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إظهار الرسائل ذات التسميات yemen. إظهار كافة الرسائل
إظهار الرسائل ذات التسميات yemen. إظهار كافة الرسائل
4/18/2013
Yemen’s Southern Intifada #yemen
In early February, a car made its way
along the winding road from the southern Yemeni port city of Aden to Dhale, a
dusty mountain town of traditional mud-brick houses. As the car sped toward its
destination, the flags and checkpoints increased in regularity with every
passing mile.
Yemen's flag is made up of three
horizontal stripes of red, white, and black. Those flying from the rooftops
along the roadside sported an additional blue triangle dotted with a single red
star. The flags, a remnant of the south's independent past, are a symbol of
defiance; the checkpoints, manned by soldiers from Yemen's north, a source of
simmering tension.
"See," said Fatima, an Adeni college
professor, as the car stopped at yet another checkpoint so that a uniformed
youth, his cheek bulging with the narcotic qat
leaf and an AK-47 casually slung across his shoulder, could take a look inside.
"How can they say that this is not an occupation?"
On the outskirts of Dhale, the military
checkpoints came to a sudden halt. The government had no jurisdiction beyond
the town's borders. At the top of a hill in the center of Dhale, Shalal Ali
Shaye'a, a top leader in Dhale of Hirak, squinted into the sun. "Look," he
said, pointing to another blue-triangled flag painted onto the mountainside
opposite him. "This is the free south."
----
Shaye'a is a leading member of one of the
more radical factions of Hirak al-Janoubi
("the southern movement," better known in Yemen as Hirak), a loose coalition of
southern rights groups formed in Yemen in 2007. Since a popular uprising
unseated former President Ali Abdullah Saleh -- a hated figure for many
southerners -- in 2011, secessionist sentiment has been on the rise in the
south and the pro-independence wing of Hirak has been gaining confidence. While
politicians and diplomats in the northern capital of Sanaa have been focused on
the peace plan that led to Saleh's ouster, Shaye'a and his cohort have been
planning their "peaceful intifada" which they hope will end with talks in
Geneva, an end to the checkpoints, and the arrival of U.N. peacekeepers.
But if recent events are anything to go
by, southerners' attempts to extricate themselves from their two decade-old
union with the north could prove to be a messy affair. Tensions between Hirak
and the government had been rising for months when, on February 20, security
forces raided the Aden home of Qasem Asker Jubran, Yemen's onetime ambassador
to Mauritania, now a committed secessionist. Juran was arrested, accused of
planning to disrupt "by any means possible" a rally planned for the next day by
Islah (Yemen's biggest Islamist party) to celebrate the first anniversary of
the man who replaced Saleh as president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. Over the next
week, Hiraki protesters clashed again and again with security forces. By the
end of February, members of the southern movement estimated that up to 20 of
their number had died in the violence, while the Islah's party headquarters in
the southern city of Mukalla had been set on fire in just one of a series of
attacks on northern political parties and businesses.
----
Dhale and nearby Radfan hold an important
place in Hiraki and southern mythology. It was in Habilayn, a village in
Radfan, that British troops shot and killed seven men in October 1963, sparking
the uprising that ended British rule in the south. The revolt was launched
from the craggy, volcanic mountains of Dhale, and the People's Democratic
Republic of Yemen (PDRY), the socialist state that succeeded the British,
populated its military with men from the area.
In 1990, bankrupted by the fall of the
Soviet Union and a bloody 1986 civil war, the PDRY merged with its northern
neighbor, the Yemen Arab Republic (YAR), led by Saleh. But four years later Ali
Salem al-Beidh, the PDRY leader who took the south into the unity deal,
declared the foundation of a new state, the Democratic Republic of Yemen.
Southerners had complained of an unequal partnership and of a campaign of
assassinations targeting their leaders since the north-south merger. Fed up
after a series of inconsequential talks, they had decided to quit the union.
The militaries of the PDRY and YAR, which
were not integrated after unity, went to war. Dhale was a key battleground
during the fighting, which the northerners won, backed by tribal militias,
mujahedeen recently returned from Afghanistan, and even former PDRY soldiers
who defected after a bloody civil war in the south in 1986.
Many southern officers and civil
servants, including Shaye'a, were forced into early retirement after the war,
and most accounts of the life in the south after1994 run down similar lines: of
northern tribal, military, and economic interests taking over vast swathes of
land and businesses; of soaring unemployment among southerners while
northerners arrived to take juicy government jobs; and of brutal repression of
any kind of secessionist sentiment or expression of southern identity.
"Before unity," Shaye'a said, "I was a
student at military college. I graduated in 1990, into unity. I practiced for a
few years and then the war started. They kicked all our soldiers out, and I
fled. I came back six months later. After they kicked us out, we lived in a
miserable situation."
