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Yemeni model freed after nearly five years in prison
Sanaa, October 26, 2025 (AFP) — Yemen’s Houthi rebels have released a young model who had been imprisoned for nearly five years over alleged “moral offenses,” after she appeared in public without a headscarf, her lawyer and a security source told AFP on Sunday.
Intissar al-Hammadi, who modeled for local designers and shared photos on Instagram and Facebook — often with her hair uncovered — was arrested in 2021 while on her way to a photo shoot with a friend.
The two women were sentenced the following year by a Houthi-run court to five years in prison on charges of “fornication,” “prostitution,” and “drug use” — accusations her lawyer and several human rights groups described as baseless and discriminatory.
“Intissar al-Hammadi was released last night and is now at home,” her lawyer, Khaled al-Kamal, told AFP. “She has suffered greatly and her health deteriorated due to the injustices she endured,” he added.
International Outcry
Amnesty International had called for her immediate release shortly after her arrest, saying she had been “mistreated,” “forced to confess to multiple offenses,” and punished for challenging “deeply patriarchal social norms.”
Born to an Ethiopian mother and a Yemeni father, al-Hammadi had shared dozens of photos online, wearing traditional Yemeni attire, jeans, or leather jackets, with or without an Islamic headscarf. She had also appeared in two local television dramas, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).
Yemen has long been considered one of the world’s most restrictive countries for women, but conditions have worsened dramatically in areas under Houthi control since the civil war erupted in 2014.