Yemen's Dehumanization and Impoverishment Policies Highlighted

Authorities in Yemen are implementing a deliberate policy of ignorance and impoverishment, a strategy that constitutes a grave violation of the people's rights and jeopardizes the future of an entire generation. This approach aims to suppress aspirations and regress the nation's development by a century.

While some may find this assertion surprising, historical context and current realities reveal a pattern of systematic suppression. An account from the memoirs of Judge Abdul Rahman Al-Iryani illustrates this point. It details how, when Judge Yahya Al-Hajwa established a school for tribal children in Dar Saeed, Ibb governorate, Al-Hassan, son of Imam Yahya, reacted with alarm. Impressed by the students' intelligence and eloquence, Al-Hassan summoned Judge Al-Iryani and ordered the closure of the school, deeming it a threat to their control. He then decreed the establishment of a separate institution solely for the children of sheikhs and village leaders, where they would be taught rudimentary religious practices and loyalty to the Prophet's family.

This historical anecdote underscores a deliberate policy of subjugation. Further evidence includes directives to ban private schools in Sa'dah, while government schools across Yemen lack adequate staff and educational resources. Another decision prohibited the introduction of 4G mobile services in Sa'dah, ostensibly to protect youth from "vice," but more accurately, to prevent them from accessing information and understanding the broader reality. This contrasts with other governorates where such restrictions are not imposed.

The focus on "zawamil" (chants or slogans), to the exclusion of substantive intellectual programming, further illustrates this strategy. Yemen now possesses an abundance of such chants, sufficient for fifty years, yet lacks a single coherent intellectual program across its thirteen television channels. This deliberate tactic aims to flatten public consciousness, stifle critical thinking, and reduce the populace to an unthinking, slogan-reciting mass, detached from the realities of their lives.

Regarding the impoverishment of the Yemeni people, the current reality requires no further commentary, speaking for itself.