Yemen’s Ultimate Marginalized Group

Racism and classism have both been really serious issues both in the West and in the East, back in the past and most probably in the future too. In a land in between the Western World and the Eastern World, racism and classism flourish so horribly strong. It’s neither in the past nor in the supposed upcoming future, but it’s in the present. At this very moment, a marginalized group called the Al-Akhdam is excluded from a range of privileges that most people outside of the group can easily access.

Al-Akhdam or Khadem (الأخدام‎) (“the servants” in Arabic) is an Arabic-speaking ethnic group who live in Yemen, and are the second largest Afro-Arab group, after Afro-Saudis.

Although the Akhdams are Arabic-speaking Muslims just like most other Yemenis, they are considered to be at the very bottom of the supposedly abolished caste ladder, are socially segregated and are mostly confined to menial jobs in the country’s major cities.

According to official estimates, the Akhdam currently numbered between 500,000 and 3,500,000 individuals.

Anthropologists such as Vombruck postulate that Yemen’s history and social hierarchy that developed under various regimes, including the Zaydi Imamate, had created a hereditary caste-like society, and the Akhdams are on the bottom most of the structure.

While generally Jewish ethnic group is discriminated against in several Muslim places in the Middle East, at its worst, Shafi’i Lowland Muslims would rather eat from the same dish as a Jew, rather than to have them get touched by the Akhdam.

The contempt for the Akhdam people is so severe that there is a traditional Yemeni proverb that says: “Clean your plate if it is touched by a dog, but break it if it’s touched by a Khadem.″

The social inequality of the Al-Akhdam is also analysed by Anne Meneley from a gendered perspective. Indeed, in Yemeni society, women have a certain number of practices to respect in order to be considered pious in the eyes of society. These practices are, among others, a certain behavior to be respected such as wearing the veil or a way of socializing and maintaining relationships. Women from the elite are linked to power and contribute to reproducing the relations of dominance that are exercised towards the Akhdams. In the eyes of the elite, Akhdam women are not respectable because they do not have acceptable moral behavior. They do not wear chador but, instead, they wear colorful gowns with wide sleeves and they go to the suq to sell goods even though the suq is supposed to be a place for men only. All these inappropriate behaviors, according to the dominant class, accentuate the domination of this class by opposing the respectable and pious elite and the Akhdams women who do not wear the veil and are morally inferior.

Intermarriages between the conventional Yemeni society with the Akhdam community are taboo and virtually prohibited, as the Al-Akhdam are deemed as untouchables.

In the face of extreme societal discrimination, the Al-Akhdam people are so economically disadvantaged. They are forced to work menial and dirty jobs such as sweeping, shoe-making and the cleaning of latrines.

Even Akhdams that get professionally employed are not spared from discrimination. They rarely granted contracts even after decades of work, usually receive no benefits, and almost no time off.

Usually, the Akhdams reside in slum districts that are generally isolated from the rest of Yemeni society, and due to poverty and the unsanitary living conditions, the Akhdam people are vulnerable to preventable diseases, making their death rate significantly higher than Yemen’s national death rate.

Infant mortality rate is so remarkably high that out of the deaths reported in an Akhdam shantytown over a year, about a half were children under the age of 5, a quarter of whom were in the first month of life.

Despite the ‘supposed’ absence of official discrimination, many Akhdam claim that officials often block their attempts to seek state services at schools and hospitals. It is supposed to be absent, as in a political manner, Government officials, while admitting a historical disdain for the Akhdam among conventional Yemeni society, insist that there is no official discrimination. Even worse, it’s not just denial that the government is still embracing, but also, government corruption (misusing of funds) on monetary aid intended for the Akhdams is exceedingly prevalent.

So even until today, in Yemen, children born from mixed Akhdam and Yemeni parentage (called muwāldedīn) are often still discriminated against in their society.

The good news is, however, that The Yemeni revolt in 2011 had roused many Akhdam to participate in the uprising by appearing regularly in the demonstrations and that filled Yemen’s capital cities.

This popular uprising was taking place that called for egalitarian citizenship and recognition of the diversity of identities within Yemeni society as well as to fight against the racist system.

Unfortunately, at the end of the day, even until very second, overt discrimination against the Akhdam is still widespread across the country.

Sources:

• “YEMEN: Akhdam people suffer history of discrimination”. IRINnews. November 2005.
• Robert F. Worth, “Languishing at the Bottom of Yemen’s Ladder”, New York Times, (February 27 2008).
• “Yemen’s Al-Akhdam face brutal oppression”. Archived from the original on 2014–11–29.
• GABRIELE VOMBRUCK (June 1996). “Being worthy of protection. The dialectics of gender attributes in Yemen”. Social Anthropology. 4 (2): 145 — 162. doi:10.1111/j.1469–8676.1996.tb00322.
• “Caste In Yemen”. Baltimore Sun. April 25, 2004.
• Page 10 in: Goitein, S.D. (1955). “Portrait of a Yemenite Weavers’ Village”. Jewish Social Studies. Indiana University Press.
• Marguerite Abadjian (April 22, 2004). “In Yemen, lowest of the low”. The Baltimore Sun.
• Lehmann, Hermann (1954). “Distribution of the sickle cell trait”. Eugenics Review. 46 (2): 113 — 116. PMC 2973326. PMID 21260667.
• “The Untouchables of Yemen”. Al Akhbar English.
• “Yemen — International Dalit Solidarity Network”. International Dalit Solidarity Network.
• “Akhdam: A look into lives of Yemen’s untouchables — Khaleej Times”. www.khaleejtimes.com.