My Life in Yemen

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Yemen, (al-Yaman), a country in the southwestern part of the Arabian Peninsula. As currently constituted, the Republic of Yemen (al-Jumh[lower_case_u_macron]r[lower_case_i_macron]ya al-Yaman[lower_case_i_macron]yah) was formed on May 22, 1990, by the merger of the Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen) and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (South Yemen). It is bordered on the north by Saudi Arabia, on the east by Oman, on the south by the Gulf of Aden, and on the west by the Red Sea. The Republic of Yemen has an area of about 203,796 square miles (527,968 sq km). The capital is Sana ([capital_S,_dot_under]an[single_quotation_mark,_left][lower_case_a_macron][single_quotation_mark,_right]); the economic center is the port of Aden ([single_quotation_mark,_left]Adan). The Land. Making up the land is a narrow coastal strip, an extensive hinterland of broken highlands, and a broad desert plateau further inland. The Tihama (Tih[lower_case_a_macron]mah), a coastal lowland along the Red Sea, extends 20 to 30 miles (30–50 km) inland. The lowland along the Gulf of Aden extends 5 to 10 miles (8–16 km) inland and is discontinuous. Divided by wadi basins (occasional streams), the highlands rise to an elevation of 12,340 feet (3,760 meters), marking the highest points in the Arabian Peninsula. The sandy desert region is an extension of Saudi Arabia's Rub[single_quotation_mark,_left] al-Khali (Empty Quarter) and covers as much as half of the country. There is severe seismic activity in the highland region south of the capital. Yemen also includes the islands of Kamaran (Qamar[lower_case_a_macron]n) in the Red Sea, Perim (Mayy[lower_case_u_macron]n) in the Bab al-Mandeb, and Socotra (Suqu[lower_case_t,_dot_under]r[lower_case_a_macron]) and Kuria Muria (Jaz[lower_case_a_macron][single_quotation_mark,_right]ir Khur[lower_case_i_macron]y[lower_case_a_macron] Mur[lower_case_i_macron]y[lower_case_a_macron]) in the Arabian Sea. Sana, the capital, is situated on a plateau more than 7,000 feet (2,130 meters) above sea level. Taiz (Ta[single_quotation_mark,_left]izz), the former royal residence, has an elevation of 4,500 feet (1,370 meters). The principal seaports are Aden, Hodeida (al-[upper_case_H,_dot_under]udaydah), and Mocha (al-Mukh[lower_case_a_macron]). The area of the republic is humid and hot, with a few scattered oases. Rainfall varies from 15 to 30 inches (400–800 mm) annually, making Yemen the wettest portion of the Arabian Peninsula. Summers on the highlands are relatively temperate and winters cool, giving the area the best climate of the entire Arabian Peninsula. The People. Unlike other Arabians, the Yemenis have long been settled, with hardly any nomads. They are also distinguished in being mostly Sh[lower_case_i_macron][single_quotation_mark,_left][lower_case_i_macron] of the Zayd[lower_case_i_macron] variety, a moderately dissident Muslim sect that, among the Sh[lower_case_i_macron][single_quotation_mark,_left][lower_case_i_macron], comes closest to the majority Sunn[lower_case_i_macron]. Many of the lowlanders are Sunn[lower_case_i_macron] of the Sh[lower_case_a_macron]fi[single_quotation_mark,_left][lower_case_i_macron] rite. Some 50,000 Jews, mainly from Sana, emigrated to Israel shortly after it won independence in 1948. Traditionally, the people consist of (1) aristocrats (sada; sing., sayyid), descended from the prophet Mu[lower_case_h,_dot_under]ammad and considered custodians of the Muslim religion; (2) tribespeople, mostly in the highlands; and (3) a mixed population along the coast with a strong African element. Tribal and regional attachments, Islamic traditionalism, and suspicion of the outside world persist throughout Yemen. The literacy rate is estimated at about 50%. In the north, education followed the traditional model, centering in mosques or mosque schools. A modern graded school system was introduced after 1962 and was conducted largely by Egyptian and Palestinian teachers. In the south the British operated a limited number of schools, and wealthy residents sent their sons to schools in British India; the school system was greatly expanded after independence in 1967. Primary education lasts nine years and is compulsory, although the participation rate for girls is less than half of that for boys. Secondary education lasts three years. There are universities in Sana (founded 1974) and Aden (1975). The Economy. Terraced agriculture has been practiced in Yemen since ancient times. The principal crops are grains, potatoes, vegetables, fruits, coffee, and khat (qat), a popular narcotic stimulant that is consumed by chewing the leaves or drinking a brew made from them. The higher price commanded by khat for domestic consumption has caused it to displace some of the coffee once produced for export. Cotton, once a significant export item, has ceased to be grown on a large scale. Livestock rearing and fishing remain important. The Port of Aden was once a major stopping point for ships seeking fuel and supplies. The closing of the Suez Canal from 1967 to 1975, however, drastically reduced traffic. After 1975 the port revived somewhat, but long-term changes in shipping patterns caused by the closure prevented port activity from attaining its pre-1967 level. Oil drilling and refining have become the most important industries. Others are food processing, the manufacture of paper products and construction materials, and traditional light industries, such as textiles, leather goods, and jewelry. Salt, gypsum, and other minerals are mined. In the 1970s and 1980s, remittances from workers abroad were Yemen's chief source of foreign exchange. Owing to Yemen's opposition to the U.S.