"Nada", a young girl who survived the US military strike on the community of al-Majalah in Yemen, in a film still from “Dirty Wars”
She walked out and gazed at the clear blue sky,
Dreading to hear the humming noise or spot the killers that
fly.
Her eyes searched, filled with tears,
Painful memories mixed with fears.
The tragedy happened when she was only three.
Yet the cries, the fire, the horror she can still hear, feel and see.
Missile strikes burnt her house and obliterated her entire family.
She was the only survivor who managed to flee.
Her caring father and loving mother are no longer there.
Brothers, sisters, even cousins she played with all vanished, how was that fair?
She has become a lonely orphan with a heartbreaking stare,
Nothing left for her but anguish and nightmares; more than a child can bear.
She wondered, US missiles and drones strikes kill indiscriminately causing pain and despair,
Claim to target "terrorists" which her family wasn't, but does anyone care?
Can anyone stop them, speak out against them, does anyone
dare?
This is the story of many families in Yemen for you to share.
Thank you for reading it and for the time you can spare,
I am a Yemeni blogger participating in Blog Action Day 2013, which aims each year to raise awareness about a global topic. The topic selected this year is Human Rights. As far as I know, I am the only Yemeni blogger participating this year. Hence, I will be writing about human rights in my country, but let us first get a general understanding of what human rights are by watching this short video which lists the 30 articles in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.
Now I seriously wonder how many of these universal rights do Yemenis actually have or even realize that they are entitled to. Since this is a blog post I will keep it short and just pinpoint a few of them here.
While food and shelter are a basic human right the UN estimates that more than 10 million people — nearly half of the population — goes hungry or are short of food. Child malnutrition rates are among the highest in the world with close to half of Yemen’s children under the age of five are stunted. Some people in Yemen do not even have houses and are forced to live in caves.
While people have the right to education, illiteracy rate in Yemen is among the highest in the region, 60% for women and 30% for men. Public schools in the capital Sanaa and in many cities are in appalling conditions while there aren't enough schools in many rural areas. Children seeking an education have to walk for miles to reach schools in neighboring towns. Due to economic and social reasons girls education are cut short and are forced by their families to marry. According to HRW 50% of girls in Yemen marry before the age of 18, and 15% marry before the age of 14. In some cases they were as young as 8. There have been many cases of victims of child marriage in Yemen who die in their wedding night from bleeding while others lose their lives while giving birth.
While freedom of opinion and expression is a right, journalist in Yemen are under threat for speaking their mind and reporting on violations. And while article 12 and 20 state "no one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile" and "everyone has the right to peaceful assembly and association", many youth activist in the 2011 revolution who peacefully marched demanding a better life and a change of the regime were killed, arrested and tortured while some are still forcibly disappeared.
Article 18 clearly states that everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion yet religion has often been misused in Yemen by radical religious cleric as a tool to declare those who challenge the fundamentalist norms as infidels in order to intimidate and silence them.
"Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services..." as stated in article 25, yet the average Yemeni has none of those rights and the list goes on and on.
Two years after Yemen's 2011 revolution calling for change, the living conditions of most Yemenis unfortunately deteriorated. Electricity power blackouts across the country have been reported not only for long hours in a day but for days. Yemenis have also been suffering from a shortage in water, fuel and food supply which have been greatly affected due to the economic conditions that the country is undergoing which is putting the lives of many at risk. Therefore the sad reality is that while citizens of the world are demanding more human rights, citizens in Yemen are still struggling today, not only for their basic human rights such as eduction and healthcare - let alone the struggle for democracy, freedom and social equality - but for basic necessities such as food, water and electricity.
My priority in life has always been my family until the Arab spring crashed into our household. Both my husband and I were taken by the revolutions happening in our countries, Egypt and Yemen. Since we were away from both, we followed the events closely through our TV and computer screens. I felt it was my duty to contribute to Yemen’s revolution, by sharing with the world what was happening in Yemen, especially since there was a media blackout and clear marginalization of it’s revolution.
That is when I decided to assume another role, besides that of wife and full time mother. I became an online activist, I started tweeting news, translating articles and co-managing a Facebook news page in English. I spent long hours in the day and stayed up many nights glued to the laptop reporting on killings of protesters and sharing videos. At times it was challenging to be fully awake the next morning to drop my kids to school or cook a proper meal.
