I haven't seen anyone in the English press covering this, so allow me to.

Something pretty significant took place on the administrative level in Yemen today, related to the country's path to resurrection and self-sufficiency.

All spearheaded by the so-called "Houthis". Firstly, to understand this, I have to make it clear that the "Houthis" actually run a government in Yemen from the capital Sana'a. It's a real institution with ministries and government bodies exercising direct jurisdiction over 80% of the Yemeni population.

I didn't want to entertain this whole "Houthi slavery" nonsense, but it's been going for far too long that I feel compelled to address what is always omitted: Historical context and socioeconomic nuance.

Yemen is an incredibly poor country, and has been so for most of its modern existence. Not by the fault of the Yemeni people themselves, since many are incredibly well educated with a genuine desire to turn the ship around.

What has happened in Yemen's case, is that they've never been given the option to progress naturally like other countries have. Foreign stakeholders, colonial powers and feudal tribalism have stifled this poor country for decades, a problem that has been addressed by countless Yemeni heads of state.

Slavery was abolished by the then-Yemen Arab Republic in 1962. This law has never been tampered with, and institutionally and legally speaking, the practice of slavery remains not just illegal, but with high penalties if anyone is found guilty of it.

Here's where it gets tricky:

Yemen was never actually allowed to develop as a cohesive and centralized state because the colonial powers - and Saudi Arabia - saw an interest in boosting and bolstering the sociopolitical influence of Yemen's tribes as a counterweight to the government(s) in Sana'a and Aden. These tribal groups still lived according to feudal pre-Republican social norms, and republican jurisdiction rarely ever affected them.

When Col. Ibrahim Al-Hamdi rose to power in a bloodless coup in 1974, he immediately decided to disband the Ministry of Tribal Affairs in order to limit the authority of the tribes, and to unify authority under one central leadership. It worked. Problem was, by doing so, Hamdi had essentially shut off Saudi Arabia's main access into Yemen's state apparatus, and had to be dealt with accordingly. He was murdered in 1977, and a puppet figure was installed in his place.

At every turn, indigenous Yemeni progress has been stifled and objected to by the United Kingdom, the US and Saudi Arabia, leading to the incredibly poor state that Yemen finds itself in today. It didn't help that these three regimes formed a tripartite coalition that has bombed and besieged the country for almost a decade.

Slavery has not been a legal practice in Yemen since 1962, but conditions such as extreme poverty in the countryside may have led to its partial and limited reintroduction. Same thing goes for child marriages, where poor families seek to have their daughters married off as early as possible in order to gain certain financial benefits that usually follows the marriage procedure.

Poverty remains the primary reason for these phenomena, but the Yemeni people have never been able to address and mitigate it as they have time and time again sought to do.

No faction, be it the "Houthis" or any other group, has ever announced an institutional reintroduction of slavery. It is impossible to hold them accountable for the practices of isolated and desperately poor communities in the rural areas.

The difference is crucial but deliberately brushed over. The socialist government in South Yemen faced a similar problem when elementary education became compulsory by law. Impoverished rural families could not afford to send their children to school. They had to stay at home to help with farming and livestock just to remain alive.

What are the "Houthis" actually fighting for?

🧵Let's take a look at their own political program.

If you were previously unaware, the following may surprise you. The 'National Vision for the Modern Yemeni State', adopted unilaterally by the Supreme Political Council in 2019, is the only document that can rightly be considered the de-facto political program of the "Houthis".

Recent actions by the Ansarallah, while serving a clear strategic purpose, is also a symbol of the Yemen's refusal to bow to the same powers that have kept it impoverished and downtrodden for a hundred years.

🧵Mega thread of Yemen's history.

(Will be updated continuously.) We start with North Yemen.

North Yemen had just regained its political autonomy after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in 1918, with judicial and executive power granted to Imam Yahya Hamideddin al-Mutawwakil, the proclaimed king of Yemen's newly-created monarchy.

The symbolic & strategic victory of the Palestinian Operation Aqsa Flood should not be underestimated, and it is wholly inaccurate to portray it as a "rampage" or "rogues gone loose in the streets" as some have tried to do in order to whitewash a disproportionate IOF response. In fact, as we have all borne witness to, the operation was shrewdly calculated and mostly depended on the acquisition and capturing of Israeli POWs to be used as chess pieces.

Whatever Israel does from now on, it will always lose.

The most outspoken Yemeni socialist leader at the turn of the century was Jarallah Omar, the then-deputy secretary of the Socialist Party.

In 2002, during a conference organized by the Islah Party, a gunman rose up and fatally shot Jarallah Omar twice in the chest. At that time both the Socialist Party and the Islah Party were organized in what was called "The Joint Meeting Parties", the official parliamentary opposition to Ali Abdullah Saleh's rule.

The gunman had known and proven ties to the Islah party as well.

Popular Front for the Liberation of Oman poster celebrating the 20th Anniversary of its revolution, 1985

The bottom text reads:

"A continuous struggle for freedom, democracy and peace." The PFLO maintained contact with dozens of solidarity committees worldwide, including a committee based in Denmark. The Danish committee published official PFLO bulletins in the Danish language.

"A red star above Yemen".

Another book yet to be translated.

I am so deliriously excited to be working on this project. If any of my Arabic-speaking mutuals would like to help out with this gigantic project, please do not be afraid to reach out.

We are only a handful of people spread out across the seven seas, and we could definitely make use of a helping hand or two.

Work is currently ongoing in Sana'a for the construction of a monument dedicated to Abu Fadhl Tomer, the heroic Yemeni fighter who saved dozens of wounded comrades beneath a mountain in a beat-up BMP-1 APC before inevitably achieving the fate of martyrdom for his country. The monument, immortalizing an ultimate sacrifice, will feature a 1x1 scale model of the vehicle Abu Fadhl Tomer drove to save his countrymen and his friends.

Architectural rendering of Yemeni port city Hodeidah's new waterfront. To be constructed within the next few years according to an agreed time frame. Designed with public recreation in mind.

Crazy how the one time Yemen tries its luck with a peaceful revolution it is immediately hijacked by Muslim Brotherhood reactionaries and the GCC.

September 26, October 14 and September 21st were all armed rebellions deeply rooted in anti-colonial sentiment. I am of course referring to the "Youth Revolution" that took place on February 11th, 2011, which is barely being celebrated anymore.

All it did was open the gates for the Islah party to exert dominance in state affairs.

It's crazy to think that Al-Qaeda developed as an outgrowth of a militia established in opposition to the growing popularity of the NDF, a Marxist guerilla movement operating in Northern Yemen during the 70s & 80s.

Video: NDF fighters in control of Albaydha city North Yemen experienced its own quasi civil war during this period known as the "Front Wars", pitting the Marxist National Democratic Front against the Saudi-funded Islamic Front.

Both the Yemeni Islah Party & Al-Qaeda developed as an outgrowth of the Islamic Front.