Armies of Liberation

A good report entitled Social discrimination still dominates Yemeni culture from the Yemen Times. As I’ve noted since 2005, the Sa’ada War, to a degree, has its roots in the social inversion between the Hashemite class and the tribal class following the 1962 Republican revolution. But back to the article, it lays out the stratification of Yemeni society and its evolution through the decades.

Saeeda was a young Yemeni woman from the akhdam. She was working as a street cleaner in Sana’a when a group of men began to harass her. The men ended up slicing Saeeda’s neck, killing her, and stabbing her brother in the chest several times. Nothing was done by authorities to investigate or avenge Saeeda’s death.

More than 50 decades ago, there were only two visible classes, the Imam and his family who were descendants of the Prophet, and the rest of the public. But after the Imamate rule ended, three classes emerged: the Hashemite or saada, the tribes, known as a’raab or qabail, and the mazaayina, also known as atraaf.

An additional class has emerged, popularly known as the akhdam. This term, however, carries with it a negative stigma, and they prefer to call themselves, al-muhamasheen, or the marginalized ones.

The muhamasheen is the impoverished class. They are isolated socially and economically. They frequently live in places like slums on the outskirts of Sana’a, where there are make-shifts homes and no electricity. Children often have is limited, if any, access to education, adequate nutrition or sanitation.

The muhamasheen are also often victims of discrimination or prejudice. Children drop out of school because they are looked down upon by their peers. Homes flood when it rains. Ali Izzil Muhammad Obaid told the New York Times: “We are surviving but we are not living.”

The government has not done much to fix this problem. The Yemeni constitution says, “The state shall guarantee equal opportunities for all citizens in the fields of political, economic, social and cultural activities.” It also says Yemeni Society is based in social solidarity, which is based on justice, freedom and equality according to the law.

Although the Yemeni constitution promises equality for all, it doesn’t provide it. In articles 24 and 25 of chapter 3 on social and cultural foundations, it says that it will provide the same opportunities to all Yemenis culturally, economically, politically and even socially, but none of this has happened.

The constitution was laid down in 1994 and 15 years later, the situation is as bad as ever.

Prisoners of war

According to Iranian historian Mohammed Hussein Fadhlallah, Ethiopians also known as the Ahbash in Arabic ruled Yemen for 72 years over 1,500 years ago.

During their rule, one of their kings called Abraha wanted to save the Yemeni deteriorating economy then by directing trade and attention to Sana’a instead of Hijaz in what is known today as Saudi Arabia.

He realized that he needed to destroy the Ka’aba and attract world pilgrimage and hence trade towards Yemen by building a magnificent church he called “Al-Qilees.”

However, his attack on Mecca failed and he returned to Yemen in 571 A.C. while his people in Yemen were fought by a Yemeni leader with support from Persia called Saif bin Thee Yazan.

The Ahbash were then enslaved and made to work in demeaning jobs such as cleaning bathrooms, washing dishes and sweeping streets. They were not allowed to slaughter animals or cook food until recently because they were considered by Yemenis as ‘unclean’ because of their slavery status.

The mazaayina, however, were. According to renowned 9th century historian Ibn Al-Saeb Al-Kalbi, the latter were prisoners of war caught during the Islamic expansion towards northern Arabia. This is why they usually have fair skin and blue and green eyes.

They appeared in Yemen many years after the Ahbash slaves and so they were given a slightly higher status through being able to serve in the houses in cooking and slaughtering, or barbers or working in the Turkish baths known as hamams.

The mazaayina are traditionally considered working-class, and work as barbers, entertainers and butchers. However, many work as circumcisers, give injections or administer first aid. They are referred to as doctors by almost all the social classes, especially in the rural areas. The mazaayina also traditionally sing at weddings, help to prepare brides for their wedding day, and serve in wealthy homes.

At the top of the social ladder, the saada claim Hashemite ancestry, dating back to the prophet Mohammed (P.B.U.H.). They traditionally work as judges or religious leaders because of their history of access to education and leadership.

The saada and the tribes once kept their distance, but now share a closer relationship. It used to be unacceptable for a saada to marry someone from any tribe. More recently, however, the saada marriage range has expanded, and they are allowed to marry members of the tribes.

Most saada families, however, will not permit their relatives to marry members of the mazaayina or muhamasheen. Neither are members of the tribal class

Yemeni tribes are divided into four main groups that describe themselves as the decedents of four sheiks: Hashid, Bakil, Hamdan and Madhaj. The tribes are now lead by sheikhs who enforce a tribal system of law. Yemeni sheikhs have their own prisons, arms and soldiers.

Pervasive discrimination

The last two classes suffer from social discrimination although for the muhamasheen it is much worse because of their dark skin color.