From the diaspora, I was overwhelmed with the sense of obligation to serve my country through the only means I could, which was writing. So, I started my own blog, I wrote posts and articles and got together with an amazing group of Yemenis and co-founded Support Yemen (a media initiative highlighting important issues in Yemen). I have to admit the revolution made me aware of many things. It introduced me to many inspirational Arab and Yemeni activists whom I would never have met otherwise and made me discover my passion for writing.
Being a mother and hoping to provide Yemen’s children with a better and brighter future also magnified my desire to advocate for change and hence I continued my work. I explained to my kids why what I was doing was important for me as a human, for my country and for the world. I often share my posts with my elder kids to make them aware of the injustices happening around the world and teach them why we should not be passive about them but advocate towards changing them. We should do what we can, when we can, by committing ourselves to various causes. Although my family appreciated and supported what I was doing, they paid the price of my first year of activism and they certainly were not pleased.
During the revolution, I struggled between covering Yemen’s news 24/7 and giving my kids my usual undivided attention. It took me a while to find the right balance between my roles as wife, mother and activist. Although I am still an avid tweeter, I established a routine and now manage my time better.
Besides enabling our children to read, write, do equations and know how, why and when the earth turns around, we need to teach them about life and the importance of social activism to make it a peaceful world for all of us. It is our roles as mothers to instill in our children the right values and raise them as global citizens by teaching them about world causes. I want my kids to grow up knowing that one’s family is important but that they also need to care about other families in our world. I want them to know and appreciate that being an activist mom is a tough job, but someone’s got to do it!
This article was first published in La Voix Du Yemen on June 16, 2013
Cet article est également disponible en Français هذا المقال متوفر أيضا باللغة العربية
2011 was a year of revolution in Yemen, characterized by massive peaceful marches that were seldom met with security forces’ brutality, subsequently leading to the ouster of Ali Abdullah Saleh after a 33-year rule. In exchange for immunity Saleh, transferred power to his deputy of 18 years Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi, through a Gulf brokered deal, backed by the U.S , the U.N and the international community. On February 27th Hadi was appointed as president after a one man election.
Many Yemenis were discontented with this settlement yet after a long year of bloodshed, clashes and interrupted services they were eagerly longing for peace, security and stability and hoping for a smooth political transition. The year 2012, was far from that, it was a year of turmoil in Yemen. This year Yemen witnessed an unprecedented numbers of assassinations, kidnappings, car explosions, suicide bombings, attacks on electricity cables and gas pipelines, a deterioration of both the economic and humanitarian conditions, besides an increase in US drone attacks.
Throughout the year more than 60 Yemeni intelligence officers and military commanders were killed across the country, mostly in Sana’a and Aden, either by a car explosion or by unknown gunmen on a motorcycle. Although most of the killings were attributed to al-Qaeda, yet futile government investigations did not result into any findings.
The fragile security and lawlessness in Yemen led to an increase in kidnappings. In March, a Saudi diplomat, Abdallah al-Khalidi was kidnapped. A Swiss woman teacher was also captured in March in the portal city of Hodeida, both are still missing until today. In April, a French Red Cross aid worker was abducted and later released unharmed. In an unprecedented deterioration in Decemeber, an Austrian man and a Finnish couple were also kidnapped in broad daylight in the city center of the capital Sanaa.
Several attacks on the cables in the main electric supply station in Mareb left Yemen in the dark for several hours, sometimes days until the cable was repeatedly repaired. Tribal militia-men were suspected to be behind these recurrent attacks yet the government was too weak and the military too divided to secure those lines. The last month of December also witnessed the eighth attack on the LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) pipelines since the first sabotage on the line in October 2011. Repeated attacks this year limited the production of the gas and crippling the economy further. According to the Petroleum and Minerals Minister Hisham Abdullah, Yemen lost more than $4 billion (3.1 billion euros) in revenues since February 2011 due to such attacks.
