In an unprecedented security deployment, Houthi security forces have spread across Sana’a, stepping up a campaign of arrests against people suspected of taking part in celebrations marking the anniversary of the September 26 revolution.
The group threatened opposition figures while its supporters continued their campaign against Yemeni women, accusing them of being agents.
Local sources and residents in Sana’a told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Houthis closed Sabeen Square, which is one of the largest squares in Sana’a and an important place for youth and military events.
Houthi forces have deployed armed units in various neighborhoods of the capital and are pursuing youths accused of taking part in the September 26 revolution anniversary celebrations. They arrested many people, including teenagers.
According to sources, the Houthis have promised to release detainees under the age of fourteen after holding them for several days. However, the remaining prisoners will be handed over to intelligence agencies for investigation, raising fears of torture.
The Houthi media continued their campaign against the participants of the celebrations, especially in Sana’a and Ib.
Local sources reported that opposition activists had received death threats for calling for the release of the detainees.
– The government denounces
Yemen’s Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism, Moammar al-Eriani, condemned the Houthis’ smear campaign against Yemeni women who took to the streets of Sana’a, raising flags and chanting national slogans, to mark the 61st anniversary of the September 26 revolution.
Eryani said the campaign revealed “the true and ugly face of the militia and its denial of all values and customs”.
The minister noted that Yemeni women have suffered unprecedented pain since the 2015 Houthi coup, as thousands of women were abducted from their homes, workplaces, public streets and checkpoints.
The Yemeni minister warned of the Houthis’ attempts to “brainwash” through media, platforms and cultural policies implemented in schools and universities.
The attempts aim to “limit the role of women to a reproductive role driven by the idea of jihad and providing child soldiers who use them as fuel for their endless wars and push women to retreat at home”.
The minister characterized the policies of the Houthi group as “destructive policies for society that extend to future generations and with which they are leading Yemen in the footsteps of the Taliban and other terrorist groups to threaten not only the peace of Yemen but also the security and peace of the whole world.”
Eryani criticized the restriction of women’s movement and freedom by preventing them from moving between governorates and traveling through Sana’a airport without a mahram, escorted by male relatives.
He said the Houthis forbid them from working with organizations, using phones and cosmetics, going to restaurants without showing the marriage contract and sitting in public places.
– Various violations
The minister highlighted the Houthis’ practices against women, saying they mobilized and recruited hundreds of women, extorted them for their livelihood and integrated them into their security apparatus known as al-Zainabiyat.
He called on the international community, the United Nations, its special envoy to Yemen, and human and women’s rights organizations to play their part in halting the ongoing Houthi violations against Yemeni women.
According to him, they constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity and a gross violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination against Women.
Eryani stressed the need to work immediately for the release of all abducted and forcibly disappeared women, the prosecution of those involved in crimes and violations against Yemeni women, and the inclusion of the militia and its leaders on terrorist lists.
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