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Yemen Activists Want to Preserve Yemen's Beauty Beyond War

Nisan Ahmado

   While the conflict in Yemen continues to make headlines, a group of 16
   Yemeni volunteers is seeking to put the war-torn country in a positive
   light by presenting its rich history and culture.

   The activists started their initiative, Yemen Used to Be, in 2019 on
   social media platforms and recently launched a website to expand their
   outreach. With the motto "There's no present without a past, and
   there'll be no fruitful future if its seeds aren't planted in the
   present," the group says it wants to change the way people think about
   Yemen.

   "We felt that it is part of our responsibility to make people see
   Yemen's beauty as we Yemenis see it," Waleed al-Ward, a member of the
   initiative, told VOA. "We want to introduce the beauty of our country
   to the world."

   Al-Ward, 23, an undergraduate art and design student at the Royal
   Academy of Arts in The Hague, works online with the group's other
   members across Yemen to collect the stories of the country's citizens.
   The team also introduces Yemeni artwork, culture and historical
   achievements through documentaries.

   Online project grows

   Ahmed Alhagri, a Yemeni photographer and moviemaker who founded the
   group in 2019, began the project by simply sharing content on Instagram
   and Facebook. He soon found wide support from people inside Yemen and
   around the Arab world. Many urged him to collaborate with artists and
   storytellers across Yemen to preserve its national heritage.

   Prior to the formation and official launch of the initiative, Alhagri
   and al-Ward were in Sanaa, where they organized workshops to introduce
   locals to their history and Yemeni traditions. Their work stopped
   quickly in 2015 when the civil war that began in late 2014 shut down
   most cultural and historical sites.

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