In 2006, former military officers from
the region began to organize protests at home and in Aden over low pensions and
lack of jobs. A year later, Hirak was formed as an umbrella organization to
bring together the plethora of southern rights movements that had sprung up
since 1994. Today, it is made up of around seven major groups and many more
splinter organizations, loosely formed around the Supreme Council of the
Southern Movement, led by Hassan Baoum, a popular pro-independence activist.
----
Hirakis are not just disappointed former
government workers. Many of the group's most vocal supporters are so young that
they cannot remember life before unity. At one of the weekly marches the group
holds in Crater, a volcanic outcrop of the Shamsan mountain which towers over
Aden, Nour, 20, tried to explain her involvement in the movement.
"I was born inside unity; I don't like
it. I want separation," she said. "It is unfair. I don't like the poverty. I
want to get back the country. We need to support the demonstrations."
Unemployment is a big issue for young
southerners like Nour. Even those who do not actively support Hirak believe
that the best state jobs go to the friends and families of Sanaa's political
elite. This is frustrating and baffling to those who believe that most of the
country's resources are located in the south -- two of Yemen's biggest oil
fields are to be found in the former PDRY, while Aden was once one of the
busiest ports in the world.
Other Hirakis have only recently come
around to the secessionists' way of thinking. "I am from those who wanted to
correct the road of the unity," said Nasser Mohamed Al-Khubaji, one of Hirak's
top leaders in Lahj, as he reclined in the cushioned mafraj of his simple home in Radfan in mid-February. "I thought we
could do something through parliament. But when we took up the case of the
south, we faced aggression. People became angry with us."
Al-Khubaji quit parliament after the 2007
shooting of southerners preparing for a rally to celebrate the anniversary of
the revolt against the British by the central security forces. As a member of
parliament for Lahj governorate, he had taken part in the preparations. "When
we were preparing for our revolutionary activities, the military from the north
came. They killed four and injured 20," he said. The opportunity for
negotiation with the north died then, he said: "The time was over for talk."
----
If Nour had been born to the north, she
would probably have taken part in the protest movement that unseated Ali
Abdullah Saleh in 2011, voicing frustrations about Yemen's northern elite
similar to those heard across the south. But like many Hirakis, after initially
supporting the revolution she came to see it as a largely northern affair.
Yemen's 2011 uprising started as a
nonviolent movement in the big northern cities of Taiz and Sanaa. But it soon
descended into a violent elite power struggle, fought between military units
loyal to Saleh and his son Ahmed Ali; those with ties to the powerful general
and former Saleh ally Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, and militias loyal to the tribal
leaders and brothers Hamid and Sadeq al-Ahmar.
The deal brokered by members of the Gulf
Cooperation Council (GCC) to end the fighting in November 2011 was an elite
peace accord, Nour said, not a solution to southerners' problems -- the GCC
deal explicitly references the problems in the south, but does not go far
enough toward addressing southern grievances for many Hirakis. "I don't care
about 2011; that was just a fight between Ali Abdullah Saleh and Hamid
al-Ahmar," she said. "It has nothing to do with the south."
----
Yet if foreign diplomats involved in
brokering the accord are to be believed, the GCC deal presents a unique
opportunity for southerners, in the form of a much-vaunted national dialogue
conference. The deal's brokers have effectively staked Yemen's future on the
dialogue's success and President Hadi has said that the country could descend
into civil war if it fails.
During six months of talks, which are due
to start on March 18, the conference's organizers hope that working groups will
be able to draft a new constitution and discuss solutions to the country's many
problems, including the "southern question" as it is often described in Sanaa.
Delegations from Yemen's many fissiparous factions have been invited to the conference
and Hirak has been offered the second-biggest allotment of seats, 85 in total.
Yet for many Hirakis, the conference is a non-starter.
Despite diplomats' best efforts to
convince them that attending the talks is in their best interests, a number of
Hiraki groups have said that they will not go to the dialogue. Most vocal in
rejecting the talks have been factions linked to Baoum and al-Beidh, one of the
main architects of unity in 1990 and, since 1994, one of its biggest critics.
They want bilateral negotiations between the north and the south over
separation, not to discuss the shape of the unified state.
----
Other southern movement leaders are more
open to the idea of the talks. In March 2012 Mohamed Ali Ahmed, the former
governor of Abyan governorate, returned to Aden after nearly two decades in
exile in Britain. Diplomats overseeing the GCC deal, who describe him as a
moderate, say that he has become a key point of contact in Hirak. Speaking at
his home in Aden in February, he told Foreign
Policy that he would go to the dialogue even though Hadi is yet to meet a
series of demands that he helped southerners to formulate in 2012 as a
precondition to taking part in the conference.
"We will go so that the international
community does not say that southerners do not cooperate," he said. "We cannot
ignore the international community. We will [get our demands] from the inside.
We cannot ignore the will of the people, but we want to use peaceful means."