This is a prevalent concept, although they are not necessarily black especially since, over the years, some abandoned children were conceived outside wedlock by qabael or saada and dumped in the akhdam’s neighborhood. The akhdam took care of the children as their own and married them with their own, and so with time some families have lighter skin colors because of this.

There are some Yemenis who are of dark skin and those are generally from coastal areas or the valley in Hadramout. Where they live, they are integrated normally into society but when they travel to other areas in Yemen they are sometimes looked down upon just because they are black, despite the fact that they could be from a higher social class.

However, muhamasheen remain the most discriminated against and are also regularly denied basic rights like property, credit or employment.

According to people from rural Taiz, each area or district had its akhdam. Each area’s inhabitants were responsible for protecting them, giving them food and shelter in return for the akhdam’s services, in the form of domestic work and especially during weddings and social occasions.

The trend was that the akhdam of one area or village were not allowed to work in another. They belonged to a specific territory and had to operate within that.

During weddings for example, their job was to play the drums, sing and entertain the people. They also helped in domestic chores mainly cleaning and serving people.

During the dancing, friends and family would throw money into the lap of the akhdam entertainment leader after gesturing circles with the money on top of the bride or the groom’s head. This show was a cultural tradition supposed to break the evil eye, and say, “Your value is above all money.”

When the bride or groom dances, family and friends compete to see who can throw in the more money. It is a special treat for the akhdam that day.

Outside the wedding seasons, the akhdam earn money by doing services in the village. When there is no work, they can easily go to houses and demand money or food or clothes. Locals were obliged to give them because they were the responsibility of the village.

In recent years, some akhdam went to schools and broke free from this form of unwritten slavery, and some even traveled and worked abroad. But for the majority, especially in the cities, they are still heavily discriminated against and looked down upon.

“These groups face tyrannical treatment from society because of their unknown origins, according to which they are now not allowed to take leading positions in the state, and in the past were not allowed to in the tribe,” said Mohammed Al-Khayat, a professor of social studies at the University of Sana’a. “So, they worked in jobs considered as low professions socially.”

Challenging the norm

Challenging social norms is not easy, and in some cases the costs are heavy.

“A man from the saada class wanted to marry his daughter to her relative who was of the a’raab,” said Um Ali, an a’raab who asked not to be identified by her full name. “When they came to Sana’a to buy the clothes for the bride, her elder brothers who live in Sana’a refused to let the marriage to happen.”

“[The brothers] disobeyed their father, who told them of his agreement with his [potential] new son-in-law. They kept on refusing the marriage, which caused the father to be paralyzed for nearly three years which ended in his death.”

Some saada think they are too good to socialize with other classes. A saada woman would never invite a neighbor from the tribes over to her house for lunch, and she would never let her children hang out with muhamasheen.

“The saada and qabael interact socially and invite each other to their weddings or celebrations, but it is unheard of to invite mazaayina or akhdam as guests,” said Mohammed Noman Al-Hakimi a writer from Taiz. “There is a red line between those two groups and the saada and mazaayina that cannot be crossed.”

“In fact if you were to insult someone you would call him ‘ya muzayyin,’” he continued. “Even if we were to invite the akhdam, they are generally dirty and don’t dress up nicely. As for the mazaayina, it is impossible to even consider inviting them.”

A wealthy mazaayina man wanted to marry a saada woman and since her family would never accept him, he changed his last name to one of the common names of saada families. He claimed he had no family members or relatives. The ruse worked because the lived in a town where nobody knew his past. Her family agreed and the couple married.

After three years, the man and his wife traveled to Egypt to visit her brother. He met another man whose last name was the same as the mazaayina man’s acclaimed surname.

The other man doubted his origin and asked him about specific details known only to those from the family. The mazaayina was forced to confess that he lied in order to marry. His wife’s family then forced him to divorce her, although they had just had a baby together a few months before.

Society’s apathy and winds of change

Kevin Aldrich, a teacher at the Sana’a International School said that he tried to organize a charity walk to benefit the muhamasheen. He cancelled the event because people lacked interest or enthusiasm. The students were simply not interested in this topic, he said.

But when another teacher, David Stanton, organized a charity walk to raise money for the Arabian leopards which are in danger of extinction, people jumped at the opportunity and raised USD 5,000 that day.

There are some NGOs made by the marginalized communities mostly from akhdams who have organized themselves in order to change their conditions such as Amer and Uqbi Association. Increasingly humanitarian and rights based organizations in Yemen are executing projects to improve their situation. A documentary has been released recently by WINTESS and Sisters Arab Forum for Human Rights on the plight of akhdam and injustice happening to that community in Yemen. The documentary discussed the situation of akhdams in Yemen with focus on Saeeda’s story calling for social action against such injustice.

Some mazaayina have also broken from the isolation and availed good education and are now working abroad in respectable jobs. In Yemen, there remains discriminated against regardless of their education or wealth but the trend is slowly changing.