Many of dream that one day they search for their name on google
to find exciting nice results
for example a picture of them receiving an international award,
riding in a fancy car
or wearing a space suit on his/her way to Jupiter.
I used to fantasize like this until the unexpected happened
and that when I search my name online this is what I find:
This makes you laugh now,
but unfortunately this is the image of Yemenis internationally
A picture of a drugged Yemeni with
a swollen cheek and wild unfocused eyes
We as Yemenis are stuck with this image to a large extent
But this is not our only problem with Qat
Like many Yemenis I thought it was a financial problem or health related
until I found out these numbers
Can you believe that according to UNICEF
between 10 and 15% of children chew Qat?!
Imagine that among every ten
children at least one child chews Qat
and is consequently affected by health conditions such as stunting
incomplete growth
In a country
suffering from water shortage
and threatened with drought
more than half of underground water
is wasted on Qat plantation
plant that is not nutritional or healthy
or even a good that can be exported
The third fact,
is that according to the World Food Program
a Yemeni citizen spends on Qat more than what
is spent on health and education combined.
After I realized these scary figures
and after I am asked repeatedly during my travels around the world
once they know I am a Yemeni whether I chew Qat
I was fed up
and decided it is time to carry out a campaign against Qat
When our “Shame on Reuters” campaign
succeeded we decided that
these kinds of online campaigns may work.
Of course Qat is a very big issue.
Like a mountain,
every time someone wants to discuss this issue
they start at the top of the mountain
But for me I decided to start at the bottom.
The easiest way to start was convince people
to stop chewing for one day only.
So on 2011, I wrote on twitter
Yemenis won’t chew Qat on 12 Jan
as a desire for change
I was in Beirut at the time
I did not care that maybe someone
may criticize me by saying this girls is living abroad
how will she solve the Qat issue from a distance
I did not worry about who will react and support my initiative
or that we were in a revolution who will take the time
to think about Qat while everyone is talking about regime change
I did not pay attention to all these obstacles.
What happened is that the moment I wrote this tweet
others retweeted it and took it forward
Some created videos,
posters, promotional materials
Most of the Yemeni youth using twitter are outside Yemen
but they suffer and understand the consequences
of Qat more than those inside the country
Because they feel humiliated
to real life off-line
So I took the campaign to Facebook
it was adopted by local initiatives in Yemen
such as “Ajyal Bila Qat”[generations without Qat]
who carried out an awareness campaign in change square
You can see some of the
events they did from these pictures
One of those initiatives was “your finger-print”
where people who decided not to chew Qat on Jan 12
will leave their finger print on a large sheet as a sign of commitment
Another example is when the Coordination
Council for Revolutionary Youth Tanawo’a
printed and distributed awareness posters in universities
When this campaign succeeded,
people suggested to me we
dedicate one day every month without Qat
I said no, it will become boring
We need to take it further
we need to lobby the government to
take action against Qat even if small
The easiest step the government could do
is forbid Qat chewing in public institutions
it’s not logical you go to work with a swollen cheek full with Qat
We launched a campaign called
“A day without Qat for public Qat-free institutions
This campaign was much larger than the previous one
because people heard of our previous campaign
People reached out to me, many of whom I did not even know before.
There were genuinely interested people and others who were fooling around
The campaign reached Sana’a, Taiz, Hodeidah,
Dhamar and Aden
Ministers responded because of this campaign,
I don’t know if it was under pressure or they truly believed
Minister of Education issued a decree that on 11th and 12th [in April]
every year will be dedicated to awareness against Qat activities in schools
Minister of Information also decreed that on those two days
state media will also campaign against Qat and this happened
Unfortunately Education Ministry did not follow through
so active youth in Taiz and Hodeidah
This picture shows some of the activities by youth in a school in Taiz
Then we started having sit-ins in front of the parliament
and this was the first time
we had a sit-in in front of the parliament
demanding for a law against Qat
[applause]
When we went to the parliament we were told
that there is an old strategy that has been
rejected continuously
This strategy aims at ending the Qat problem
in a course of 20 years
This strategy includes forbidding Qat in public institutions
preventing new wells from being drilled for Qat farms
taking Qat markets outside the cities,
forbidding chemical fertilizers and pesticides in Qat farming, etc
We said OK,
why not put it for discussion again at the parliament
which they did
but most of the members of parliament
rejected this strategy
In fact, one member of parliament said
Qat is green gold!
