“Silencing Minds” … The Houthi Strategy to Empty Yemen of Its Academic Elite and Turn Universities into Tools of Subjugation

Yemen Monitor / Marib :

Behind the walls of hidden prisons and amid constant fear, a number of Yemen’s most prominent academics are detained, while others live under continual tension, threatened with repeated abductions by the armed Houthi group.

This reality, which is an extension of the war waged with weapons, is now taking more subtle and dangerous forms: silencing minds and destroying the infrastructure of education and scientific research from within.

A report by Yemen Monitor highlights the views of several academics at the University of Sheba Region regarding this phenomenon, which human rights organizations describe as the gravest threat to the future of education and scientific research in Yemen.

Academics in the Line of Fire

Dr. Ali Al-Rummal, Vice President of the University of Sheba Region for Student Affairs, says that targeting academics amounts to a serious national and humanitarian catastrophe that threatens the community’s social and developmental structure.

Al-Rummal stressed the importance of the academic community as a source of inspiration and a role model for future generations.

He told Yemen Monitor that the constitution and laws clearly protect the rights of faculty members, yet these rights are currently subjected to blatant violations in full view of everyone—reflecting the tragic dimension of the academic reality.

He added that recurring news about the kidnapping of professors and teachers raises deep concern, noting that targeting the makers of knowledge is a direct strike at the country’s future, with severe consequences for Yemen’s development and education.

A Systematic Campaign Targeting Yemeni Intellect and Imposing a Culture of Submission

Dr. Abdullah Al-Bakri, a professor at the University of Sheba Region, says what is happening in universities under Houthi control is not random or individual misconduct but a systematic policy targeting independent national thought.

In a statement to Yemen Monitor, Al-Bakri said the abduction of professors and researchers is part of a larger project aimed at brainwashing society and imposing a culture of subordination and obedience. He confirmed that the militia understands well that controlling universities means controlling the country’s future.

He added that hundreds of academics live under continuous pressure, facing threats and surveillance, while many have been forced to resign or flee Yemen seeking safer environments for work and research.

Al-Bakri stressed that this policy pushes universities into political control, threatening future generations and reflecting the dangers of using education as a tool to suppress free intellect and thought.

Turning Universities into Ideological Indoctrination Centers

Dr. Farouk Al-Subari, Dean of the Language Center at the University of Sheba Region, describes the situation inside universities as disastrous. He explains that lectures have turned into sessions praising the Houthi group and distorting Yemen’s true national history.

Al-Subari added that these policies have resulted in the removal of anyone opposing the group’s orientation, with dozens of academics subjected to kidnapping, imprisonment, and arbitrary dismissal because they refused to participate in activities serving the militia’s political goals.

Threatening the Independence of Scientific Research in Yemen

A law professor at the University of Sheba Region, who preferred to remain anonymous, said the militia’s practices represent a blatant violation of Yemen’s constitution and international law.

He added that kidnapping university professors without formal charges—or fabricating accusations as happened in the case of Professor Hamoud Al-Awdi—constitutes a crime against humanity with no justification.

He noted that these violations undermine the independence of universities from political pressure and create an environment dominated by fear and surveillance. He explained that continuing such practices obstructs scientific research and threatens intellectual creativity in educational institutions.

Al-Raddai Exposes a Systematic Campaign Against Academics

Dr. Abdulkhalek Al-Raddai, Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Sheba Region, reveals the existence of an ongoing systematic campaign by the Houthi militia targeting academics since their coup.

Al-Raddai said this campaign consists of daily kidnappings and detentions targeting scholars regardless of age or academic standing.

He explained that Professor Hamoud Al-Awdi, despite his advanced age, along with Dr. Youssef Al-Bawwab and several younger academics, are still held in Houthi prisons. He added that detainees are kept in inhumane and dark conditions in a clear attempt to humiliate the intellectual elite and take revenge on them for their commitment to knowledge and intellectual freedom.

Al-Raddai noted that the “clerical militia” uses racial and sectarian discrimination in its violations—transgressing all international laws and the Yemeni constitution, which guarantees equality among citizens.

He stressed that targeting intellectuals and educated individuals reflects the Houthis’ hostility toward knowledge and life, indicating that this policy is evidence of their eventual downfall, God willing.

Al-Raddai confirmed that the continuation of these hostile campaigns shows that the Houthis aim to spread ignorance and darkness after making the country’s scientific elite a direct target, thereby worsening Yemen’s suffering and obstructing its path to progress and development.

The Houthi Project: Institutionalizing Ignorance in Yemen

In a decisive political analysis, Dr. Abdulaziz Aidan, an academic at the College of Education in Al-Jawf, stresses that the Houthi group represents a systematic project against life and education in Yemen.

Aidan told Yemen Monitor that targeting education is one of the group’s main tools for entrenching ignorance and cementing dependency in areas under their control.

He explained that the Houthis’ first steps involve destroying the educational foundation through kidnapping and persecuting academics, teachers, and researchers, and replacing them with loyalists. He said: “The Houthi movement can only rise upon the ruins of ignorance, and only the ignorant support it,” stressing that the higher the education level rises, the more their influence declines.

He added that the targeting of academics, professors, and students is not just individual abuse but a systematic campaign aimed at planting ignorance and subjugating society by emptying education of its scientific and cultural content.

Aidan referred to the kidnapping of the moderate thinker Hamoud Al-Awdi, who had a prominent role in educating generations of students, noting that such operations clearly aim to weaken educational figures who stand as a defensive line against the coup and destruction.

Kidnapping Academics Threatens the Future of Education

Yemen’s scientific community has been subjected to a continuous campaign of kidnapping and enforced disappearance since 2015. Academic and human rights sources indicate that more than 70 academics and researchers have disappeared under Houthi control, including university presidents and deans—many of whose fates remain unknown.

Professors at the University of Sheba Region express their outrage at the international community’s silence regarding these documented violations, describing this inaction as indirect complicity with the systematic repression targeting Yemen’s intellectual and scholarly class.