held sessions to raise family awareness, for example, on how to address such cases without resorting to physical violence, nor has it considered conducting sessions with young people about the impact of these cases on social cohesion and the preservation of community values and customs, and how to contribute to reducing and mitigating the damage to different segments of society.

This absence and inaction of state institutions has led many organizations to join forces and counter the rise of cyber blackmail against women as well as raise social awareness on this issue. Confronting this type of challenge requires addressing the issue on a broader level and building community awareness in a manner that steers people away from harmful social practices that perpetuate individual victims' struggles towards solutions that reduce violence against women. Some of these efforts are directed towards awareness-raising and training through women's organizations, initiatives, and blocs in Yemen and abroad, while others are concerned with digital security and working to remove images and videos through networking with Meta.

Both the Peace Path Initiative and the Feminist Solidarity Network have endeavored to hold several training workshops and advocacy campaigns for a number of women working in civil society. A recent example of this included a campaign with Wogood for Human Security, featuring the participation of women both inside and outside Yemen. The Aden Foundation for Arts and Sciences launched an advocacy campaign for youth initiatives and feminist organizations through the “Protect me from cyber blackmail” project. Eight youth initiatives and organizations in Aden governorate in southern Yemen and the current interim capital participated in this campaign to mitigate the phenomenon of cyber extortion. The “Together against Cyber Blackmail” and the “Be Human Initiative” are other examples of such awareness-raising campaigns. In addition, media organizations like Sada have partnered with the National Organization of Yemeni Media Workers to train 15 male and female journalists and activists in the Mukalla district.

In light of a clear lack of information from government and security authorities, feminist movements remain at the forefront of confronting these crimes against women. Apart from advocacy campaigns, they have also organized several discussions and dialogue sessions to highlight the seriousness of this issue. The She for Society initiative and the Global Network of Women Peacemakers held a virtual panel discussion entitled “Digital Security for Women in Yemen” with the support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. The “We’am” youth initiative was unique in implementing a training for hearing-impaired youth, which is considered the first training of its kind in Yemen on cybercrime in sign language.

Concerned digital security experts have been working with a number of journalists to support female victims and deal with their cases through support, technical assistance, and intervention to remove offensive content from Facebook pages. For example, the Yodet Foundation, represented by Azmi Ghaleb, and the Sanad Platform for Digital Rights, represented by trainer “Mukhtar Abdel Moaz” and platform manager Fahmi Al-Raqib, bring together cybersecurity specialists who work on a voluntary basis to solve cases of cyber extortion. 300 experts and technicians, both independent and affiliated with certain organizations, work in cooperation with the Media Freedoms Observatory.

All these efforts are the result of women's groups' recognition of the seriousness of the situation for women and girls in Yemen, given the ongoing war and the legal vacuum that has allowed perpetrators to escape punishment. The Noon feminist bloc has been working in partnership with PASS Foundation for Sustainable Societies and with the support of Saferworld to support Women's Rights Organizations (WORs) and Women's Networks/Collectives in Fragile and Conflict-Affected States (FCAS) in Aden Governorate. Their relentless efforts have led to the establishment of the first specialized division for cyber extortion affiliated with the Public Prosecutor's Office in Aden Governorate, after a decision issued by Public Prosecutor Judge Qaher Mustafa.

On August 26, 2020, Yemeni society was shaken by an incident that took place in the capital, Sana'a, where the case of Abdullah al-Aghbari, who was beaten and tortured to death, was all over social media at the time. In the details of the incident, Al-Aghbari had obtained evidence proving that the owners of the Al-Sebai Shop for the sale and maintenance of mobile phones in the Al-Qiyada neighborhood in Sana'a were blackmailing women and girls after emptying their phones. As a result of him finding out, al-Aghbari was attacked and killed, and a video clip was circulated in which he was subjected to the most severe forms of torture. The incident mobilized public opinion in Yemen, with demonstrations in the streets of a number of Yemeni governorates and social media campaigns demanding that the perpetrators of the murder be punished to the fullest extent possible. The East Amana Court in Sana'a issued the fastest judicial verdict against the perpetrators in order to control community anger, and the court's decision included death sentences for several perpetrators and imprisonment for others.

In another case that shows the increasing robustness of the judicial system, what the Saira Court of First Instance in Aden recently issued is considered the first verdict in a criminal case related to the crime of cyber extortion. The judgment was headed by Judge Sarah Abdul Rahim Baamer and the Undersecretary of the Press, Publications and Electronic Publishing Prosecution, Judge Khaled Al-Hassani, and should be considered a judicial precedent resulting from the efforts of women's groups in Yemen against cybercrimes. In this case, the defendants (Saddam M. and L. M.) were convicted of the charges against them, and it was reported that:

“Saddam was sentenced to one year in prison, with credit for time already served in pretrial detention, and the remainder of the sentence was suspended. L. M. A. was sentenced to one month in prison starting from the date of her arrest. The court also ruled that the right to privacy (the victim’s claim) was removed due to her waiver of this right. […] Additionally, the court ordered the confiscation of the black "LT" mobile phone, model 3600, and the destruction of the "SanDisk" 16GB flash drive.”
Conclusion

Based on the bitter experiences of female victims of cyber extortion crimes in Yemen, and in view of the legal shortcomings as well as the lack of social awareness on this issue, some recommendations can be made to fill the gaps in the hope of effecting radical solutions to protect women's lives, rights, and freedoms. These recommendations revolve around the development and implementation of legislative and policy measures that work to prevent cybercrime, deliver appropriate justice to victims, remove the security and judicial obstacles to achieving equality, justice and fairness for victims, and provide compensation commensurate with the gravity of the case and the psychological damage suffered by female victims.

These recommendations are as follows:

Develop and implement social policies and educational programs aimed at eliminating gender stereotypes, negative social norms, and discriminatory attitudes toward girls and women.
Conduct capacity building and training for all employees of government agencies that deal with security, judicial, and cybercrime units to ensure that they follow the appropriate and correct mechanisms and protocols in these cases.
Provide security and judicial authorities with the required human and financial resources to provide all types of support to victims.
Ensure that victims have access to comprehensive support services, including mental health support and protection from domestic abuse.
Raise public awareness through public education campaigns about cybercrime, the mechanisms available to report these crimes, the methods of support and protection available, and building solidarity with civil society organizations and women's groups.
Establish the necessary oversight mechanisms to prevent, investigate, and punish law enforcement officials from committing misconduct, including discrimination against women, corruption, or bribery.