The prolonged political crisis, lack of services, economic instability, rise in prices and unemployment were all factors which led to deepening the food crisis further which had already existed prior to the events of 2011. According to a recent report by UNICEF Yemen, about 60 percent of Yemeni children were chronically malnourished and about 15 percent – 257 thousand children under the age of five – suffer from acute malnourishment. A sharp increase in US drone attacks was also noted this year, it rose to 53 from 18 in 2011. Not surprisingly since Yemen’s President Hadi himself, during his last visit to the US, praised these strikes and claimed their effectiveness. Yet many Yemenis condemn them and consider them a violation to Yemen’s sovereignty. Contrary to what the US administration wishes to believe these attacks have created animosity towards the US. Many Yemenis and Yemen experts have written extensively how the increase in US strikes has had an adverse reaction and has helped al-Qaeda grow in size. Gregory Johnsen, who wrote ‘The Last Refuge”, a book on Yemen and al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, in a recent interview said “Essentially what the U.S. is doing is bombing suspected AQAP targets in Yemen in the hopes that AQAP doesn’t bomb the U.S.,” he added “In my view, this is neither sustainable nor wise. We have seen AQAP grow incredibly fast in a remarkably short amount of time, expanding from 200-300 fighters in 2009, when the U.S. bombing campaign began, to more than 1,000 fighters today. That is more exacerbating and expanding the threat than it is disrupting, dismantling and defeating it.” Many Yemenis question why haven’t suspected targets been captured and prosecuted instead of being remotely eliminated, often killing civilians in the process. A further increase in drone strikes in 2013 is expected unless there is a miraculous change in the US counter-terrorism policy or Yemen's puppet government takes a firm stand and condemns these attacks.
One of the main demands of the popular youth revolution was the dismissal of Saleh’s relatives and former henchmen from top military and security command positions and the restructuring of the military. Hence President Hadi’s decrees to dismiss Saleh’s nephew, Yehya Saleh, head of the counter-terror unit and central security forces and to disband the Republican Guards headed by Saleh’s eldest son Ahmed and the First Armored Division headed by Ali Muhsin and reshuffling them into the central command of the defense ministry and restructuring the army into four components: ground forces, navy, air forces and border guards were widely celebrated and supported. Yet that jubilation did not last long, to the dismay of many, reports emerged that both Ahmed Saleh and Ali Muhsin would be offered senior positions in the new military restructure. “Fortunately, Brigadier General Ahmad Saleh seems to have agreed to be given the command of a military region in an institutional reshuffle,” said an editorial. The popular demand to purge the Salehs and Ali Muhsin from any military positions was apparently disregarded once more. This will certainly be a slap in the face to the revolution and will further anger the youth who marched again this year from Taiz to Sanaa (270km), commemorating the martyrs and reviving the demands of the first life march in 2011, which include removing these notorious leaders. Yemen is currently preparing for a six-month National Dialogue Conference which had been faced with challenges and setbacks resulting in it's postponement several times. After a participating quota for the political parties and groups was finally reached, the conference is due to start sometime early next year, despite reports that some Southern secessionists are still boycotting the Dialogue. Although the UN envoy, Jamal Bin Omar before heading back to New York , reportedly, “urged all Yemeni parties to avoid any acts that may hinder the national dialogue and the progress of the political process in Yemen” yet the ousted president appears determined to participate in the upcoming National Dialogue. A press statement from the office of Ali Abdullah Saleh the head of the General People’s Congress, posted on the official website of the GNC party announced “ the leader (Saleh), will head the body of representatives of the GPC to the national dialogue conference.” Only in Yemen would an ousted president be granted an immunity and be allowed to participate in a national dialogue that would shape the future of the country and outline it’s new constitution. Speculations as usual about Saleh's upcoming trip and the destination he is headed to (Oman, KSA, Italy?) are currently surfacing once more in Yemen.
The volatile security situation that has plagued Yemen over the past year was mainly to the weak military structure, and the divided and opposing military factions spearheaded by Ahmed Saleh and Ali Muhsin. Any military restructure that has these two leaders in it will recreate the same bloody scenario. Yemen’s security and stability requires their final removal from any military position and hence severing any loyalties to either side. The removal of Saleh from Yemen, and prohibiting him from playing any political role that can further destabilize the country is a crucial and crystal clear necessity now, which the GCC plan should have initially incorporated. The GCC, UN and the international community have an obligation now to rectify this grave miscalculation and hold Saleh and his loyalists accountable for Yemen’s instability in the past year and impose strict sanctions on them, not just empty threats. Yemen mostly needs the prompt delivery of the $6 billion that was pledged at the “Friends of Yemen” conference which is necessary to assist in it’s development through sustainable long term income generating projects and not in the form of short term aid.
