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Yemen Country

Running Head: Yemen Country

Yemen country
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Yemen is a desert country in the middle east on the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, the border in the west by the Red Sea and the Bal-el-Mande Strait in the north by Saudi Arabia and in the northeast by Oman. Twenty-six million people live in Yemen, and the largest city and the national capital is Sanaa situated in a mountain valley, the old town of Sanaa is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Also, Yemen official language is Arabic. From history, North Yemen became independent in f1918, the British who had set up a protectorate area around the southern port of Aden, which was an economic center withdrew in 1967 from what became South Temin. Three years later, the Southern government adopted a Marxist orientation. The massive exodus hundreds of Yemen’s from South to north contributed to two decades of hostility between n the states; the two countries were formally unified as the Republic of Yemen in 19990.

Yemen, as a country has got its culture, customs, and even traditions.You find that it shares in many customs and lifeway’s that are found in other parts of the Arab world. Culture is intensely patriarchal, and households usually consist of an extended family living in single domicile.Man is the head of the family, and the woman plays a secondary role in the family, like raising children, among others. Birth of a male child is highly appreciated and followed by circumcision. Men are allowed to marry several wives, and divorce is not usually conventional. Besides, the art of the feud is still real in Yemen, and as a consequence, Yemen is a gun culture. Virtually every household has at least one weapon, and men and boys often carry firearms in public. Even when not carrying a gun, a man will take a dagger, a legendary weapon.

Moreover, the traditional culture of Yemen society is reflected in choices of attire, though the native dress of Yemen differs somewhat from that found in other conservative parts of the Arabia Peninsula. Men sometimes wear the full length, loose-fitting thaw-frequently with a jacket over it but more often the tradition Fatah is worn with a skirt. The turban is a common type of head covering and finely woven bamboo hat (Dunbar (1992)). There are various forms of dress for women depending on the social role that they play for instance in North Yemen women in cities and towns wore the sharsaf, a black skirt, scarf, and veil that covers the entire body. In South Yemen, the regime that succeeded the British after 1967 opposed this women’s attire and it veiled, especially in towns and cities. Dunbar, (1992).
There are also evident ethnic groups in Yemen. You find that Yemen is very homogenous.Nearly are Yemen is believed to be ethnically of southern Arab origin and are traditionally considered descendants of Qahtan. Southern Arabs are considered in local genealogical tradition to be pure Arabs. Many Arabs regard Yemen as their land of origin. There is also a small minority of Ismailis. Dunbar, (1992).
In Yemen, the most critical tribal groupings are the Hashid and the Bakil. Both are influential in politics.Sheikh Abdullah al-Ahmar, the paramount chief of the Hashid who died in 2007, was also speaker of Yemen parliament and leader of the opposition party. President Saleh belongs to the Sanhan tribe part of the Hashid federation. The official opposition is an alliance known as the Joint Meeting Party. Its most prominent members are the Yemeni Congregation for Reform which has Islamist and traditionalist wings and the Yemen Socialist party which ruled the South before unification with the north. Lamprakos, M., (2005).

The crisis in Yemen was caused by prolonged conflict and led to tremendous impacts on human life, essential public services, and the economy. More than two million people were displaced, and 14 million in desperate need of food. The conflicts have its roots in the failure of a political transition supposed to bring stability in Yemen following an Arab Spring uprising that forced its longtime authoritarian president, Ali Abdullah, to hand over power to his deputy in 2011. In late January 2011, after a popular uprising in Tunisia had forced press Zane from power, inspiring similar protests in Egypt, thousands of protesters gathered in Sanaa and several other Yemen cities to call on Salih to step down as president. The protesters chanted pro-democracy slogans and condemned poverty and official corruption. Unlike the Egypt and Tunisia protests, in Yemen appeared to have been organized and directed by a coalition of Yemen opposition groups. The Yemen demonstrations proceeded economic concessions, including a reduction in income tax and an increase in salaries for government employees. Hehmeyer, I., & Schönig, H. (2012).

References
Dunbar, (1992).The Unification of Yemen: Process, Politics &prospects. Middle East Journal 46(3), 456-476
Lamprakos, M., (2005). Rethinking Cultural Heritage: Lessons from Sana'a, Yemen. Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review, 17-37.
Hehmeyer, I., & Schönig, H. (2012). Herbal medicine in Yemen: traditional knowledge and practice, and their value for today's world. Brill.