A silent Houthi war.. Political closure of (6) libraries in Sana'a
English - Monday 07 February 2022 الساعة 03:54 pm
Sana'a, NewsYemen, private:
The Houthi militia - the Iranian arm in Yemen - closed dozens of libraries and cultural kiosks in one of the images of the systematic war waged by the Houthi militia against the population in Sanaa and its neighboring provinces.
Deliberate drying up of sources of thought and culture, distortion of educational curricula, blowing up the minds of young people and youth, and confiscation of all means of enlightenment and intellectual and creative education, in exchange for the replacement of the culture of lieutenants and incitement to fighting and fueling hatred, violence, extremism and terrorism.
Since its coup in September 2014, the Houthi militia has closed hundreds of daily and weekly press releases and periodicals, and with it the cultural activity and enlightenment production of cultural and creative institutions, and thousands of workers in this field found themselves on the unemployment sidewalk after losing their sources of income.
Owners of bookstores and kiosks, some of whom sold limited to office tools and stationery, while the large part had to close their stores after they were unable to pay the rents of these stores or pay the salaries of their employees.
Under the weight of this suffering, the owner of the al-Qaa kiosk (the corner of the old university) resorted to selling dry bread and bruising after his salary was stopped in the education sector, and his kiosk's sales of newspapers and publications fell to zero.
Along Al-Zara’a Streets, a central unit in Sana’a, 6 of the largest and oldest libraries in Sana’a have been closed during the past 3 years. They are: (Al-Olafi, Al-Asimah, Al-Shorouk, Fallujah, Al-Hamra, Abi Dhar Al-Ghafari with its branches), and these libraries are among the first libraries that opened Its doors are in Sanaa.
Speaking to NewsYemen, the owner of one of these libraries - who requested anonymity - says that they have been facing a silent war for the past 5 years, wondering about the role of international organizations, specifically UNESCO - which is concerned with culture - in protecting the sources of thought and culture and supporting the continuation of these libraries as centers of enlightenment. Intellectual, cultural and literary spanning over the past 50 years.
In a related context, a court affiliated with the Houthi militia this week confiscated the contents of the (Abu Dhar Al Ghafari) library located on Haddah Street after its owner failed to pay the accumulated rents, after paralyzing the entire press and cultural scene, preventing the militia from importing books and looting the salaries of state employees.
The Houthi militia claimed that the building in which the library is located belongs to one of the deputies opposed to it, which exacerbated the losses of the library owner to the point of his inability to pay rents, and his receipt of a ruling to vacate the building.
Those interested in this matter in Sanaa described the ruling to vacate the library as unfair and a political ruling par excellence, in light of the dominance of the Houthi militia and its quest to spread its booby-trapped lieutenants with ignorance and illusion.