The path is still long and arduous for Yemen, yet it’s youth are still peacefully calling for change and are determined to continue demanding what they originally set out to achieve - equal rights, liberty, freedom from oppression and a dignified life, which the team in SupportYemen had conveyed in this video at the beginning of the revolution:
Yemen is considered one of the poorest, least developed countries in the world, ranking at 154 out of 187 countries on the 2011 UNDP Human Development Index. It is currently facing a challenging period of political transition following a 10-month conflict ending former president Ali Abdullah Saleh’s 33-year rule. According to the World Food Program over five million people – 22 percent of the Yemeni population – were severely food insecure and unable to produce or buy the food they needed, an 87 percent increase from the 2009 CFSS (Comprehensive Food Security Survey) report. In addition, another five million people are moderately food insecure and at risk of becoming severely food insecure due to the rise in food and fuel prices, amid ongoing civil unrest. In total, around 10 million people in Yemen are food insecure – 44.5 percent of the population – and have limited or no access to sufficient, nutritious food, and are eating a poor or borderline diet according to international health standards.
UNICEF has warned that children in Yemen are the most affected by the food crisis. Yemen has the second highest rate of chronic malnutrition in the world, behind Afghanistan. 58 percent of Yemen’s children under the age of five are stunted by malnutrition. "In Yemen, there are over 250,000 children who suffer from severe, acute malnutrition, which means they could die very soon. This is almost as many as there were in Somalia during the height of the crisis last year," said UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake, while touring a hospital in a recent visit to Yemen. Colette Fearon, Oxfam’s Country Director in Yemen, said:“Yemen is dealing with a catastrophic food crisis and people really need our help. People are getting into worrying levels of debt just to get food for their families – and surviving on a meager diet of tea and bread.’ Yemen, now more than ever, is facing an intensifying inter-related political and humanitarian crisis. The humanitarian condition in Yemen is deteriorating further also due to the internal displacement of over 500,000 people and the significant influx of refugees to Yemen via the Red Sea, despite its unstable condition. Based on UNCHR’s August 2012 Fact Sheet a total of 227,266 refugees are currently in Yemen. Yemen’s planning and international cooperation minister, Mohammed Al-Saadi told donors the national unity government needed $11.9 billion in the short term, yet donors only pledged $6.4 billion in the last meeting held on 3 September 2012 in Riyadh. Saudi Arabia pledged $3.25 billion, including a $1 billion loan to Yemen’s Central Bank, the US said it would provide $345 million for security, humanitarian and development assistance to Yemen; of that $117 million is for humanitarian assistance. The UK pledged to donate $317 million. The need for foreign aid is a vital necessity in Yemen based on the above-mentioned facts. However, Yemeni activists are skeptical in regards to foreign donations. Some worry that it creates a pattern of dependency. Safa Mubgar, a member of the Independent Yemen Group, said in response “to those who fear aid-dependency, I agree; but the man has to survive long enough to be taught to fish. He needs a fish to eat today.”
Certainly emergency aid and short-term solutions are not the best remedy to Yemen’s problems, but they are urgently needed now to counter the humanitarian crisis. Yet, long term development planning and investment projects, which create job opportunities, generate income, and boost Yemen’s economy is what is needed to move away from aid dependency.
Others doubt any of the funds will actually reach the intended beneficiaries, and believe it is more likely to end up in the accounts of corrupt Yemeni officials. Joy Singhal, manager of Oxfam’s humanitarian response in Yemen in an interview also reiterated the concern that the money will not actually reach those in need. “I would just like to put a word of caution there, because we do not know where that money is going to be spent, we do not know when that money is going to arrive, and we don’t know how much of that money is going to be spent on humanitarian needs which are most critical right now,” he said.
While 10 million people go hungry daily, there are people who deny or are unaware that a crisis exists, sadly in Yemen too. In addition foreign donors are also reluctant to pour any funds into Yemen due to the fragile security condition and the high corruption rate.
