The image above is a photograph taken in 1954 at a meeting in Sanaa of Imam Ahmad and the Saudi king Ibn Saud by an unknown photographer. The image can be found on an extraordinary website of historic images at Das Bild des Orients, which is well worth perusing.
A vendor works on his computer at a market in the Old Sanaa city May 16, 2012
Here is an extraordinary photograph from the Sanaa suq of a merchant, holding a mouse that roars louder for Yemen’s future than the images of the Presidents on the surrounding walls.
There is a series of photographs of the Yemeni youth skateboard culture in Sanaa in the Toronto Star.
woman in Sanaa, March, 1978; Photo by Daniel Martin Varisco
The aftermath of the protests in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, left many walls filled with dueling graffiti. One Yemeni artist has taken to the streets, bringing neighborhoods together, to take back the walls through art. See the video here.
The international jury of the 55th annual World Press Photo Contest has selected a picture by Samuel Aranda from Spain as the World Press Photo of the Year 2011. The picture shows a woman holding a wounded relative in her arms, inside a mosque used as a field hospital by demonstrators against the rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, during clashes in Sanaa, Yemen on 15 October 2011. Samuel Aranda was working in Yemen on assignment for The New York Times. He is represented by Corbis Images.
Comments on the winning photo by the jury
Koyo Kouoh: “It is a photo that speaks for the entire region. It stands for Yemen, Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Syria, for all that happened in the Arab Spring. But it shows a private, intimate side of what went on. And it shows the role that women played, not only as care-givers, but as active people in the movement.”
Nina Berman: “In the Western media, we seldom see veiled women in this way, at such an intimate moment. It is as if all of the events of the Arab Spring resulted in this single moment – in moments like this.”
Aidan Sullivan: “The winning photo shows a poignant, compassionate moment, the human consequence of an enormous event, an event that is still going on. We might never know who this woman is, cradling an injured relative, but together they become a living image of the courage of ordinary people that helped create an important chapter in the history of the Middle East.”
Manoocher Deghati: “The photo is the result of a very human moment, but it also reminds us of something important, that women played a crucial part in this revolution. It is easy to portray the aggressiveness of situations like these. This image shows the tenderness that can exist within all the aggression. The violence is still there, but it shows another side.” Continue reading World Press Photo of the Year 2011
Revolution in Their Eyes: Activist Photography from Yemen’s Revolution
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Opening Friday, January 27, 2012, 6.30 to 8.30 pm
The images in this show are the work of several activist-photographers. They provide a glimpse of the reality—both brutal and beautiful—of daily life inside Change Square, the heart of the revolution in Yemen’s capital, San’a.
The Revolution
Since February 2011, hundreds of thousands of citizens from every walk of life have taken to the streets of Yemen’s cities and towns to demand the ouster of President ‘Ali ‘Abdullah Saleh’s regime, which has ruled the country for 33 years. In spite of violent repression, the revolutionaries have pledged to persevere until Yemen is free.
The Yemen Peace Project
Founded in early 2010, the Yemen Peace Project is an international network of activists and scholars whose mission is to develop and promote peaceful solutions to the challenges faced by the people of Yemen. It provides up-to-date, accurate information about events in Yemen, and is a conduit to Yemeni activists so their voices are heard in the U.S. The Yemen Peace Project has also launched a series of fundraising campaigns to support medical and humanitarian efforts among Yemen’s most vulnerable citizens.
Cosponsored by the Yemen Peace Project
Opening Friday, January 27, 2012, 6.30 to 8.30 pm
Room 6304.24 (MEMEAC space)
Photos will be on view until June 2012
Qu’ran manuscript in Western Library of the Great Mosque, Sanaa
by Arie Amaya-Akkermans, bikyamasr, 13 December 13, 2011
In recent articles on Bikyamasr.com, it was reported at length on the diversity of cultural sites, part of Yemen’s vast cultural heritage, that were threatened with neglect and destruction, partly because of the inability of the Yemeni authorities to preserve them and partly because of the state of unrest caused by the Yemeni uprising – namely the ancient cities of Sana’a, Shibam and Zabid, in which thousands of years of rich history are likely to become yet another casualty in Yemen’s struggle for freedom from the 33-years old dictatorial rule of Ali Abdullah Saleh.
It is fortunate however that these three ancient cities are considered UNESCO world heritage sites, due to the fact that they have received attention from international organizations – most prominently the government of Germany – and some degree of action has been taken in order to minimize the damage, or at least, that was the case until the beginning of the Yemeni uprising. The extent of the real damage done to the sites in the course of 2011 remains yet to be properly assessed in a post-revolutionary scenario.
More unfortunate is the fate not only of other sites but of something much more intangible but equally valuable: The rich intellectual Islamic heritage of the country embodied in over 50000 manuscripts held in many libraries and private holdings. The astounding numbers and the nature of the manuscripts make Yemen one of the most important archival collections in the world, easily rivaling similar holdings of Islamic manuscripts in the national libraries of Cairo, Istanbul and Teheran. Continue reading The Zaydi manuscripts of Northern Yemen