Every Friday, the opposition organizes the noon prayer on 60-Meter Road outside the University of Science and Technology Hospital. The number of participants various widely depending on the political situation. Friday, April 13th is one of the lighter days with festival-like atmosphere. Even the soldiers were relaxed enough to pose for pictures with kids. The day was named Friday of “Loyalty to Abyan”, the province that has seen the heaviest fighting between the Yemeni army and militants calling themselves Ansar al-Sharia – Partisans of Sharia Law.
By now you probably have read about the armed conflicts and persistent power outages in Yemen, but to Sana’a residents, the most pressing problem at the moment is the mounting garbage due to the strike by garbage collectors and street cleaners who are demanding salaried positions instead of daily wages. I saw one garbage truck on Hadda Street today, does it mean the strike is about to end?
This was how my friend described yesterday. We had no electricity and it pretty much rained all day yesterday. In the years past I had always enjoyed the rain because it kept the temperature cool and presented interesting skies for photography, but this year with all the depressing news coming out of Yemen, the gloomy sky just added another layer of melancholy.
Ever since the conflict began in January 2011, anti-government protesters have occupied the area in front of the main gate of Sana’a University. Traditionally, the Liberation Square (Maidan Al Tahrir) has been THE place to gather and protest but it was occupied by government supporters, so protesters, mostly university students in the beginning, settled on occupying the ring road in front of the university. They named the place Change Square, but it really is a big intersection surrounded by businesses and residential buildings.
Hind 2012 6 photos Hind's new family lives only blocks away from the worst fighting that took place between the government troops and Al Ahmar family in May, 2010. During the week of intense fighting in May 2010, residents were too afraid to get out of the house to get food. Hind survived it on [...]
Change Square, Sana'a, Yemen 19 photos At 9AM, the qat seller is already getting ready to do business. Nothing really changes at Change Square. ساحة التغيير بصنعاء اليمن Since the election of the new president, nothing much is going on in Change Square these days. It looks more like a market than a political gathering. [...]
I meant to post this last week, but the daily rain shower means that we’ve been having problems with both electricity and internet. Last Friday we lost power for about 24 hours because the transformer was shorted out. I’m not complaining too much though. While everywhere else in the Middle East is baking in the [...]
Building Disaster – A Tale of Three Windows
My friend Zainab was learning how to paint and got me interested. For three afternoons, we sat on my balcony and attempted to paint the gorgeous view in front of us. Neither of us knew how to paint, so it was like blind leading the blind. I had a pretty good idea of what I [...]
Today marks the 20th anniversary of Yemen's North-South Unification. While people in the North proudly display flags and hang banners to celebrate the occasion, many in the South see it as a slap in the face from a government dominated by northerners who oppress and marginalize the South, and pilfer natural resources to fatten their [...]
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