-led coalition in the Persian Gulf War (1990–1991), Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states expelled at least 850,000 Yemeni workers. That triggered an economic crisis, which contributed to the outbreak of Yemen's civil war in 1994. Oil, however, discovered in both Yemens in the mid-1980s, quickly became the principal export. Oil and gas production expanded in the later 1990s, and a reform program introduced in 1995 encouraged economic diversification. Government. The constitution of 1991, as amended in 1994 and 2001, defines the Republic of Yemen as an indivisible, independent, sovereign, Arab and Islamic country. All its laws are to be based on Islamic law (shar[lower_case_i_macron][single_quotation_mark,_left]ah). Executive power rests with the president, who serves for a seven-year term and appoints the prime minister and the Council of Ministers. The president was directly elected for the first time in 1999. Legislative authority resides in the House of Representatives, whose members are elected for a six-year term, and the Sh[lower_case_u_macron]r[lower_case_a_macron] Council, whose members are appointed by the president. History. A part of classical Arabia Felix, Yemen was the earliest seat of Arabian culture. Between the 12th century B.C. and the 6th century A.D., it saw the rise and fall of three major peoples, the Minaeans (Ma[single_quotation_mark,_left][lower_case_i_macron]n), the Sabaeans (Saba[single_quotation_mark,_right]), and the Himyarites ([upper_case_H,_dot_under]imyar). Its prosperity was due to the cultivation of spices, frankincense, and other semitropical products in demand around the eastern Mediterranean basin. With the rise of Islam, the country became a part of the caliphate, and later of certain successor states of the caliphate. Yemen was occupied and ruled by the Ottoman empire in the 16th century and again in the 19th century. Between those periods it was in effect ruled by local Zayd[lower_case_i_macron] imams, ostensibly in the name of the Ottomans. North Yemen. The modern kingdom of Yemen (North Yemen) had its inception in 1904, when Imam Ya[lower_case_h,_dot_under]y[lower_case_a_macron] [upper_case_H,_dot_under]am[lower_case_i_macron]d al-D[lower_case_i_macron]n revolted against the Ottomans, but it did not achieve full independence until 1918, at the end of World War I. Ya[lower_case_h,_dot_under]y[lower_case_a_macron]'s conflict with Saudi king [single_quotation_mark,_left]Abd al-[single_quotation_mark,_left]Aziz ibn Sa[single_quotation_mark,_left][lower_case_u_macron]d was resolved in 1934, when the disputed area of [single_quotation_mark,_left]As[lower_case_i_macron]r was officially lost to Saudi Arabia. After that, Ya[lower_case_h,_dot_under]y[lower_case_a_macron] styled himself king. He was murdered in 1948 and succeeded by his eldest son, A[lower_case_h,_dot_under]mad. A[lower_case_h,_dot_under]mad repeatedly pressed Yemen's claim to sovereignty over Aden and the Aden Protectorate (South Yemen), resulting in clashes with the British. Yemen joined the League of Arab States in 1945, and two years later the United Nations. In 1958 it established a loose federation with the new United Arab Republic, formed by Egypt and Syria. After Syria's secession from the republic in September 1961, Yemen's tie was also broken. Technical aid had been provided by the West as well as by the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China. On Sept. 27, 1962, only a few days after the death of A[lower_case_h,_dot_under]mad and the accession of his son Mu[lower_case_h,_dot_under]ammad al-Badr to the throne, the military overthrew the monarchy in a coup and proclaimed the Yemen Arab Republic (YAR). The leader, [single_quotation_mark,_left]Abd All[lower_case_a_macron]h al-Sall[lower_case_a_macron]l, became president of the republic and received substantial aid, including military supplies and troops, from Egypt. Royalists, faithful Zayd[lower_case_i_macron], and tribespeople rallied to the king's support, with the backing of Saudi Arabia and Jordan, and civil war ensued for several years. In 1967 Egypt withdrew its troops from Yemen because of war with Israel, and Sall[lower_case_a_macron]l was deposed by other republican leaders. By 1970, after withstanding a royalist siege of the capital, the government had reached an accommodation with most royalist groups and the Saudis. The country remained unstable, however, until Lt. Col. Ali Abdullah Saleh ([single_quotation_mark,_left]Al[lower_case_i_macron] [single_quotation_mark,_left]Abd All[lower_case_a_macron]h [capital_S,_dot_under][lower_case_a_macron]li[lower_case_h,_dot_under]) came to power in 1978. The YAR held its first parliamentary elections in 1988, and the legislature reappointed [capital_S,_dot_under][lower_case_a_macron]li[lower_case_h,_dot_under] as president. South Yemen. In 1839 the British seized Aden from the control of a local