On November 14, the Basement Cultural Foundation carried out, as part of the “Spaces” activity, a public debate entitled “Feminism in Yemen Causes Harm … With or Against?” The participants in the debate are two teams, one is supporter and the other is opponent of the thesis. Each team consisted of eight participants, and the roles and axes were divided among the speakers and included five rounds. After each round, the audience was allowed to intervene. The primary outcome of the debate based on the pre-questionnaire of the public opinions was 37% in favor of the thesis and 63% against the thesis. After the debate was over, the post-questionnaire of the public’s views was 63% in favor of the thesis and 37% against the thesis. Thus, the result was settled in favor of the team supporting the thesis because it was able to change the audience’s opinion.

Spaces is an activity implemented by the Basement Cultural Foundation since 2016. It aims to raise the capacities of young people in performing argumentation and rhetoric and the ability to refute by training them in the method and basics of debate, and the process of searching for information, and then gives them the opportunity to participate in a public debate in which they can apply the skills which they acquired during training.