These concerns were addressed in the last meeting in Riyadh as pointed by Wael Zakout, World Bank Country Manager for Yemen, who outlined the commitments made by the government and the international community to ensure that the aid reaches “quickly, transparently, and efficiently.” He adds “in addition to the pledges, the meeting endorsed the Mutual Accountability Framework (MAF) that outlines the commitments of both Yemen’s Government of National Reconciliation and the donor community during the transition period”… “The government has committed to take the necessary steps to investigate high level officials who are involved in corruption and is committed now to establish a special court to accelerate the prosecution of corruption cases and ensure that those convicted serve their sentences.”
On September 27, the Friends of Yemen group – chaired by the UK and Saudi Arabia – are meeting again in New York to discuss the situation in Yemen. In solidarity with the people of Yemen, Awssan Kamal a Yemeni activist and member of the Yemen Development and Relief Forum (YRDF) spearheaded the launch of the “Hungry for Yemen” campaign. The campaign was endorsed by The Yemen Peace Project, Independent Yemen Group, Yemen Relief & Development Forum and The Yemeni American Coalition for Changeand other international non-governmental organizations and independent activists. It aims to encourage people to either fast or skip lunch on the 27th in order to raise awareness of the dire humanitarian situation 10 million Yemenis face everyday. The campaign is also targeted at UK Foreign Secretary William Hague and Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal as co-chairs of the Friends of Yemen meeting in addition to the US, EU and UN, urging them and other world leaders to prioritize immediate and sufficient funding of the UN’s appeal for Yemen’s emergency needs. The United Nations Humanitarian Plan for Yemen requires $585 million to provide necessary assistance and is currently $304 million short from the required funds.
While world leaders will be discussing Yemen’s long and short term goals in the upcoming Friends of Yemen meeting, the International aid agencies working in Yemen have stressed that the humanitarian emergency relief must be on the top of their agenda. There are also some local organizations such as Hemat Shabab who have been working to feed hungry families in Yemen, yet their work is limited and they also lack proper funding. The Yemeni civil society have also echoed that the humanitarian crisis is derailing the transition process and should be the key to any funding for Yemen, in their last civil society meeting held in Riyadh, and so has the Yemeni diaspora by organizing the “Hungry for Change” campaign.
What Yemen needs mostly now from the International Community are actions not promises, and food not just pledges. Donors must respond now before the crisis deepens further. The significant funds pledged at the Friends of Yemen meetings for Yemen’s security and stabilityneed to be turned into humanitarian aid immediately to keep people alive and save Yemen’s future generation. There can never be any stability nor safety in Yemen when 44% of the population are facing hunger daily and their main concern is to find food for themselves and their family. People in Yemen are depending on the humanitarian support of the International Community to address the pressing needs on the ground and equally important in providing solutions that would break the hunger cycle, such as development and investment projects, youth training and employment programs and empowering local communities through revenue generating projects.
Both the International law and US constitution prohibit killing outside of armed conflict without due process, "except as a resort to avert a concerete, specific, imminent threat of death or serious physical injury", yet the United States continues the use of drone strikes in "targeted killings" of "suspected" terrorist overseas that "might" be plotting against it without due process of law. This has caused the unaccounted deaths of hundreds in Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan and widespread anger. The first known US drone strike approved by Obama in Yemen was in Ma’jalah, Abyan, on 17 December 2009, killing 41 local residents, including 14 women and 21 children, and 14 militants ــ alleged Al Qaeda members ــ only one of which was confirmed to be connected to Al Qaeda. A Yemeni investigative journalist remains in prison until today for "un-covering" this story. A policy shift, approved in April 2012, allowed the C.I.A. and the military’s Joint Special Operations Command to strike militants in Yemen who may be plotting attacks against the United States, without necessarily knowing their identities. Thus, both the the CIA and Pentagon have been carrying drone strikes in Yemen and have separate kill lists of unconfirmed "suspects". According to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism 116 drone strikes have been carried out in in Yemen since May 2011, of those attacks only 39 were confirmed by officials to be carried out by the United States.Hence, hundreds of deaths by drone strikes are unaddressed, unacknowledged and unaccounted for and many of those killed were not confirmed to be actual militants. This year alone there have been more than 200 deaths from the strikes in Yemen. Last week a misdirected U.S drone strike killed 13 civilians, including 3 women (one of them reportedly a 10 year old girl) causing widespread anger among Yemenis as have many other strikes before. Yemenis have protested against the strikes and so have activists on twitter who launched a #NoDrones campaign in May 2012 to express their anger towards the strikes and to demand the U.S administration to halt them. They have renewed their campaign against U.S drone strikes using the same hashtag #NoDrones. Yemenis hold both the U.S administration and Yemeni government accountable for the loss of the civilian lives, a.k.a "collateral damage" and the killings of "suspected" militants without any proof or fair trials. Both are partners in these unlawful attacks, the former for justifying and executing the strikes and the latter for allowing them to do so. This is what Obama said defending drone strikes:
This is what 27 leading experts in foreign policy, diplomats, security specialists, scholars, and U.S policy experts,calling for a broader approach on U.S policy towards Yemen, recommendedin their letter to President Obama:
Change the primary face of the U.S government in Yemen to alter the perception that U.S interest and attention are solely dominated by counterterrorism and security issues.
