Inclusion of Education in Military Conflict

25 August 2019

“Ansar Allah” are using education as a warring platform

Mansour Al-Akhali (16 years) did not realize that the mark printed on his athletic shirt would bring him all this trouble. On 16 February 2019, his life was threatened when he was assaulted by his classmates in a private school in southern Sana’a. They have put him down, cursed him, and then ripped his shirt apart. “The shirt was not the reason, it was the American flag printed on it,” Mansour recalls.

Deputy Headmaster of a public school comments on the incident: “Just moments before the attack on Mansour, the students were subjected to an emotional and passionate charge against America, Israel and the internationally recognized government of Yemen. They burnt the flags of the two countries and stepped on photographs of Yemeni Government members. And “when they saw the flag on their colleague’s shirt, they considered it as a betrayal,” explains the school’s deputy headmaster, who preferred anonymity.

Three days before that incident, the same school received a circular from the Educational Media Department at Sanaa Municipality; controlled by Ansar Allah, also known as the Houthis since 2014. The circular instructed the school to orchestrate students’ protests in the morning line-up. It also ordered the school’s radio to reject “normalization” with the US and asked the staff and students to step on the America and Israeli flags for a week.

A supervisor at another public school complains that the school administration receives “daily” instructions from the Education Office in Sana’a and the Ministry of Education, run by Yahya al-Houthi, the brother of the Houthi leader. The supervisor, who requested anonymity for security reasons, said most of the internal circulars focus on “carrying out activities that serve the Houthi community and have nothing to do with school activities that are supposed to develop students’ skills.”

These extracurricular activities are rife in most schools under the control of the Houthis, according to this Reporter’s documentation following tours across 20 schools in two different governorates. Following six months of investigation, the Reporter concluded that Ansar Allah, known as Houthis, imposed on schools “sectarian activities,” in order to convince students of its doctrine. This threatens the community and forces families to transfer their children to schools in other governorates outside the control of this group. Activities of this group outside the perimeters of the educational syllabus include calls for intolerance, instigating students to carry arms and join the front lines, threatening the lives of young men.

Notwithstanding, the Houthi Ministry of Education denies its control on the educational system in areas under its control or the imposition of hate speech on students.

Engineer Mahioub Al-Qubati (43 years) moved his son, Hussam, from al-Tabari School in old Sana’a to People’s School in Taiz, after teachers and students abused him because he refused to chant the slogan of the Houthi group during the morning line-up. The slogan, known as the ‘Scream’ in the morning lineup goes as follows: “death to America….death to Israel …. cursed are the Jews….victory for Islam”.

Al-Qubati states: “They used to say to Hussam that if you do not chant the slogan this means you are with the enemy,” in reference to the Saudi-led Arab alliance supporting the army of Yemeni President Abdurbo Mansour Hadi since the spring of 2015 in the war against the Houthi group.

Enforcing the Slogan

Unscientific questionnaire – distributed to supervisors and principals in 20 schools in Sana’a and Ibb governorate (193 km south of Sanaa)- found that the Huthis enforced pro-Huthi activities on students for a duration of four years which serve their thinking. Teachers, who preferred to withhold their names, said that the Houthis attracted many teachers and appointed school principals loyal to the group, thus carrying the what they call the “Qur’anic culture,” derived from the lectures of the Movement’s founder Hussein al-Houthi. They persuaded many students to chant death for America, Israel and the Jews; slogans used as a cover for sectarian act against Houthi’s adversary in Yemen , according to one teacher.

In analyzing the outcome of the questionnaire, the researcher found that 14 out of 20 respondents confirmed that “most teachers are forced to participate in cultural sessions”, while “four of the respondents believe that teachers go to sessions willingly.” Two of the 20 mentioned that they were participating to avoid punishment.

A supervisor at a public school says that the Ministry of Education has repeatedly sent a volunteer leader, Abdel Fattah Al-Jabri, to give lectures to the students in the morning line-up and distribute posters and brochures bearing the slogans of the Houthis. “In the beginning,” he used to recall the ‘Scream’ after each lecture alone, but over time, several students and teachers started to repeat it after him.

A teacher at Jamal Public School in Tahrir Department in Sana’a confirms this info. He adds that “families belonging to the Hashemite dynasty support the Houthi group and teach its children to repeat the slogan.” There are also students “who are convinced of the ideology of the group,” he adds.


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