Ali Ahmed believes the creation of a
two-state federal union between the north and south followed by a referendum
after five years could be the best path to independence, an idea first floated
by Hirakis in 2009. But the al-Beidh factions of Hirak, many who mutter that
Ali Ahmed is working for Hadi to maintain rather than end unity, has become
increasingly hard line.
----
The differences between al-Beidh and Ali
Ahmed run deep -- much deeper than mere strategy. On January 13, 1986, the
bodyguards of then-President Ali Nasser Mohammed opened fire on a meeting of
the PDRY's politburo. Former associates say that he hoped to consolidate his
power by assassinating the leaders of a faction loyal to his predecessor, Abdul
Fattah Ismail, who was killed soon after the fighting started. But Ismail
loyalists led by al-Beidh gained the upper hand in the ensuing civil war and
after a month of fighting Mohammed fled to the north along with tens of
thousands of his followers. Among those who fled north with him were Ali Ahmed
and Hadi -- Yemen's current president.
Hirak's leadership has worked in recent
years to reconcile the differences between the Toghma -- the winners of the 1986 war -- and the Zomra -- Nasser Mohammed's "desperate
band" of followers -- hoping that the common goal of independence will be
enough to patch over past rivalries and resentments. Since 2009, Hirak has held
reconciliation marches every January 13 to mark the anniversary of the civil
war. The 2013 rally was the biggest ever, according to the local Yemen Post. A number of Hirakis, who see
the march as a watershed moment for the independence movement, claim that one
million people attended (more reliable estimates run to the tens of thousands).
But many Toghma still view their Zomra counterparts with suspicion. Some
of the bloodiest fighting during the 1986 war occurred between militias loyal
to Ali Ahmed and Baoum in Abyan; Shaye'a still recalls how his father, ministry
of interior at the time, was killed by Nasser Mohammed's men at the January
1986 politburo meeting.
Hirak is unified in its quest for
independence, said Jubran, who is widely seen as al-Beidh's man in Aden (the
former president lives in exile in Beirut) during an interview at his home in
the southern capital a week before he was arrested. "There are a lot of
disputes between the different parties of Hirak," he said. "But the main goal
is freedom. We are unified. In some other parties they want five years and a
referendum but they will not prevail. When we got independence in 1967 no one
told us to make freedom or a referendum and we don't need a referendum now."
"Ninety-nine percent" of southerners are
behind the al-Beidh faction of Hirak, Jubran argued. While this figure is
likely some way off -- and a of number Hirakis say that they support the
equally pro-independence Baoum, who is based in Yemen, rather than Beirut-bound
al-Beidh -- it is fair to say that a growing number of southerners are falling
in behind the two men's uncompromising approach. And at rallies across the
country, it is al-Beidh's image that is most visible on placards and banners.
In Dhale and Lahj it is not uncommon to hear him described as "the president,"
a title he still bestows upon himself. Analysts estimate that support for the
al-Beidh and Ahmed factions is split about 70 to 30 among Hirakis.
----
Some southerners had hoped that the
northern revolution would lead to improvements in life in the former PDRY, and
worried that independence would require a long, potentially bloody, and hugely
costly struggle. Others thought that having Hadi, a southerner, as president
might see Hirak treated with more leniency and were encouraged when the huge
reconciliation march in January was allowed to pass unmolested. But the
violence in February proved a tipping point for even more moderate southerners.
"I don't support Hirak, I am not a
Hiraki," said Anas, a young southern woman who lives in Aden, in March. "But I
no longer support unity either."
Perhaps sensing the direction in which
popular opinion is going, southern movement leaders who had previously
expressed willingness to compromise have also been taking a more combative
stance of late. In February, Haydar al-Attas, prime minister of Yemen's first
unity government, said that he would reject an invitation to the dialogue and
demanded that Jamal Benomar, the U.N. envoy to Yemen, oversee a referendum on
independence.
"In the end, they will all come around to
our way of thinking or they will not matter," said one al-Beidh aligned Hiraki
leader in response to the news. Ali Ahmed, who is not as widely popular as
Baoum and al-Beidh, could lose the chance of a future role in the south if he
attends the talks, he added.
Many southerners are skeptical of the
international community's intentions meanwhile. At the Crater march, Mohamed, a
pro-independence activist, could barely contain himself. "Where is the
international community in all of this?" he asked, an often-repeated refrain at
the march. "Where are our rights? In the north, they fought for one year,
people were killed, and the international community gave them their peace. The
northerners have dominated us, killed us, stolen from us since unity. Where is
our dialogue with the north? We have been fighting for 20 years, but still they
ignore us."
----
Thus far, the southern movement has been
largely peaceful -- surprisingly so, given the availability of arms in Yemen
and the number of disaffected, unemployed young men in the south. The leaders
of even its more radical factions say that they are committed to peaceful
protest, and while violence flared up in February, it did not boil over into
the kind of devastating armed conflict seen in the north during 2011.