Reevaluate the strategy of drone strikes with the recognition that it is generating significant anti-American sentiment.
Work with Friends of Yemen to provide humanitarian aid for the more than 10 million Yemenis going hungry daily.
Increase economic and governance aid to support democratic institution-building, so that it represents a greater proportion of overall assistance compared with military assistance
Support the restructuring of Yemeni security towards a unified command hierarchy under Yemeni civilian leadership.
Robert Grenier, recently retired Director of the CIA Counter-Terrorism Center, wrote, “One wonders how many Yemenis may be moved in the future to violent extremism in reaction to carelessly targeted missile strikes, and how many Yemeni militants with strictly local agendas will become dedicated enemies of the West in response to U.S military actions against them.” And this is what Yemenis had to say: - “Dear Obama, when a U.S. drone missile kills a child in Yemen, the father will go to war with you, guaranteed. Nothing to do with Al Qaeda,” a Yemeni lawyerwarned on Twitter. - “I will join even Satan if I have to in order to get revenge for my wounded 7 year old son,” said one angered father from Jaar who preferred to remain anonymous. - "Indeed, the drone program is leading to the Talibanization of vast tribal areas and the radicalization of people who could otherwise be America’s allies in the fight against terrorism in Yemen," said Ibrahim Mothana, a democracy activist. - Salim al-Barakani, a businessman who's two brothers — one a teacher, the other a cellphone repairman — were killed in a U.S. strike in March said "these attacks are making people say, ‘We believe now that al-Qaeda is on the right side.’ ” - Mohammed al-Ahmadi, legal coordinator for Karama, a local human rights group said “every time the American attacks increase, they increase the rage of the Yemeni people, especially in al-Qaeda-controlled areas.” - “There is more hostility against America because the attacks have not stopped al-Qaeda, but rather they have expanded, and the tribes feel this is a violation of the country’s sovereignty,” said Anssaf Ali Mayo, Aden head of Yemen's al-Islah Islamist party. - "This is seen from the fact that US strikes are seen as an invasion, an occupation and a breach of sovereignty," said a citizen journalist. - Local activist Nasr Abdullah told CNN, ‘I would not be surprised if a hundred tribesmen joined the lines of al Qaeda as a result of the latest drone mistake. This part of Yemen takes revenge very seriously.’ - Listen to what Yemenis said in this HuffPostLive video. More had been said by Yemenis and others in this storify, and this too. And this is what Pakistanis had to say about the U.S drone strikes:
A USAID official boasted about the U.S being the largest provider of humanitarian aid, in the last Yemen donor conference held in Riyadh. Yet, what Yemen needs most besides aid is for the drone strikes to end. There is nothing human in the use of drone strikes to "fight terrorism" in Yemen. U.S drone strikes continue to destabilize the country further, instill fear in the civilans who can be possible targets, breeds resentment towards the U.S, and increases militants in Yemen and thus terror. In fact al- Qaeda has been growing in numbers since the U.S strikes intensified in Yemen, they were estimated to be 300 members in 2009 and despite the ongoing drone strikes and constant reported killings of al- Qaeda militants and "suspected' militants, they are now reported to be more than 700, i.e more than double the initial figure. This clearly indicates, as many experts have stressed, that the U.S counter terrorism policy in Yemen needs to be seriously examined and consequently re-evaluated.
After reading a couple of headlines about yet another US drone attack targeting suspected militants in Yemen yesterday, I wrote on twitter "I am sick of news of Qaeda and drones in Yemen. I wish I can be tweeting more interesting news about Yemen :(" when a tweep replied "Here in Yemen we are waiting for [a] good and interesting life, may[be] it will be soon! :-)". That reply had a profound effect on me and made me write these questions to vent my distress and frustration at the living conditions in my country.
