International reporting

In Malaysia, the Yemeni diaspora struggles to tell their story

Audio 02:30

A view of Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia.

(Illustrative image) Getty Images - Photo by Sayid Budhi

By: Gabrielle Maréchaux Follow

3 mins

For Yemenis who fled the war in their country, the unknown and often misunderstood nature of this conflict has become one of its main issues.

In Malaysia, one of the few countries to accept Yemeni citizens without a visa, members of the diaspora confide.

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This is a reality that many in Malaysia ignore.

Islam, which a majority of the population practices, was spread in the country by merchants and clerics from the region of Hadhramaut in Yemen.

Their descendants now occupy prestigious positions in the country, among royalty and the ministers who have succeeded each other since independence.

In recent years, other Yemenis have come to Malaysia to flee the war, without gaining the prestige of those who came centuries earlier.

Leena al-Mujahed is the head of the Malaysian Refugee Women's Organization.

This conflict that they fled remains unknown to all.

“ 

When we tell people that there is a war in Yemen, they are always surprised,

assures Leena al Mujahed. 

They never know what the causes and the belligerents are.

 »

However, Yemen and its access to the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb should challenge.

“ 

It's a very strategic location,

”  adds Leena.

 Countries should therefore take an interest in it.

Also, with the food crisis and concerns over access to water, Yemen is one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world today.

 »

But if this war is misunderstood, it is also misunderstood according to Jumana, who fled Yemen after participating in the Arab Spring movement and then having his house bombed.

Very often, she laments, the conflict is presented as religious in nature, with the Sunni majority on one side and a Zaydi minority belonging to a very particular branch of Shiism on the other.

A division a thousand miles from Yemen that she knows perfectly.

“ 

My father is Zaydite and my brother is Sunni, but they always prayed side by side

,” says Jumana.

We never had different mosques and I never heard, growing up, that the Sunnis should do this or the Zaydites should do this.

It is only since the war that we hear this rhetoric.

 »

Another aspect that torments Jumana, the lack of legitimacy of the current president of Yemen, Abdrabbo Mansour Hadi, who arrived at the head of the country following an election where he was the only candidate and boycotted in certain regions of the country, after the movement Arab Springs.

“ 

There was a political agreement between all the stakeholders, to avoid a conflict,

explains Jumana. 

What was planned and announced is that Mansour Hadi will remain in power for two years for a transition period, until the situation calms down, and then proper elections are organised.

 »

Ten years later, the elections have never happened, and it is by ensuring that it wants to support this supposedly temporary president that Saudi Arabia, at the head of a coalition of countries, has interfered in the Yemeni civil war.

In recent weeks, Jumana has struggled to reach those who were unable to leave his country when coalition bombings cut internet connections in Yemen.

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  • Yemen

  • Malaysia

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