If you’ve ever wondered which nation Bob Marley claimed as his favorite, the answer is Yemen – and it’s even funnier when you shout it out while a little buzzed. This top 10 fascinating roundup will take you on a whirlwind tour of Yemen’s wild history, politics, culture, and everyday oddities.
top 10 fascinating facts about Yemen
10 President For Life . . . . Until Death
The ever‑present President Ali Abdullah Saleh literally became a permanent resident of a grave plot in December 2017. After being ousted from the throne he’d occupied for 33 years during the 2011 Arab Spring, Saleh was desperate to claw his job back – after all, the constitution technically allowed a president for life.
In a bold move, Saleh allied himself with the Iranian‑backed Houthi rebels, the very forces he’d battled in six previous wars, and for a short spell it paid off. His successor was forced to flee to Saudi Arabia and Saleh briefly enjoyed a resurgence, even likening his role to “dancing upon the heads of snakes.”
Of course, he soon realized that the Houthis were essentially unhinged tribesmen who spent their days high on khat and killing for sport. Saleh concluded that his original plan to eliminate every last mother’s son was still sound – and he re‑invited the Saudis back into the fray.
The Houthis, feeling jilted like a disgraced bride at a shotgun wedding, turned on Saleh with the ferocity of AK‑47 wielding zealots. They hunted him down as he tried to escape, and ultimately shot him dead, ending the brief reign of Yemen’s only democratically elected president.
9 Proxy War Agogo
We touched on the proxy war earlier, but it deserves a deeper dive into who’s actually fighting whom. While on the surface the Yemeni conflict looks like a Sunni‑versus‑Shia showdown – Saudi Arabia versus Iran – the reality is a tangled web of alliances.
Surprisingly, many Sunni Yemenis threw their lot in with the Houthi rebels, irritated by the post‑Arab Spring chaos. Adding to the madness are the mischievous Al‑Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) operatives, eager to prove they can match the bomb‑making prowess of a 15‑year‑old ISIS recruit.
And yes, ISIS is also involved – because why not? Their presence adds another layer of “joy” to an already convoluted battlefield.
On one side you have the Houthis, whose battle flag proudly proclaims, “God is great, death to America, death to Israel, God curse the Jews. Victory for Islam.” Opposing them, AQAP sports a less catchy slogan but famously blew up the USS Cole in 2000.
The Houthis enjoy backing from various Sunni interests across the Middle East, but not from the Saudis, whom AQAP is keen to assassinate. Meanwhile, the Houthis also aim to kill the Saudis, though their missile strikes on Riyadh have yet to succeed.
On the opposite side stand Yemeni government forces, bolstered by Morocco, Jordan, the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, and a legion of government‑aligned tribes. Their shared goal? Simply put, kill the Houthis.
Bottom line: trust no one, and definitely don’t book a vacation to Yemen right now.
8 The Only Arab Communist Country
Communism and Islam may seem like unlikely bedfellows, but when you strip Marx and Engels of their anti‑religious zeal, a surprising partnership emerges. Various Middle Eastern groups have attempted to fuse the “science” of communism with their faith.
South Yemen actually succeeded in establishing a socialist government that lasted roughly two decades until the country’s reunification in 1990.
Unable to dominate the newly unified Yemeni populace, the socialists launched a civil war in 1994 against President Saleh, a decision that proved disastrous.
Saleh, backed by the United States – the ever‑reliable arm‑supplier for anti‑communist forces – faced an opponent whose only communist allies were the distant regimes of Cuba and North Korea, offering merely verbal solidarity.
After months of fighting and about 6,000 communist casualties, Saleh emerged victorious, ushering in a brief period of peace before the conflict reignited later.
7 The Queen Of Sheba Was Possibly Yemeni — If She Existed At All
According to the Quran, the legendary Queen of Sheba (known as “Saba”) hailed from Yemen around the 10th century BC. King Solomon invited her to his court, hoping she’d convert to Judaism – a proposition that bewildered the sun‑ and moon‑worshipping monarch.
The Quranic narrative claims Solomon summoned a djinn to whisk Bilqis (the queen’s name) and her throne from Yemen to his palace in an instant.
There’s also a competing claim involving Queen Makeda of Axum, who traveled to meet Solomon, resulting in a brief, passionate liaison that allegedly produced a line of Solomonid kings ending with Ethiopia’s Haile Selassie in 1974.
While the Ethiopian version of the story is more widely accepted, both traditions hint at a shared cultural heritage, as Yemen and Ethiopia were once part of the same empire.
