YEMEN UPDATE

 

YEMEN ARTICLES

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Murshidat ,Midwives and Nurses:

Women Transforming Health Care and Social Relations in Yemen

During the Fall of 1997, a rough edit of the video, Murshidat, Midwives and Nurses: Women Transforming Health Care and Social Relations in Yemen was completed. This preliminary video is based on footage which I shot in 1996. As director of the project, I am working with video editors at the Syracuse Alternative Media Network (SAMN) and utilizing the editing equipment at Colgate University. My involvement in producing a video documentary on the work/lives of the murshidat began in 1982 when I spent eighteen months in Yemen conducting anthropological fieldwork in two Yemeni communities, including the town of `Abs in the northern Tihama (coastal plains). After a ten year's absence, I observed a remarkable change taking place in both rural and urban communities in Yemen. One change is the implementation of training programs for women, especially the training of primary health care workers, known as murshidat. These programs are not only raising health service delivery to basic standards, but they are inclusive of the most marginal members of Yemeni society, especially the African- identified akhdam.

The video tells the story of approximatelytwenty women, who with a minimum of a sixth grade education and oneyear of training in basic health, hygiene and sanitation, arebringing health services to their northern Tihama community. In sodoing, the women are incorporating former outcastes (akhdam)and ex-slaves (`abid) into the health care system, and byextension into other educational and economic opportunities availablein contemporary society as well. By rendering health services to thelowest status groups in the social hierarchy, the murshidat arepromoting the egalitarian ideals of Islam. The video features themurshidat's home visits and daily routines in the various clinics or"rooms" where they conduct pre-natal check-ups, well baby monitoringand provide immunizations as well as routine deliveries and malariatreatments. Extensive interviews detail the reasons the women becamemurshidat and how this new role has changed their roles as women.

In December, I returned to Yemen accompaniedby a professional videographer, Mary Beth Bresolin from Los Angeles,and social scientist Raja al Musabi from the Dept. of Women's Studiesat Sanaa University. We spent two weeks at the Maternal and ChildHealth Center in `Abs upgrading the original footage by addingbackground shots and re-shooting certain interviews. We also obtainednew interviews from women who previously had declined to be filmed.Another objective of this recent trip was to ask the murshidat fortheir comments and suggestions on the video-in-progress. Themurshidat viewed the preliminary video, but although we wereable to secure a working VCR, the women were unable to hear thedialogue due to problems with the town's electricity. Nonetheless,the women were excited by what they saw. In the lively discussionthat followed the viewing, the women recommended retaining modernstandard Arabic for the narration. Convinced of its value as atraining video, the murshidat also wanted to retain the detailedpresentation of their work routines. However, they also readilyacknowledged that the video has the potential to appeal to a wideraudience. Other interested viewers include health officials, variouscommunity groups and students within and outside of Yemen. As aresult of our discussions, we are planning to produce both an editeddocumentary and an unedited training version of the video.

The rough video draft was also viewed bydevelopment workers who are presently engaged in the murshidattraining program or who have been involved in the past. I met withfunders of the project at the Netherlands Embassy, including theRegional Sector Specialist on Health and Population, Dr. Theo Pas andhis assistant, Dr. Mohamed Aideroos. Amat al-Aleem al-Soswa, Yemen'sDeputy Minister of Information, provided me with historicaldocumentary video tapes on the revolution in 1962 and a developmentproject in the Tihama showing women working in agriculture in the1980s.

The final edited video will be a thirtyminute documentary with English subtitles and will include the newand original footage as well as some archival material.