But a number of questions about Hirak's
more extreme wing remain to be answered, not least its commitment to a
nonviolent struggle. While Hiraki activists at marches like those in Crater are
unarmed, and it is easy to believe people like Nour when she expresses her
commitment to a peaceful uprising, al-Beidh's arm of Hirak has been accused on
a number of occasions of building its own militia, and has recently been linked
with arms shipments from Iran. Clashes have broken out between Hirak-aligned
armed groups and government troops in recent years, many of them in Dhale and
Lahj, a stronghold for the al-Beidh faction.
It is particularly hard to reconcile
Shaye'a with the idea of Hirak's peaceful intifada. A number of Yemeni analysts
say that he is one of the leaders of "The Movement for Self Determination," or
Hatam, a militia formed after the civil war which has fought with the Yemeni
military on a number of occasions in the past. In October 2010, a bomb placed
outside of Al-Wahda Sports Club in Aden killed four people. The attack was
blamed on Hatam, which planned to disrupt an upcoming football tournament, and
Hirak. The government named Shaye'a as the ringleader of the group that planned
the blast -- a charge he denies. "They are willing to say anything about the
southern people," he said. "It is far from my peaceful revolution. I love
sports."
Shaye'a remained tightlipped as to
whether Hirak has armed militias in and around Dhale, but when he left his
home, he clambered into a battered Toyota pickup, armed gunmen -- one man
wielding a rocket-propelled grenade launcher -- bouncing in the back as the
truck wound its way along the dirt road. Earlier, he had explained why he lived
in Dhale rather than Aden.
"We started here, in Dhale and in Radfan,
because we were safe here," Shaye'a said. "Here, all the people are active with
Hirak. Most of our army who were kicked out of their jobs came from here. Most
of the military forces who were retired came from here. Here, the community
helped us to start out activities. They were ready. The occupation forces were
here -- there was action and there was reaction."
Al-Khubaji, Hirak's man in Lahj, agreed
that his area was under Hiraki control but disagreed that the movement's
success in the area had been achieved through force. Hirak has spent much of
the past six years building a parallel state structure, providing public goods
to residents of the area, he said. "Most of our work is in enhancing
administrative and regulatory capacities," he said. "Politically the
governorate is under the rule of Hirak. But we are under occupation. Before us,
the courts were full of cases. Now, we have the councils of Hirak to solve
problems. We even solve security problems. I would say that 90 percent of Lahj
is under Hirak control. The occupation forces are still here; here, but not in
control."
But few moments later, he added a
familiar caveat. "Our movement is to get separation peacefully," he said. "But
I cannot guarantee that other interests and movements will not take action. We
insist on a peaceful movement. But we will not discourage anyone who wants to
take this path."
----
It might not be long before it becomes
apparent how, exactly, Shaye'a, Jubran, and others plan to move forward. Jubran
-- who was freed in late February having declared his commitment to peaceful
protest -- ended his interview with the promise that by the 20th anniversary of
the south's last attempt at separation, it would be an independent state once
again. "On 21 May 2013, you will see," he said. "The peaceful intifada will
begin."
Within a year, he said, it would all be
over.
3/26/2013
#yemen Smaller absolute In The world
Smaller absolute in the world facing her father to recover her money and save her sister
seems to be still a long way to go before the Yemeni girl, Nujood Ahdal , before they turn her dreams and reality to it.
After having gained fame after extracted the right of divorce from a
husband associated with him against her will in the eight-year-old, Nujood
finds itself again facing difficult circumstances with her father,
who put his hand on the money, and began planning to marry her baby
sister.
Between her dream of becoming a lawyer defending the oppressed, press
or pursue their rights, became Highlands - which has gained the title of
the world's smallest absolute after they received the dislocation at
the age of nine - in the heart of the new suffering, restore her father entered it.
The girl, who won the "Woman of the Year" in 2008 to become a symbol of
all Yemeni in addressing early marriage, spoke to Mendoah site in Sanaa, she suffers today from beating her father to her and
her sisters and her mother, after laying his hand on the full monthly
amount which was received from the proceeds of selling novel written
about Amabadtha caused by forcing them to marry.
Highlands lost money in the hands of her father
Nujood says, French publishing house that issued the novel
translated into 19 languages for their suffering, had been allocated a
$ thousand dollars per month, in addition to providing a two-story
house, securing education expenses.
But her father put his hand on the funds allocated to it, making it a material of living is very difficult.
She explains Nujood story, saying: "The father rented an apartment and
shop on the first floor of the house, and combines it rents and puts it
on his wives, and when I took Rent months to pay electricity and water
bills so as not to separate us, shouted Ali and almost hit me .. was
give me five thousand riyals ( about $ 25) then declined, and now my
mother and my brothers live in difficult circumstances, because he spent
on his wives, but I Voaich in my brother's house. "
She added: "I left home in search of safety from the screams and
beatings that usually renewed when visiting my parents for the house,
because he wants to output my mother and brothers of the house and
soothe his wives."
