Fahmi Mohammed
Writer and Head of the Political Department of the Yemeni Socialist Party – Taiz
With a progressive political vision that transcended the notion of traditional political reform and the “Sacred Covenant” of 1948, the spark of the September 26, 1962 Revolution ignited in northern Yemen, led by a group of Free Officers (foremost among them the martyr Ali Abdul-Moghni and Juzailan). It tore down the wall of darkness imposed by the theocratic Imamate regime, heralding the dawn of a republican system founded on the principles of freedom, justice, equality, and modern citizenship.
The September 26 Revolution was not merely a military coup, but a popular political revolution against a political–social tyranny that thrived on superstition and ignorance. For centuries, the Imamate had relied on a so-called “divine right to rule,” through which one specific lineage was granted exclusive control of political power. In doing so, the Imamate entrenched a class-based political system that not only reduced Yemenis to the status of servants and subjects, but also turned Yemen for centuries into a private estate for a family claiming descent from the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).
Today, more than six decades later, Yemenis are not only recalling that dark past and celebrating the historic liberation brought by the revolution, but are also living through its repetition under the rule of the Houthi movement, which every day revives its political, social, and cultural patterns.
The Houthis, having infiltrated the state and its institutions, did not stop at seizing power by force of arms. They began re-engineering the Imamate model in all its malignant detail, while adding modern elements of repression and sectarian extremism. This militia has rebuilt the political and authoritarian structure on the basis of absolute monopoly of power and wealth, consolidating a de facto authority that rejects political participation, erases the other, and reduces the nation and its state to a genealogical group claiming ethnic supremacy over the Yemeni people.
It is a contemporary reincarnation of theocratic rule: the absolute Wilaya (religious guardianship/authority) of the group’s leader within a republic replacing the Imamate, collapsing the people’s will and the revolution’s achievements into the fiction of divine delegation. The group presents itself as God’s sole representative on earth under the political banner of “the Wilaya of Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib”—the very same claims once advanced by the Hamid al-Din family during the Imamate, which the September Revolution rose to overthrow.
To tighten its grip, the Houthi movement has revived the old tools of fragmentation within society. Instead of reinforcing the unified national identity that the republic sought to establish, it has methodically promoted sub-identities and narrow loyalties, spreading sectarian and even regional allegiances at odds with citizenship. In this way, it has engineered social division along sectarian lines, splitting society between those “believers” loyal to its leadership and those “outsiders” it deems incomplete in faith and Islam.
The Houthis have revived and re-engineered the old class system, this time on sectarian and regional foundations under the slogan of the “Qur’anic March.” Superiority and privilege are granted to followers of their sect and loyal regions, while others are condemned to marginalization, exclusion, and even targeting. They have shamelessly exploited Yemen’s tribal fabric, conscripting young tribesmen through coercion and material inducement, ripping apart the country’s social cohesion, and turning its youth into fuel for wars that serve only the militia’s grip on power.
Over the past years, the militia has realized that monopolizing education and manipulating awareness are the most lethal weapons in its struggle for dominance. Just as the Imamate once feared the pen and confined knowledge, the Houthis today seek to erase every bond tying Yemenis to their national identity and civic values, replacing them with a narrow sectarian identity. Curricula have been rewritten to become instruments of indoctrination and social engineering, producing generations who know nothing but the culture of Wilaya, jihad, takfir, and hostility toward the other. They have waged war on all expressions of national culture, crushed union, artistic, and creative freedoms, and imprisoned intellectuals and thinkers—knowing full well that national awareness is the first enemy of any authoritarian regime.
To guarantee their survival, the militia has turned war itself into a policy of impoverishment and a tool of economic control. The rentier, privilege-based economy they dominate—drawing on customs revenues, aid, remittances, and the so-called “fifth levy”—enriches only militia leaders and fighters while deepening the people’s poverty. Their aim is not only enrichment but also to render society dependent and subdued, surviving only on what the group dispenses.
In the face of this bleak reality, drawing inspiration from the spirit of the September 1962 Revolution becomes a national necessity—reviving the Six Goals of the Revolution as a comprehensive framework for resistance and civil peace.
Confronting the Houthis’ false religious legitimacy requires reviving national legitimacy and the principle of equal citizenship proclaimed by the revolution. Resisting their dismemberment of social cohesion requires reinforcing a collective national identity above all sub-identities. Fighting the new genealogical class system demands elevating values of equality and social justice. Liberating education and culture from sectarian indoctrination continues the revolution’s struggle for freedom and knowledge. Breaking their policy of impoverishment and isolation requires building a resilient national economy that restores dignity and independence to the people.
Inspiring ourselves with the spirit of September does not mean treating it only as a revolt against the Hamid al-Din family; it means adopting its revolutionary character and idea as a continuing national struggle against all forms of political, social, and cultural despotism. The renewed determination in the heart of every Yemeni to be free, to be equal in rights and duties, to be a decision-maker in their homeland, and to hold the right to assume authority through democracy—all this determination is the true embodiment of September’s spirit in confronting the Houthi movement.
Our ancestors defeated the Imamate with all its backwardness. Today, despite immense suffering, the Yemeni people are resisting Houthi regression with the tools of the modern age. This resistance may be slower, but it is certain. Its aim: to bring down the new image that mirrors the ugly face of the Imamate.
From yesterday to today, the essence of the struggle remains unchanged: the Yemenis’ relentless battle for freedom, dignity, and equal citizenship