It turned out he has Qat farmsfact
We did not lose hope…
A young activist called Albara Shaiban decided
to risk his own wedding and plan it Qat free
There used to be Qat-free weddings before that
but they were boring
and people did not attend or came and left quickly
But Albara’s wedding was different.
Some of his own relatives said they would not come
unless there is Qat chewing yet he insisted
He held a Qat-free wedding
which I attended that’s me in the picture
I was the only woman there [Yemeni weddings are segregated, women don’t attend men’s parties and vice versa]
This was followed by weddings in Taiz
even the governor of Taiz attended ,as you can see from the top right photo.
There were weddings in Hodiedah
and even Amran where Yemeni tribesmen
were in weddings without chewing Qat
it was a strange sight
[laughter and applause]
Let me tell you about this young man’s story.
He used to be a Qat dealer [buys from farmers and sells to consumers]
He was in our Facebook group and used to sell Qat near Sana’a University
and was famous among the students who bought from him
He used to earn a lot through Qat selling,
until he was impacted by the campaign – poor man –
and decided he will not deal in Qat anymore
He stopped selling Qat
completed his university education
and now he works as an accountant in a restaurant
Imagine the income difference between
his own Qat business and being an accountant!
And he turned the page he had created on Facebook
to promote his Qat selling business into “Qat-Free Yemen”
and now he is writing his diary
[picture reads: Diary of a former Qat dealer - applause]
Despite all these small success we did not forget our campaign to change the legislation
and we held another sit-in in front of the parliament
We met the Speaker of Parliament
and this time he was straight forward with us unlike the previous time
He told us:
After some time there will be no water or food
because of Qat!” So we were like: yes, and…?
He then said: “And I can’t do anything about it!
Because this will make some people angry!”
What? Some people will become angry?
It’s OK to ruin an entire country just because some people’s interests will be affected?!
Even then we did not lose hope..
The National Dialogue Conference started,
they hosted me to speak
at the conference with a specific team which was
created to discuss the Qat issue
I met them
and gave them the same strategy
that was written by Dr. Najib Ghanim
the same one that would put an end
to the Qat problem in 20 years,
and which was rejected by the parliament
Thank God
the Qat issue team at the National Dialogue Conference embraced this strategy
and use it to create constitutions articles and legal directives
These are the articles, which include regulating Qat markets
forbidding Qat chewing in public places,
and reducing taxes on agricultural food products
which is an incentive for farmers as we beg for food from abroad while in the same time grow Qat plants
Also preventing new water wells drilling for Qat farms
and forbidding new Qat farms from being created
And encouraging farmers to plant food
instead of Qat and facilitating the expert of their crops
In sha allah,
I will live to see the day when in our new constitution for Yemen I will see these items included
[applause]
I know there will always be people who will say all these laws
are useless as we never implement the laws and this is only ink on paper… etc
But I believe
that if one is determined and is persistent he or she will be achieve their goals
This determination comes to me
because of a story I want to share with you
This girl in the picture was born with a disability
You can see she has arched legs,
she underwent three surgeries and all three failed
The result was that she walk on her heals
Throughout her basic
and mid school she would walk like that..
she was ridiculed and laughed at
Until she decided one day she would solve her own problem by herself
She would go to her room
and practice standing on her toes
so that she strengthens her toes
It did not take her a day or two, or a month or two..
it took her years throughout her 12 years of school
and kept working on it until she managed to hide her disability
She mastered her walk and people did not notice there was something wrong with her feet or legs unless they really paid attention This girl is me
[applause]
I am telling you this story
because I want to show you how disabled Yemen
is and that the reason of this disability is Qat
Yemen feels that it is less than other countries
it is being mocked, being humiliated..
It is our collective responsibility to help Yemen
to stand on her own feet again
thank you