She noted that the proceeds of the book up to her father's account, and
spend it as he pleases, and said: "I have divorced one of his wives and
marry another last year, and is now spent on his second and third wife
.. But we have God."
Highlands: I no longer suffer only to my mother and my sister
And stresses the Highlands, which at the age of now 14 years, they are
no longer hurting itself but "feared for her mother," and the fate of
her sister small, Haifa, which at the age of now 13 years old, and wants
her father to marry the brother of his wife last, which rejects
Highlands .
Nujood says: "I support my sister not to marry, because I realized the
existence of a legal age for marriage, and I do not like that tormented
my sister like me."
And reveal Highlands, which preoccupied her story of millions around
the world, all over the threat, saying: "miss my father when his wives
for weeks and when it comes to home starts beating and problems, on one
occasion Okhava Boukngerh .. my sister Haifa was forced to flee and
resort to a uncles for two months, but returned home beyond because of
increasing problems with my father and beat him for my mother. "
And conditions left to the school says Nujood, depriving her father of
allocations for education, along with tense security situation during
the recent demonstrations, and particularly measles region near the
house, prevented the continuation of the study.
Also reported that it had received threats from a particular phone
number, and had been prosecuted on one occasion when she returned from
school, "which scared me in the absence of support me to achieve my
ambition to return to school," according to the Highlands.
But Nujood still sticking to achieve the dream of educational
attainment, she says: "I wish to travel out of Yemen, and go make me
strong testimony to my father and in front of everyone."
Nujood lacks efforts lawyer
In the absence of a lawyer Shaza Nasser, which helped the art of legal
battle and shared her award "Woman of the Year" "study abroad", did not
find the boys Yemeni choice but to human rights activist Abdel-Alim
Hamidi, who helped her to get ownership documents her home, as well as
to extract passport.
Says Hamidi, who attended the meeting between CNN Arabic and Highlands,
the latter facing many social problems, especially in light of the case
of "ignorance and intolerance", which controls the case and their
relationship with her family.
Nujood's father: boy and owned the right of the father
For his part, denied the father Nujood accusations by the daughter over
placing his hand on the money and use it to link to the wives are new,
and the attempt to coerce her younger sister for marriage.
Ali al-Ahdal for CNN Arabic: "I married my own money, I also borrowed
from the people, and did not stretch out my hand to my daughter's
money."
Ahdal reported that actually receive $ 900 out of thousand dollars
Publishing House had pledged a month, and denied that he had acquired
the full amount.
He said that amount is subject to the sharing, you get Nujood $ 500 of
it, and the return of apartment and rental shop on the ground floor of
the house back to them and to her mother.
Ahdal already acknowledged his desire to marry off his daughter Haifa,
Nujood's younger sister, stressing that it already received her dowry,
the amount of 500 thousand riyals (more than $ 2,300) from a man who
Bouktabtha, "and was the disbursement of the whole family," he said.
He said: "I have the consent of the girl Haifa, her mother and her big
brother Mohammad, a condition of this pony," he said, adding that if the
family refused Haifa marriage, they should re-dowry that Qdoh.
Ahdal said he still pays 25 thousand riyals (116 dollars) rent the great house of his son Mohammed.
He argued: "The boy and have a king to his father .. or are they want Mkasemta in my children?"
By Nujood is still a long
And it seems, is still a long way to go Nujood to overcome the
difficulties and achieve her dream, as it became clear that the access
to freedom of divorce of man Ivegaha was various types of physical and
psychological torment, what is the beginning of a journey of a thousand
miles.
3/13/2013
Now Saleh is gone, will North and South #Yemen separate?
Now Saleh is gone, will North and South Yemen separate?
Baraa Shiban
The risks that threaten the Yemeni Unity as it enters
its twenty-three years seems to be huge, while some forces in the South
are seeking to secede and the army is seeking to drive out Al-Qaeda
militias from the areas they control in the South, Al-Houthi rebels have
Sa’ada province under control and some other areas in the North.
The celebration of the Unity anniversary last Tuesday came after a
violent attack that killed one hundred soldiers and wounded more than
220, who were participating in a military parade on the occasion of the
Unity anniversary.
The exception in the celebrations of this year is that the two
presidents who signed the Unity agreement are no longer in power. The
ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh, was forced to leave according to a
political initiative sponsored by the Gulf Countries and the UN Security
Council after the break out of a popular revolution, and his former
deputy Ali Salem Al-Beedh who had to leave the country after the war of
1994.
Calls for Secession:
The most important challenge facing the Yemeni unity, is the high
tone of secession raised by some Southern parts, especially that some of
these forces are trending to violent methods instead of the peaceful
methods.
