The Biden administration is shelling out thousands of dollars to “empower” women in Yemen by teaching them how to use technology as rebels occupying the country fire rockets at commercial cargo ships and U.S. military vessels.
The grant, worth $22,520 and issued by the State Department, seeks “to empower Yemeni females with technology skills” to improve their chances of employment, working in the tech field or becoming an entrepreneur, according to a government spending database. The program is ongoing and coincides with Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen firing rockets and explosive drones at shipping vessels sailing through the Red Sea, causing some shipping companies to abandon the key trade route despite the protection of the U.S. Navy.
Medalah Foundation, the recipient of the grant, administers a number of programs intended to help Yemenis build technical skills in areas like programming or photography. The organization was established to help grow the tech ecosystem in Yemen, according to its LinkedIn page.
The United States has not bombed the locations Houthi rebels are firing missiles and launching drones from.
The United States Navy has, however, intercepted missiles and explosive drones fired by Houthis, Politico reported. The missiles fired by the Navy can cost up to $2.1 million each, while the Houthi drones only cost a couple thousand dollars.
The grant serves as another example of the Biden administration’s push to promote women’s empowerment in war-torn countries.
The department approved a $100,000 grant in September 2023 to build “Palestinian girls’ and young women’s resilience through running.”
Similar disbursements from the State Department include $30,000 in October 2023 to provide technical training to female entrepreneurs in Lebanon, almost $100,000 in September 2023 to prepare Iraqi women to found tech start-ups and about $54,000 during the same month to teach female journalists in Gaza how to write about gender issues.
While the Biden administration funds women’s empowerment in Yemen, its approach to handling the Houthi attacks has been met with criticism.
America’s effort’s are “not affecting the Houthis as they continue their attacks unabated,” Brent Sadler, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Some have suggested that Biden needs to take “decisive action” to stop the Houthis.
“You know, you have to have some spine to escalate to end something, to achieve some dominance,” retired Army Gen. Jack Keane told Fox News.
“This administration time and time again has failed to do that, and you know, we’re also putting our troops and our sailors at risk here,” he continued.
The State Department and the Medalah Foundation did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
Robert Schmad on January 10, 2024
