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After nearly a week of sit-ins and anger, the city of Taiz in the southwest of the country in Yemen has been grieving over the assassination of a Yemeni official from the Taiz Governorate.
Security forces in Yemen’s southern city of Taiz on Wednesday killed the prime suspect in the assassination of Iftihan al-Mashhari, Director of the Taiz Cleaning Fund, Mohammed Sadiq Al-Mekhlafi, and arrested another.
The assassination of the official, al-Mashhari, has sparked outrage among Yemenis, with social media users calling on the authorities to seek justice and hold those responsible accountable.
Al-Mashhari, the director of the Cleanliness and Improvement Fund in the Taiz Governorate, appointed two years ago, became the first woman to hold this position.
Born in a civic-minded family, al-Mashhari never joined a party or sought tribal protection.
Local media report that armed men on a motorcycle fired more than 30 shots at the woman’s car as it passed through the city, killing her instantly alongside another individual, while a third person was injured in the attack.
Security cameras captured the moment of her assassination, which took place on Sept. 18.
Since the announcement of her death, the streets of Taiz have been filled with protests condemning her assassination and demanding the arrest of her killers.
Sanitation workers in the city also declared a full strike in protest, insisting they will not return to work until the perpetrators are caught and the circumstances of the crime are clarified
Authorities said the man, a member of a local military brigade, was shot dead after resisting arrest during a raid in al-Rawda, north of the city.
Police said he used rifles, grenades, and large amounts of ammunition while moving across rooftops and even shielded himself behind children.
Images shared on social media showed his bloodied body lying beside a school wall before security forces removed it.
Rights activists and lawyers condemned the killing, warning it could derail investigations into a crime they say is linked to entrenched corruption networks.
A judicial source told Asharq al-Awsat the death deprived courts of a key witness and risked letting those behind the attack escape accountability.
The killing marks the first crime of its kind in Yemen against a woman in an official leadership post.
On that, media reports raised alarms about the incident, warning that it signals a clear expansion of the circle of violence to include women, with female leaders increasingly becoming deliberate targets of political assassination.
Reports indicate that her death, following months of threats and harassment, reveals a broader pattern in which women leaders are increasingly targeted for violence.
About a month earlier, al-Mashhari had revealed in an audio recording attributed to her that she had received death threats from individuals she identified, according to Yemeni media reports.
Since al-Mashhari's appointment, she has challenged entrenched networks of military power and corruption, refusing to pay bribes, and resisted intimidation by armed groups.
Analysts on Yemeni affairs believe that the reason she was targeted is that her independence and integrity made her a threat. Twenty bullets served as a warning: these are the limits imposed on women who defy the rule of the gun.
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