Asking for salaries is high treason.. Houthi's inability to break the teachers' strike
English - Sunday 27 August 2023 الساعة 03:11 pm
Sana'a, NewsYemen, exclusive:
Attempts by the Houthi militia, Iran's arm in Yemen, have failed to break the teachers' strike, which is entering its fifth consecutive week, to demand the payment of salaries looted by the militias.
Continuous intransigence on the part of the Houthi leadership, which refuses to fulfill the rights of teachers and to pay their monthly salaries regularly. In light of the growing government revenues, especially the port of Hodeidah, which has returned to work normally without any blockade, as the militias are trying to promote.
Many tricks have been used by the Houthi militias and leaders who control the top of the pyramid of the Ministry of Education in Sana'a, in order to end the strike led by the Teachers' Club since the start of the school year was announced last month.
With the beginning of the strike, the Houthi militia used its usual method to put down any anti-protests. Campaigns of kidnappings and targeting were launched against educational leaders and teachers participating in the strike. It also promoted the process of supporting the "Teachers' Fund" by imposing levies on telecommunications services, electricity and revenue sectors under the pretext of providing salaries. The Houthi leaders decided to reduce the lessons for teachers and reduce school days to counter the strike.
The threat and the search for false support and the reduction of classes did not find any benefit in ending the teachers' strike. Rather, these arbitrary tricks and measures increased the insistence on continuing peaceful protests to demand the payment of salaries from the huge revenues that are looted from government institutions and customs outlets.
And educational sources reported that the leader, Yahya Al-Houthi, the brother of the militia leader appointed to the position of Minister of Education; He recently resorted to issuing directives regarding the suspension of striking teachers after they refused the decision to reduce weekly classes to evade the payment of salaries and circumvent the teachers' demands.
The sources said that Al-Houthi held a series of meetings with the ministry's leaders, and issued directives and circulars to all the ministry's offices in the governorates and directorates of the need to raise the lists of striking teachers in preparation for dropping their names from the payroll that will be disbursed soon.
The sources indicated that the head of the Teachers Club, Abdulqawi al-Kumaim, was subjected to investigation by Houthi leaders inside the building of the Education Office in Sana'a, explaining that the Houthi leaders accused al-Kumaim of leading a subversive cell aimed at creating chaos and obstructing the educational process, as well as communicating with foreign and external parties and other accusations. It amounts to high treason if the club and teachers continue their strike.
She said that among those who interrogated the head of the Teachers Club, the Houthi leader Abdul Qadir al-Mahdi, director of the Education Office in the city of Sana'a, who threatened Abdul Qawi al-Kumaim with imprisonment and trial if he refused to end the strike and stop demanding the payment of salaries.
The Media Committee of the Teachers' Club said that the Ministry of Education in Sana'a had failed to break the strike, and has now resorted to threatening dismissal, stressing that the Houthis intend to send inspectors to schools to raise the names of the strikers and include them in the list of those who are out of work to confiscate their government jobs.
The committee called on male and female teachers not to be afraid of this procedure. Because the matter does not require the presence of inspectors, because all schools are closed and teachers are on strike, except for a few of the Houthi loyalists who are committed to attending.
The committee stressed the club's adherence to its demands from the Houthi authorities to pay the salaries of male and female teachers on a regular basis, similar to the leaders of the Houthis, their members and fighters.