sultan to establish a coaling station and guard the route to India. Gradually, the British extended their control inland and eastward to more than 20 sultanates, emirates, and sheikhdoms. Ruled initially from British India, Aden was declared a crown colony in 1937. The surrounding areas were organized as protectorates. Under British sponsorship the various sheikhdoms in the protectorates formed the Federation of Arab Emirates of the South in 1959. Despite objections in Aden, where leaders expressed fear that their resources would be drained off by these poorer regions, the colony was merged with this federation in 1963 to form the Federation of South Arabia. Rival nationalist groups—the Front for the Liberation of Occupied South Yemen (FLOSY) and the National Liberation Front (NLF)—arose in the 1960s and commenced to fight each other and the British for control of South Yemen. The British withdrew amid growing violence in 1967, and the NLF succeeded in defeating FLOSY. Independence came on Nov. 30, 1967, and the head of the NLF, Qa[lower_case_h,_dot_under][lower_case_t,_dot_under][lower_case_a_macron]n al-Sh[lower_case_a_macron]bb[lower_case_i_macron], became president of the People's Republic of South Yemen. On June 22, 1969, Qa[lower_case_h,_dot_under][lower_case_t,_dot_under][lower_case_a_macron]n al-Sh[lower_case_a_macron]bb[lower_case_i_macron] was deposed in a bloodless coup by the more radical wing of the NLF. The following year the country was restyled the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY). All political parties were amalgamated into the National Front (after 1978, Yemen Socialist Party [YSP]), the only legal political organization. The PDRY established close relations with the Soviet Union and its allies and, in the 1970s, supported an insurgency in Dhofar ([capital_Z,_dot_under]uf[lower_case_a_macron]r), a region of Oman adjacent to the South Yemen border. Further coups within the ruling party occurred in 1978 and 1980. Factional tensions—reinforced by personal, tribal, and ideological differences—exploded on Jan. 13, 1986, when Pres. [single_quotation_mark,_left]Al[lower_case_i_macron] N[lower_case_a_macron][lower_case_s,_dot_under]ir Mu[lower_case_h,_dot_under]ammad attempted to have his rivals assassinated during a meeting of the top party leadership. Military units divided along tribal lines and fought for ten days on the streets of Aden, the result of which was 2,000 people dead and the country's political elite decimated. Republic of Yemen. The two Yemens had declared their intention to unite as early as 1972, yet they continued to harbor each other's dissidents, support each other's rebels, and engage in intermittent border warfare, especially in 1972 and 1979. In these conflicts the north received aid from Saudi Arabia and the south from the Soviet Union. In 1989, however, they agreed to form a single country. In this they were encouraged by their shared economic difficulties. Both suffered from declining remittances from workers abroad as oil prices declined in the 1980s, and the development of their own newly discovered oil fields was delayed by their continuing hostilities. In addition, the PDRY suffered from reductions in Soviet aid and from the consequences of its 1986 civil war. A five-member interim governing council was formed with North Yemeni Ali Abdullah Saleh (General People's Congress, or GPC) as president and the leader of South Yemen's YSP as vice president. At the same time the GPC cultivated the Islamic Yemeni I[lower_case_s,_dot_under]l[lower_case_a_macron][lower_case_h,_dot_under] Party (YIP) as an electoral counterweight to the YSP. A constitution was approved by referendum in May 1991; the nation's first free multiparty elections followed in April 1993, but the elected government was never completely formed. Tensions developed between the GPC and parts of the YSP concerning the apportionment of power between the north and south. A 65-day civil war erupted between them in May–July 1994, which was fought primarily in the south. During the fighting, the south attempted to secede but failed to find international recognition. The war ended with the defeat of the secessionists. Afterward the YSP was reorganized but failed to regain its former influence. Yemen opposed the U.S.-led coalition during the Persian Gulf War of 1990–1991, leading to tensions with Saudi Arabia and other countries. It improved relations with its neighbors only after 1994. (Yemen and Saudi Arabia resolved a long-standing border dispute in 2000.) Yemen cooperated in the U.S. war on terrorism initiated after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Some Yemeni citizens, however, sympathized with Islamic radical organizations such as al-Qaeda (al-Qa[single_quotation_mark,_left]ida), and there were attacks against U.S. interests in and around the country. Those included the bombing of the destroyer U.S.S. Cole (Oct. 12, 2000) and the killing of staff members at a Baptist missionary hospital (Dec. 30, 2002). An unmanned aircraft of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency killed al-Qaeda's top operative in Yemen on Nov. 3, 2002, and the Yemeni army launched attacks on local Islamic militants in 2003. Saleh, who had won Yemen's first direct presidential elections in September 1999, was reelected on Sept. 20, 2006.