From Baking Cookies to Buying Ammunition: The Women Helping Defend Besieged Taiz in Yemen

As Houthi fighters tighten their siege on Taiz, the government-held city in southwestern Yemen, women who initially organised food deliveries for the soldiers defending the city have begun raising money to buy weapons and ammunition.

The initiatives have emerged spontaneously since fighting resumed in early September in the western countryside of Taiz governorate, between the Saudi-backed forces of the internationally recognised government and the Iran-backed armed group, the Houthis.

It began differently. Women volunteers came together to bake cookies for the fighters on the front lines.

The aim, said Amira al-Saghir, an activist involved in the campaign, was to strengthen the relationship between the supportive social base and the members of the national army and pro-government popular resistance forces stationed at the front lines in defence of their besieged city, which faces daily shelling in preparation for an invasion.

The cookie-making initiative drew widespread participation among women volunteers, along with encouragement and support on social media. It coincided with a broader community campaign to supply fighters with food and other basic necessities, as well as weapons, with people contributing from districts and villages across the governorate.

In Yemen, a conservative country and the poorest in the Middle East, the vast majority of women do not take part in active fighting in the civil war that began in 2014. Instead, these initiatives allow them to take part in what they see as the defence of their city against an invading force, and to stand beside the men who are fighting.

After nearly four years of relative calm following a United Nations-brokered truce in April 2022, Houthi forces launched a major ground offensive in western Taiz in early September. They rapidly captured territory along Yemen's Red Sea coast, including the strategic port city of Mocha on September 10, expanding their presence around the Bab al-Mandeb strait, a vital shipping route.

The Houthis subsequently advanced towards other parts of Taiz governorate, taking control of key routes into the provincial capital and effectively surrounding the city. Government forces have since launched counteroffensives, and control of some areas remains contested.

The renewed siege has severely restricted the movement of people and essential supplies into the city, triggering shortages of food, fuel and medicine.

As the fighting intensified, the women's initiatives changed character. What began with baking cookies and organising food convoys gradually evolved into efforts to buy ammunition for the fighters.

Women involved in the initiatives said they felt they had been 'forced' to act because of the risk of their city falling to the Houthis. The change began as more rural districts fell to the Houthis, leading some donors to make their contributions conditional on part of the money being used to buy ammunition for the fighters.

Al-Saghir believes the shift was also encouraged by information and criticism circulating on social media suggesting that government fighters in Taiz lacked sufficient ammunition to continue defending the city and the surrounding front lines.

The initiatives soon took off, drawing in more women. Among them is Huriya Wabel, a humanitarian activist, who said that after seeing the Houthi militias wage what she described as a war of extermination against their city, they felt they had to stand by the army not just with food and clothing but with weapons as well, especially since a siege had been imposed on the city.

The longer the siege lasts, the greater the pressure on civilian life in Taiz. The journey of these women — from a small initiative delivering food to raising funds for weapons — is a reflection of how the role of civil society changes on the ground in war.