• alvvayson@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    7
    arrow-down
    8
    ·
    edit-2
    2 months ago

    I’m not a fan of the Houthis, but these people are really the equivalent of American guntoting Y’alliban. They like their guns and they like their free speech and they hate foreign countries propping up dictators who oppress them.

    The slogan eventually became a sign of public protest against the dictatorship of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh… The Houthi movement officially adopted the slogan in the wake of the widely condemned 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. This brought the movement on a collision course with the government, as the government maintained its official pro-American politics despite public opposition. The slogan was outlawed. The Houthis refused to discard it, arguing that the constitution of Yemen protected free speech. By 2004, crackdowns against both the slogan as well as the Houthi movement intensified. Many Houthis were imprisoned and even tortured for having used it.

      • alvvayson@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        6
        ·
        2 months ago

        Where did I call them freedom fighters?

        I certainly don’t think the Y’alliban are freedom fighters.

        I am no fan of the Houthis, but you can’t just ignore that they were also oppressed by a dictator propped up by the USA and that they suffered one of the worst famines in the 21st century thanks to the USA and Saudi-Arabia.

        They are Yemeni Nationalists propped up by Iran.

        No one has clean hands in this conflict.