When will Yemenis live, I mean when will the average Yemeni live?
When will he/she ever enjoy a normal life, let alone a good or interesting one?
When will Yemen ever stop being the poorest nation in the Arab World?
When will it stop having the lowest growth indexes and one of the highest illiteracy, maternal/infant mortality and malnutrition rates?
When will Yemenis have their basic needs, such as water, food, electricity, let alone their basic rights to education and health?
When will the little boys learn to read and have dreams of becoming a doctor or an engineer, instead of carrying a weapon bigger than themselves to fight wars?
When will little girls learn to write and plan their future instead of being forced to drop out of school and get married to support their family and start one of their own?
When will the western and regional powers stop viewing Yemen through the terrorist prism and aim at destroying it instead of helping us build our nation?
Among the many news about Yemen and the many misconceptions about it, many seem to overlook the true beauty of Yemen and the talent of many Yemenis. I am an art lover and besides being an amateur painter, both my husband and I appreciate and collect artworks. We collected many paintings during our travels and some are by Yemeni artists. I wrote this post to share with you the beauty of some of the Yemeni artwork from our private collection:
These are some of the paintings by Yemeni artist Fouad Al-Foutaih:
These are some of the paintings by Yemeni artist Mazher Nizar:
To see the work of these two talented artists visit Bab Al-Yemen Gallery situated in the historical main gate of the old city of Sana'a and the Atelier Gallery in the same area, which also exhibits works of many other artists.
Women have played a major role in the Yemeni revolution throughout last year and were a driving force towards change in the Change and Freedom squares across Yemen. However they have been marginalized in the decision making process for this changeand still lack many of their basic human rights.
SupportYemen latest campaign is addressing women's rights and issues such as, such as malnutrition, inadequate education and healthcare, female circumcision, early marriage, maternal death, domestic violence, honor crimes and political violence. and the message is clear : How much innocence of little girls childhood must fade away? How many mothers must die due to inadequate health care? How much illiteracy must develop before education becomes free and mandatory? How many victims must suffer before a law criminalizing domestic violence is issued? How many revolutions do women need participate in so that they find place in the government and parliament? Women's rights are part of human rights... I will fight for my rights and break the silence... To watch the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mojENXpRGwU&feature=youtu.be
The main demands of the video are powerful and clear:
Free mandatory education and adequate health care for females
Setting a minimum age of marriage at 18 years
criminalizing domestic violence
30% quota for women in all decision making positions
لعبت المرآه اليمنيه دور فعال في الثوره اليمنيه عبر العام المنصرم، كافحت و ضحت بالكثير في ميادين التغيير و الحريه في ارجاء اليمن و لكن لم يكن لها دور فعال في صنع القرار من اجل هذا التغيير و ما زالت المرأه مهمشه ومحرومه من الكثير من حقوقها.
حملة "دعم اليمن" تركز على حقوق المرأه و تسلط الضوء على الكثير من الشئون التي تخصها كالتغذية السيئة.. انعدام الرعاية الصحية المتكاملة..الختان..زواج القاصرات.. وفيات الأمهات...جرائم الشرف.... فرص التعليم و العمل... العنف المعنوي و اللفظي و الجسدي و الجنسي و السياسي و الاقتصادي...... القوانين المميزة ضد الإناث... حرمان المرأة من مراكز صنع القرار .
رسالة الحمله قويه و واضحه:
كم طفولة ننتظر أن توأد قبل أن نطالب بقانون يحمي طفولة بناتنا؟ كم أماً في الريف يجب أن تموت قبل أن نوفر للنساء رعاية صحية متكاملة؟ كم يجب أن تبلغ نسبة الأمية قبل أن نطبق إلزامية و مجانية التعليم الأساسي؟ كم ضحية نحتاج قبل أن يكون هناك قانون يجرم العنف الأسري؟ كم ثورةٍ نحتاج ليعترف الجميع أننا أيضاً يجب أن يكون لنا موقع فعال في رئاسة الوزراء و تحت قبة البرلمان؟
حقوق المرأة جزء من حقوق الإنسان...سأنتزع حقي و أكسر حاجز الصمت...