In addition to that, some components of the Southern Movement,
believe that they should take advantage of the success of the youth
revolution in overthrowing Saleh’s regime, to push toward secession as
the only alternative for solving the Southern issue.
Mr. Ahmed Abdul-Gani – the Head of Al-Jazeera Center for Strategic
Studies – said that the negative role played by the former regime gave
the opportunity for many projects to appear like Al-Qaeda, the Houthis,
and the Southern Movement who are calling for separation.
He also said that there is a hope for the failure of such projects,
if the Yemeni president Abdo Rabbo Mansoor Hadi and the reconciliation
government speed up in facing the economical challenges, reduce the
people’s suffering and provide the basic services such as electricity,
and water.
Security Challenges:
Mr. Abdul-Gani also pointed out that “the security challenge of
fighting Al-Qaeda militias and ending their control in some areas
Southern the country is an important issue, as well as the start of
restructuring the army under the leadership of the Ministry of Defense,
and restructuring the security forces under the leadership of the
Ministry of Interior, emphasizing that it will help to overcome the
political challenges in the country.”
The success of the coming National Dialogue will be the main
guarantee for maintaining the unity, because the most important outputs
of the dialogue will be agreeing on the constitution and the shape of
the regime.
The International and Regional Community seems to be supporting the
unity and stability of Yemen, but the details of this unity will be a
matter of huge argument during the National Dialogue.
Furthermore, the Minister of State – Ezzy Shaif – said that “what we
see and hear of projects of secession is a political game that only
serves the interests of some outside forces, and take advantage of some
mistakes occurred by some policy makers.”
He added that “Al-Qaeda in Yemen, is an international issue not just a
local issue, and perhaps they found in Yemen the atmosphere to spread
because of the economic situation and the spread of poverty and
unemployment.”
He also said that what Al-Houthi group and most of the Southern
Movement are demanding for the National Dialogue is in total within the
national unity of Yemen, and stressed that most of the Yemeni people are
supportive to the Yemeni unity, even if they disagreed on the shape of
the political system of the country.
2/27/2013
ما وراء الأفكار المسبقة عن الحجاب
ما وراء الأفكار المسبقة عن الحجاب
© بشرى المتوكل
تعمل اليمنية بشرى المتوكل منذ عشر سنوات عبر الفن الفوتوغرافي على تمثيل النساء المحجبات، فتحارب الأفكار المسبقة التي يمتلكها الغرب عن الحجاب وتقاوم في نفس الوقت التطرف الإسلامي في الدول العربية.
تذكر بشرى المتوكل أنها قرأت هذه الجملة التي جعلت
منها شعارها، على شبكات التواصل الاجتماعي "إذا كان للمرأة حق التعري
فلماذا ليس لها الحق في التحجب؟". وتعتبر بشرى وهي في 44 من عمرها رائدة
التصوير الفوتوغرافي في اليمن، وتحترف هذا الفن منذ أكثر من عشر سنوات
تقارب تمثيل النساء وكيف تحولن إلى أشياء في العالمين الإسلامي والغربي.
وجعلت بشرى المتوكل من الحجاب حجر الزاوية لعملها. وكانت الفنانة في
بداياتها ترغب في تفادي هذا الموضوع الذي "تم تداوله مرارا". لكن الفكرة
فرضت نفسها عليها تدريجيا خلال إقامتها في الولايات المتحدة لمتابعة
دراستها، وبعد اعتداءات 11 سبتمبر/أيلول 2001. فحين كانت ردود الفعل
العنيفة والمناهضة للإسلام على أوجها في أمريكا حينها، شاهدت بشرى امرأة
تتحجب بعلم الولايات المتحدة. فقالت بشرى لفرانس 24 إنها "ردة فعل على
المعاملة السيئة التي تعرض لها العرب والمسلمون بعد هذه الاعتداءات
الرهيبة".
فالتقطت وقتها بشرى المتوكل صورتها الأولى واتخذ عملها الفني منحى سياسيا
لم تحد عنه فيما بعد. فمنذ ذلك الوقت تفضح صورها الفوتوغرافية الأفكار
المسبقة التي يمتلكها الغرب عن الحجاب وكذلك مواقف الإسلام الراديكالي في
العالم العربي.
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الحجاب بمختلف أوجهه
وتقترح بشرى بديلا عن الزاوية الرومنطيقية أو النظرة المشوهة عن المسلمين والتي غالبا ما يقع الغرب في شراكها، حريصة في نفس الوقت على تفادي الرؤية المستشرقة... وترتدي بشرى الحجاب في اليمن "لأسباب ثقافية أكثر منها دينية" وتنزعه حين تسافر. وتعمل الفنانة على التعبير عن مختلف الفوارق والخلفيات التي يحملها الحجاب في طياته.
