#3 Looks like they may be being arrested for being Akhdam;
The Akhdam, literally "servants" in Arabic, is the lowest rung in the Yemeni caste system and by far the poorest. Marginalized and shunned by mainstream society, its members live in small shantytowns, mostly in big cities, including the capital, San'a. The common belief is that the Akhdam descended from the remnants of the Ethiopian kingdom in Yemen, defeated in the sixth century. Its soldiers were consigned to the lowest form of servitude. As a result, they are viewed as dirty and polluted. As one popular Yemeni proverb puts it: "Clean your plate if touched by a dog, but break it if touched by a Khadem" — the singular form of Akhdam.
"Once I joked with my brother that I had eaten with a Khadem," recalls a student at San'a University. "He became angry and said: 'Stay away from me! You're a Khadem. They're filthy, and they don't pray!' "
In Yemen's conservative Muslim society, Yemenis see the Akhdam as not fulfilling their religious duties, and therefore consider them impure. Huda Seif, a fellow at Emory Law School, said in a report last year: "The further condemnation of the 'non-Arab' as a fallen Muslim, who is unable to fully carry out the moral codes of Islam, only serves to legitimize the initial ethnic difference and prejudices, which are unequivocally proscribed in Islamic teachings." No official figures exist on the Akhdam population, but a study conducted by the United Nations Children's Fund in the late 1990s estimated there were roughly 200,000 in Yemen.
Hard to say from the article, but "being descended from the Ethiopian kingdom" may be one way of saying they're black. |
A security decision was issued last week for banning women belonging to the marginalized category from walking in the evening in many zones in the city of Taiz [Yemen]. Colonel Nasser al-A'awash, General Director of the Police Department of West Taiz, told the Yemen Times that his department received numerous complaints by locals in al-Musalla Street urging policemen to arrest marginalized women ( from Akhdam category) who walk in the street over the night. According to locals, these women commit immoral crimes with youths in the zone. Colonel al-A'awash added all the marginalized women are prohibited from walking in streets at night, and some of them were arrested and released after they pledged not to leave their homes at night. According to the police, whosoever violates the regulations will be arrested and punished.