A Yemeni model who was abducted and put on trial by the Iran-backed Houthi militia earlier this year tried to commit suicide in prison, her lawyer said, according to media reports.
Entisar al-Hammadi was being treated in a hospital in Sanaa after she tried to hang herself in her prison cell on Monday, her lawyer Khaled al-Kamal told Arab News on Wednesday.
According to her lawyer, al-Hammadi’s mental and physical condition became “very, very difficult” after the Houthis had transferred her into a wing for “prostitutes.”
“She felt humiliated by the Houthis shaming her,” al-Kamal said.
The 20-year-old model and actress was kidnapped by the Iran-backed group in February and was later interrogated, physically and verbally abused, placed in solitary confinement, and subjected to racist and sexist insults, activists said at the time.
he Houthis charged al-Hammadi with prostitution, drug dealing, and breaching Islamic norms, and had prevented her lawyer from seeing her case documents. Al-Hammadi denied all charges.
Despite calls from local and international organizations, the militia refused to release the model and banned all media coverage of her case, according to her lawyer.
Yemeni women and children have been the principal victims of violence since the Iran-backed Houthis waged a war in 2015 against the internationally recognized government.
In recent months, the Houthis have intensified their violations against women and have conducted what activists described as “ISIS-like” behavior in areas under their control, including banning women from working in restaurants and cafes, requiring a husband’s permission before purchasing birth control, and even putting up cement walls to separate female and male
