By Mariam Al-Hadhrami ~
You will find, in midst of war and poverty, in Yemen, something painfully beautiful: individuals living with resilience and grace and gratitude for the possibility of change through simplicity. Resilience here is not resource- or material-dependent but shared respect for dignity and solidarity spanning through communal practice of sharing.
Sit and think of Yemeni fathers and mothers holding the foamy hot bubbling pot of saltah, Yemen’s archetype century-old stew. It is not gulped but a banquet of unity. Preparation is cooperation ritual because women, men, and children gather in the kitchen, limiting lines of cooperation and making culture sacred. Such meals are not gulped but enjoyed like pleasure, intimacy, and heritage.
Where it is lacking, Yemeni live on what they can manage and endured for centuries. They live on the nation’s breadwinner–beans, grains, and vegetables–and backyard plot gardens because these are cheap and within easy reach locally through cooperative cultivation. Fruit is traded to neighbors, chats, and services and exhibit total interdependence for assistance in variety and form but not total dependency.
And this modest kind of beauty to Yemen. Modest kind of beauty in modest mud-brick homes to be and to be with the earth. They are acts of disobedience, being acts, acts of self, acts of culture. Not head roof but heart of people more for life and for beauty of the modest.
Yemeni festivities encompass this precept and the finest individuals with it. Maulid — Prophet Muhammad’s birthday — is merged and involves the suburbs in an exercise of affection. The scent of food circulating among them rises and falls through all the boulevards with melodies and dances of all ages. These festivities outstrip bitterness among individuals, that their religion and culture are the cause of their cheerfulness to date.
They are no less vital to the building of that social fabric. They are columns of Yemeni home and society—guarding houses in each other’s company, investing in petty commerce, and otherwise drawing social attention. Women are mistress of self-control and dominion, weaving fable and narrative which charm the generation to come and fan the fire of communal life.
Lastly. Yemeni culture also instructs us where beauty lies, in plain clothes. Being genuine about themselves and having experienced days of endurance, they establish a life of unblemished dependency, buoyancy, and hope. History in the past surely does serve itself so well to the extent that pride of culture and unity guarantee success with most issues.
Further Reading & References:
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Learn more about the cultural significance of saltah
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Explore traditional Yemeni architecture and its cultural importance
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Discover the spiritual meaning of Maulid celebrations
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Insights on the role of women in Yemeni society from UN Women