6 Yemeni Democracy
In 1993 Yemen became the Arabian Peninsula’s pioneer in holding multiparty elections under universal suffrage. Fifty women entered the race, and two secured seats in parliament.
Subsequent parliamentary elections slated for 2009 were postponed twice, and in 1999 Saleh finally ran for president in a direct vote. He faced an obscure fellow party member, covered his opponent’s campaign costs, and won with a staggering 96.3 % of the vote.
Since then, Saleh’s General People’s Congress has dominated Yemeni politics, cementing his legacy despite the nation’s turbulent upheavals.
5 The Worst Place To Live As A Woman
Being a Yemeni woman is a monumental challenge. Beyond the religious constraints inherent in Islam, socioeconomic and cultural pressures compound the oppression.
Twenty‑four percent of Yemeni women have endured female genital mutilation – a figure that soars to 69 % in coastal regions – and only about one‑third of women are literate, though some estimates suggest higher rates.
According to the United Nations, half of Yemeni girls marry before they turn 18, and 15 % wed before age 15. Within marriage, women lack equal rights to custody, divorce, or inheritance, and they must obtain a husband’s or father’s permission to travel or obtain a passport.
Legislation aimed at improving women’s rights was on the verge of ratification in parliament, but the outbreak of war halted the process, leaving the harmful practice of female genital mutilation unchecked.
4 The ‘Manhattan Of The Desert’ Features Mud Skyscrapers
Ever wondered how tall a mud‑brick tower could get? In the Yemeni city of Shibam, architects managed to stack mud bricks into eleven‑story skyscrapers, a feat accomplished half a millennium ago while the West was still grappling with clean water.
These towering mud structures have stood for 500 years, earning Shibam the nickname “the Manhattan of the Desert.” The city was listed as a World Heritage Site in Danger when civil war erupted, threatening its fragile heritage.
Beyond the obvious threats from Saudi, Al‑Qaeda, and ISIS forces, Shibam also battles relentless erosion and occasional typhoons that erode its mud foundations, demanding constant maintenance.
The architectural style originally served to protect inhabitants from Bedouin raids; today, the only difference is that the attackers now fly F‑16s.
3 Sunni‑Shia Axis: Swinging Between Tolerance And War
The majority of Yemen’s populace follows Islam, split primarily between Sunni and Zaidi Shia branches. The schism traces back to a historic dispute over the Prophet Muhammad’s rightful successor.
Shia Muslims argue that the Prophet’s cousin should have succeeded him, while Sunnis support the appointment of Abu Bakr, the Prophet’s close confidant, as the first caliph.
Historically, Yemen has been relatively tolerant of religious diversity, even amidst Sunni‑Shia tensions. Not all Zaidi are Houthis, and not all Houthis represent Zaidi Islam, underscoring the nuance between tribal and religious identities.
When tribal politics dominate, religious differences often recede to the background, allowing for periods of coexistence despite occasional flare‑ups.
2 Tribalism Is Overstated
The ongoing Yemeni conflict has shone a spotlight on tribal combatants, a focus that many analysts argue is exaggerated. Yemeni political scholar Abdul Ghani al‑Iryani warned in 2011 that Western observers overstate tribal influence.
He defined a “tribal” individual as someone whose primary loyalty lies with the tribe – answering a sheik’s call to arms. By his estimate, only about 20 % of Yemenis fit that description; the remaining 80 % are urban dwellers or peasants with non‑tribal identities.
This distinction matters because while many Yemenis simply want to survive without being bombed, tribal fighters have historically struggled against well‑equipped opponents, though they excel at guerrilla tactics.
The mismatch between tribal combat style and modern warfare may partly explain why the civil war drags on, with the government unable to decisively defeat tribal militias.
1 The Only Way To Get High Is By Chewing Leaves And Everyone Does It
About ninety percent of Yemeni men and one in four women chew khat leaves, a habit that can be a startling sight for newcomers who find most locals with mouths full of foliage.
When chewed, saliva breaks down the plant’s cells, releasing a mild amphetamine‑like stimulant into the bloodstream. As one market vendor puts it, “khat is the alcohol for Muslims.”
Khat is an expensive addiction: a daily supply costs roughly US $5, a hefty expense in a country where 45 % of the population lived below the poverty line before the war, leading to severe food shortages.
Because families often spend as much on khat as on food, vast tracts of arable land have been converted to khat cultivation, generating revenue but also exacerbating the humanitarian crisis when conflict erupted.
Ash Sharp is editor of Republic Standard.