Nadia Al-Sakkaf sees past mistakes replayed in Shiite Houthi takeover
Editor’s Note: Nadia Al-Sakkaf, former editor-in-chief of The Yemen Times, rose to prominence as one of few females to serve on the National Dialogue to re-shape post-Saleh Yemen, and served as Minister of Information until the resignation of the government of President Hadi on February 6. Al-Sakkaf wrote this Op-Ed for The Media Line news agency.
[Sana’a, Yemen] – An acquaintance who seemed to be a modern Houthi – if that means anything at all – once told me that I should take it easy and deal with the groups of aggressive Houthis taking over the country as excited teenagers. I wanted to reply that those “excited teenagers” have guns and are so full of themselves, but then I bit my tongue when I noticed the gun hanging on the side of his shirt beneath his coat.
So here is what it was like for me as the first female Minister of Information in Yemen: every day was about negotiating power with people who were many more in numbers, carrying Kalashnikovs — and are not afraid to use them — driven by greed and ambition and worse of all don’t acknowledge reason.
Way back before the Houthi’s coup d’état was actually announced on February 6, 2015, I remember a conversation with a representative of their so-called revolutionary committees in my office. Abu Mahfoudh (this was his operational name as they are always an “abu” which means father of – now I am thinking it should have been “son of…” instead) came to me as the appointed representative to scrutinize my work and the entire ministry’s operations.
Sitting comfortably on his chair escorted by three of his disciples, Abu Mahfoudh announced that he is there to fight corruption and demand partnership. At the time, I didn’t have a strong position towards the movement — in fact, in the past, I had raised concerns regarding the oppression they were facing as a religious minority coming from Sa’ada in the north of Yemen.
Thousands of Houthis were killed and displaced in the six wars former president Saleh waged against them, and I used my voice to defend their right to religious freedom. But now, the situation is much different as they have ironically joined forces with Saleh and taken over the country using armed militia.
Back to my peculiar meeting with Abu Mahfoud, who was listening to me complaining about his people violating both local and international laws. I was describing how his armed men threatened journalists, created checkpoints and searched both citizens and diplomats in the streets and even in airports. I was explaining to him that in addition to the fact that these acts are in violation of our own constitution, Yemen is signatory to international agreements to protect freedoms including one called the Vienna Convention that protects diplomats, etc. He cut me off while waving his hand in the air as if dismissing me from my own office saying that they don’t acknowledge the United Nations or any other world entity.
“We don’t approve of the foreign countries interfering in Yemen’s internal affairs. We live by the heavenly will and answer to His commands; not that of foreign agents,” said the man who later not only tortured, abused, arrested but also killed in the name of his heavenly commands, which I think had to be translated from Persian or Russian for him to understand.
Abu Mahfoudh even used our meeting to cunningly remind me that every move I make was being watched. He said as a by-the-way comment that I should not have visited the US ambassador a few days earlier, because this US ambassador meets a lot with Yemeni journalists and gives them instructions to act against Yemen’s best interest; and if I wanted my image to be untainted and remain in the good books of the Houthis I should not deal with the US or the Europeans, otherwise I risk being an agent and traitor to my country.
Today I am a resigned minister who is still trying to fight back Houthi aggression — especially against women — and human rights using my voice, contacts and definitely my Twitter account, which on the day they took over the state media and presidential palace, was the only remaining tool for me to tell the world what was going on.
If we review Yemen’s recent history, we can easily see that before 2011, the ruling party then, the General People’s Congress, ran the country as its private property and used public funds and institutions to serve the party’s best interest. When the opposition somewhat took over, mainly lead by the conservative Islah – a Yemeni version of the Muslim Brotherhood – they simply copy pasted the former module of running the country and added their own touches and assisted in speeding the deteriorating economy and alienating citizens. Now the Houthis have taken over, albeit with Saleh’s support, causing havoc and imposing a yet more aggressive attitude in ruling which includes banning music, arresting peaceful protestors and journalists, intimidating women working in the public spheres and using public and state money to serve their own causes.
Until very recently Yemen was praised as a successful model for political transition and gaining amazing victories in human right and for women rights such as the 30% quota for women in decision making positions as a result of the National Dialogue Conference.
But now we are a playground for a proxy-war between world powers who for reasons relating to fighting terrorism, oil prices, nuclear weapons or arms trade decided it is safer for them to mess with us instead of sorting their business directly.
The world needs to know that my country is being destroyed and my people are being tortured and killed as I write these words. My personal safety is threatened and my freedom as a woman, a journalist and an activist is challenged and confined. Those “teenagers with guns” believe that they are unstoppable and it is their birth right as alleged descendants of the prophet to rule the country as they wish.
I think not… And even if the world decides not to acknowledge what is going on in Yemen, we the moderate Yemenis who love their country will fight back in order to rescue our country no matter what it costs us.