فتقول بشرى المتوكل "أريد أن أعبر عن الجمال وعن الإرادة وعن الغموض والفائدة والخطر والسياسة والخوف والدين والجانب الثقافي". لذلك تعمد إلى تنويع كل الصيغ والتركيبات حول الحجاب بمختلف القراءات من وسيلة إغراء وحتى أشكاله القسرية. فتتنقل بشرى في إخراجها بين الحجاب التقليدي اليمني الأنيق بألوانه المتنوعة و"الفنية بطبعها"، مرورا بالعباءة السوداء وهي زي مستورد من الخليج تتحول فيه النساء شيئا فشيئا إلى أشباح.
وتقترح بشرى بديلا عن الزاوية الرومنطيقية أو النظرة المشوهة عن المسلمين والتي غالبا ما يقع الغرب في شراكها، حريصة في نفس الوقت على تفادي الرؤية المستشرقة... وترتدي بشرى الحجاب في اليمن "لأسباب ثقافية أكثر منها دينية" وتنزعه حين تسافر. وتعمل الفنانة على التعبير عن مختلف الفوارق والخلفيات التي يحملها الحجاب في طياته.
فتقول بشرى المتوكل "أريد أن أعبر عن الجمال وعن الإرادة وعن الغموض والفائدة والخطر والسياسة والخوف والدين والجانب الثقافي". لذلك تعمد إلى تنويع كل الصيغ والتركيبات حول الحجاب بمختلف القراءات من وسيلة إغراء وحتى أشكاله القسرية. فتتنقل بشرى في إخراجها بين الحجاب التقليدي اليمني الأنيق بألوانه المتنوعة و"الفنية بطبعها"، مرورا بالعباءة السوداء وهي زي مستورد من الخليج تتحول فيه النساء شيئا فشيئا إلى أشباح.
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الحجاب سلطة مضادة بين أيدي النساء
وترفض بشرى المتوكل الفكرة السائدة عند البعض الذي يرى في الحجاب وسيلة قمعية. فتندد بها كرؤية عبثية وضيقة تحكم على الحجاب من منطلق ثقافي محدود في حين تتجاوز في اليمن مثلا مظاهر التمييز الجنسي قضية قطعة من القماش، وتقول "رغم التحسن الواضح المسجل في العشرين سنة الماضية، تظل أغلب النساء محدودات المستوى التعليمي وعرضة للتمييز". وتضيف بشرى المتوكل "توجد أشكال قمع أكبر من الحجاب، على غرار أن تحرم المرأة من التعليم وأن تزوج غصبا عنها وأن ينزع منها أبناؤها وأن لا تملك أي حق أمام القانون!".
وتؤكد بشرى أن ارتداء الحجاب حين يكون اختياريا يمكن أن يمثل وسيلة للتحكم في الذات وفرض الإرادة في مواجهة الرجال وسط مجتمع محافظ. فتوضح "حين تقرر المرأة تغطية رأسها وشعرها ووجهها، فهي تستولي على القرار حيث لا تترك لأي كان فرصة مشاهدة ما لا تريد أن تظهره".
وتذهب بشرى إلى اعتبار الحجاب مطلبا نسائيا، فترى فيه سلطة مضادة في عالم تخضع فيه النساء لديكتاتورية الجمال والعراء المبالغ فيه المفروض على أجسادهن. فتقول "يمارس على النساء في البلدان الغربية ضغط حتى يظهرن دائما شابات وجميلات ونحيفات، وهي صناعة بملايين الدولارات تساهم في إدخال التوتر على حياتهن. أليس ذلك أحد أشكال القمع باسم الحرية؟". وتندد بشرى المتوكل بالقانون الفرنسي الذي يمنع منذ 2011 ارتداء البرقع في الأماكن العامة، فتعتبره "مسا بحرية النساء".
وترفض بشرى المتوكل الفكرة السائدة عند البعض الذي يرى في الحجاب وسيلة قمعية. فتندد بها كرؤية عبثية وضيقة تحكم على الحجاب من منطلق ثقافي محدود في حين تتجاوز في اليمن مثلا مظاهر التمييز الجنسي قضية قطعة من القماش، وتقول "رغم التحسن الواضح المسجل في العشرين سنة الماضية، تظل أغلب النساء محدودات المستوى التعليمي وعرضة للتمييز". وتضيف بشرى المتوكل "توجد أشكال قمع أكبر من الحجاب، على غرار أن تحرم المرأة من التعليم وأن تزوج غصبا عنها وأن ينزع منها أبناؤها وأن لا تملك أي حق أمام القانون!".
وتؤكد بشرى أن ارتداء الحجاب حين يكون اختياريا يمكن أن يمثل وسيلة للتحكم في الذات وفرض الإرادة في مواجهة الرجال وسط مجتمع محافظ. فتوضح "حين تقرر المرأة تغطية رأسها وشعرها ووجهها، فهي تستولي على القرار حيث لا تترك لأي كان فرصة مشاهدة ما لا تريد أن تظهره".
