A cafe in Yemen runs by a woman, for women.

Yemen opens its cafe that is owned by a woman and is specifically for women.

Yemen opens its cafe that is owned by a woman and is specifically for women.

Um Feras, a woman who set up her cafe named, ‘The morning cafe’ in Marib, central Yemen last year hopes to change the traditional, conservative attitudes held by many locally against women working outside home, mean her project is new and strange for some people.

She came up with the idea for the particular project as she realised there were no leisure spaces for women in her city, Yemen, saying, “There were no places for women to gather comfortably, no places belonging to the female community: where the team from administration to the youngest employee is females.”

“The word ‘cafe’ can be associated with negative ideas and convictions...Every new idea will have its supporters and opponents,” she said, adding she wants to leady by example to show that women can run enterprises.

A regular customer to the cafe and a medical student, Wadad, said, “There is space for women in general, amid the poor internet network in Marib and the limited available spaces for female students,” as she was most intrigued by the cafe’s internet connection.

Um Feras imports most of the drinks including coffee. She said, ‘Maintaining quality at the times of rising prices and fluctuating currency rates has been a real challenge’. But all she hopes is to change people’s attitude about women-led businesses and aspires to expand into a larger leisure spot for children and women.