Women: piss 'em off, pay the price

Reuters has an article about the situation in Yemen:

Thousands of Yemeni women protested in Sana'a and other cities on Saturday, enraged by President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s remarks that it was against Islam for women to join men in the demonstrations aimed at toppling him. The women, many in black Islamic dress with full face veils, said their role in protests was religiously sound and called, again, on the president to step down.
“It seems that President Saleh failed in all his efforts to employ tribes and security to strike at those seeking his exit, and so he resorted to using religion, especially after he saw that thousands of women were taking part in protests,” said Samia al-Aghbari, a leader in the protest movement.
Mr. Saleh, who has warned of civil war and the breakup of Yemen if he is forced out before organizing an orderly transition, urged the opposition to reconsider its refusal to join talks to resolve the political crisis. But he also struck a defiant tone, calling members of the opposition liars and appealing to religious sensitivities in this conservative Muslim country by criticizing the mixing of men and women in protests in Sana'a.
Around 5,000 women demonstrated against him in Sana'a on Saturday, with similar numbers in the industrial city of Taiz, south of the capital. The anti-Saleh protests have had the support of the main opposition coalition, which includes leftists but whose largest member is the Islamist Congregation for Reform, or Islah Party. “Oh youth, the honor of women has been slandered,” the women chanted Saturday, referring to Mr. Saleh’s remarks. Some women brought their young daughters to the protests. One young girl’s face was painted with the image of the Yemeni flag, and the word “Leave” was scrawled on her forehead.
“If Saleh read the Koran, he wouldn’t have made this accusation,” said one protester, who gave her name only as Majda. “We ask he be tried according to Islamic law.”
Saudi and Western allies of Yemen fear that a prolonged standoff could cause chaos that would benefit an active al-Qaeda wing operating in this poor Arabian Peninsula country. More than one hundred protesters have been killed in clashes with security forces since late January.