وتذهب بشرى إلى اعتبار الحجاب مطلبا نسائيا، فترى فيه سلطة مضادة في عالم تخضع فيه النساء لديكتاتورية الجمال والعراء المبالغ فيه المفروض على أجسادهن. فتقول "يمارس على النساء في البلدان الغربية ضغط حتى يظهرن دائما شابات وجميلات ونحيفات، وهي صناعة بملايين الدولارات تساهم في إدخال التوتر على حياتهن. أليس ذلك أحد أشكال القمع باسم الحرية؟". وتندد بشرى المتوكل بالقانون الفرنسي الذي يمنع منذ 2011 ارتداء البرقع في الأماكن العامة، فتعتبره "مسا بحرية النساء".
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ماذا لو تحجب الرجال؟
من جهة أخرى تعترف بشرى بأن الحجاب يمكن أن يكون وجها من وجوه القمع حين تجبر المرأة على ارتدائه. وفي مجموعة "حجاب"، تغطي بشرى أما وابنتها ودميتها تدريجيا بدءا بوشاح خفيف ووصولا إلى النقاب وتماهي الشخصيات مع الديكور حتى الاضمحلال. فتغيب النساء عن الرؤية وتختفي الفوارق بينهن.
وتضيف الفنانة "في بعض الأحيان لا أفهم ما تقوله النساء اللواتي يرتدين النقاب فالكل متشابهات وحين نخاطب إحداهن لا نعرف هوية من نخاطب!". فعمدت بشرى إلى قلب الأدوار وتصورت عالما يتحجب فيه الرجال وتلبس فيه النساء ثيابا مخصصة عادة للرجال في الشرق الأوسط. والهدف كذلك من عملها، بالإضافة إلى التفكير في توزيع الأدوار داخل المجتمع، هو إظهار وجوه الشبه بين الأزياء في إطار ثقافة "يدعى فيها الرجال أيضا إلى اعتماد البساطة في لباسهم".
وتعزز بشرى المتوكل موقفها قائلة "لا أريد أن أغذي الكليشيهات السلبية بشأن المحجبات والتي تعتبرهن ضعيفات ومقموعات وجاهلات ومتخلفات". فهي تعمل كفنانة وكامرأة وكمتحجبة من حين لحين، على إثبات عكس ذلك عبر صور تتلاعب بالنواميس والجنس والثقافات وتخلط فيها بذكاء دائما السياسية بروح الفكاهة.
من جهة أخرى تعترف بشرى بأن الحجاب يمكن أن يكون وجها من وجوه القمع حين تجبر المرأة على ارتدائه. وفي مجموعة "حجاب"، تغطي بشرى أما وابنتها ودميتها تدريجيا بدءا بوشاح خفيف ووصولا إلى النقاب وتماهي الشخصيات مع الديكور حتى الاضمحلال. فتغيب النساء عن الرؤية وتختفي الفوارق بينهن.
وتضيف الفنانة "في بعض الأحيان لا أفهم ما تقوله النساء اللواتي يرتدين النقاب فالكل متشابهات وحين نخاطب إحداهن لا نعرف هوية من نخاطب!". فعمدت بشرى إلى قلب الأدوار وتصورت عالما يتحجب فيه الرجال وتلبس فيه النساء ثيابا مخصصة عادة للرجال في الشرق الأوسط. والهدف كذلك من عملها، بالإضافة إلى التفكير في توزيع الأدوار داخل المجتمع، هو إظهار وجوه الشبه بين الأزياء في إطار ثقافة "يدعى فيها الرجال أيضا إلى اعتماد البساطة في لباسهم".
وتعزز بشرى المتوكل موقفها قائلة "لا أريد أن أغذي الكليشيهات السلبية بشأن المحجبات والتي تعتبرهن ضعيفات ومقموعات وجاهلات ومتخلفات". فهي تعمل كفنانة وكامرأة وكمتحجبة من حين لحين، على إثبات عكس ذلك عبر صور تتلاعب بالنواميس والجنس والثقافات وتخلط فيها بذكاء دائما السياسية بروح الفكاهة.
ماذا لو...
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بشرى المتوكل
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2/20/2013
#Yemen Factsheet - January 2013
Yemen Factsheet - January 2013
Yemen is the only country in the Arabian Peninsula that is a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol. UNHCR established operations in Yemen in 1987 and expanded its work in the southern governorates in 1992 in response to the large-scale influx of Somali refugees. Yemen faces major challenges with a high number of refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs) and mixed migration. Somalis arriving in the country are granted prima facie refugee status, while UNHCR conducts Refugee Status Determination (RSD) for other nationalities. UNHCR also coordinates on protection activities and provides assistance to IDP populations in the Yemen .
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