MER Article

Local Conflict, Global Spin

Clashes between the followers of a Zaydi Shi‘i religious figure and security forces left hundreds of people dead in a remote area in northern Yemen in the summer of 2004. The precipitating incident was obscure, perhaps unimportant. It is hardly worth mentioning these days when worshippers in Arab countries

Iris Glosemeyer • 9 min read

Current Analysis

How Yemen's Ruling Party Secured an Electoral Landslide

Yemen's parliamentary elections, held on April 27, 2003, might have set a higher standard for contested elections in the Arab world. Instead, post-election shenanigans and gunfire that disrupted ballot counting in key districts cast doubt on the voting process and the ruling General People's Congres

• 8 min read

Current Analysis

The Death and Life of Jarallah Omar

News of the shooting deaths of three American health professionals working for a Southern Baptist mission hospital in Yemen follows closely on the heels of the very public murder of a highly regarded figure in the Yemeni opposition. Jarallah Omar, deputy secretary general of the Yemeni Socialist Pa

Anna Wuerth, Lisa Wedeen, Sheila Carapico • 7 min read

Current Analysis

Investigating the Cole Bombing

The investigation of last October's bombing of the USS Cole in Aden continues to irritate US-Yemeni relations. Last week, the agreement worked out between the Clinton White House and Yemeni authorities in November 2000, in which the FBI was allowed to submit questions to Yemeni investigators and observe

Charles Schmitz • 5 min read

Current Analysis

Yemen and the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army

One of the leads investigators are following into the October 12 Aden harbor bombing of the USS Cole is an obscure network known (or perhaps formerly known) as the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army. Terrorism experts are familiar with this group's past missions, including attacks on Yemeni socialists prior to

Sheila Carapico • 5 min read

MER Article

Yemenis on Mars

Like other recent neo-nationalist mobilizations of diasporas, a Yemeni government-sponsored gathering of émigrés this May sought to harness the newly perceived wealth and influence of Yemen’s diaspora towards national ends. Ethnic mobilization of émigré capital is nothing new. Early this century, Ja

Engseng Ho • 8 min read

MER Article

"This Is the Bride"

With only approximately 6 percent of married women in Yemen living in polygamous marriages, such relationships are neither popular nor widespread. Nevertheless, polygamy in Yemen remains a complicated issue.

Janine A. Clark • 3 min read

MER Article

Arabia Without Sultans Revisited

For an author to revisit a book he wrote a quarter of a century, and a half lifetime ago, is a perilous undertaking. Arabia Without Sultans was conceived of, and written, in the early 1970s, and published in 1974 in Britain, in 1975 in the US, and subsequently, in Arabic,

Fred Halliday • 10 min read

MER Article

A Clash of Fundamentalisms

During the past two decades, a proselytizing, reformist, “Islamist” movement -- mainly characterized as “Wahhabi” -- has gained increasing popularity throughout Yemen. Wahhabism actively opposes both the main Yemeni schools -- Zaydi Shi‘ism in the north and Shafi‘i Sunnism in the south and in the Ti

Shelagh Weir • 6 min read

MER Article

The Woman with Two Husbands

I, the undersigned, give full power of attorney to the embassy of the State of Palestine to do everything possible to get my daughter, Laila, student at the University of Sanaa, College of Education, out of Yemen. I certify that she is not allowed to marry in Sanaa since she is still married to her

Anna Wurth • 3 min read

MER Article

From Ballot Box to Battlefield

Artillery and bombs rather than innocent fireworks marked the fourth anniversary of Yemeni unity and the first anniversary of free parliamentary elections of the Arabian Peninsula. The fight between the armed forces under President ‘Ali ‘Abdallah Salih and those loyal to Vice President ‘Ali Salim al-Bayd was complicated by ideological,

Sheila Carapico • 10 min read

MER Article

A Campaign Rally in Sanaa

Just within the walls of the old city of Sanaa, southeast of Bab al-Sha‘ub, a large tent has been erected in an open square. People are milling about -- mostly children, but also men and women. The candidate is talking to a group of people as one of her opponents drives by in a black Mercedes. The c

David Warburton • 1 min read