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in this part of the world, a few countries are left unnoticed in the process, mostly because of the lack of access to national-level data. Although there is arguably sufficient global wealth to empower women to exercise the right to reproductive health, this goal has bypassed some parts of the world, such as Yemen. The Republic of Yemen, one of the poorest countries in the Middle East, has for several reasons failed to draw the attention of social science researchers. Several years ago, we began conducting a number of studies to learn more about the reproductive health of Yemeni women under the conditions of dire social and economic disadvantages caused by extreme poverty. In this volume, we compile all our studies on Yemen and attempt to draw conclusions that would not have been possible with just one study.
The International Conference on Population and Development has broadened the narrow view of population control to include individual health and introduced a new approach called reproductive health. The Cairo Program of Action (1994) recognizes reproductive rights as human rights that ensure reproductive and sexual health, bodily integrity, and the security of the person. According to the United Nations (1995), reproductive health is defined as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity, in all matters relating to the reproductive system and to its functions and processes” (p. 2). This definition implies that people are able to have a satisfying and safe sex life and that they have the capability to reproduce and the freedom to decide whether, when, and how often to do so. The definition encompasses the rights of both men and women to be informed and to have access to safe, effective, affordable, and acceptable methods of family planning of their choice, as well as other methods of their choice for regulation of fertility that are not illegal. Since the inception