YEMEN
Legal framework on freedom of religion and actual application
Yemen has been embroiled in a civil war since September 2014, splitting the country into warring parts. One is controlled by Iranian-backed Shi‘a rebels, known as Houthis (Ansar Allah), while the other is held by the Presidential Leadership Council (PLC), which is the Internationally Recognised Government (IRG). The eight-member PLC includes three members from the Southern Transitional Council (STC), a group that seeks the secession of South Yemen.[1] Other, smaller armed groups and tribal militias operate in certain regions. Wider regional rivalries have kept the situation deadlocked.[2] Despite the end of a UN-brokered ceasefire in 2022,[3] a de facto truce has remained in place, but tensions remain.[4]
Article 1 of the 1991 Constitution of Yemen (revised in 2015),[5] which effectively applies only to government-controlled areas (only 20 to 30 percent of the population),[6] declares the country to be an independent Arab and Islamic State. Article 2 declares Islam to be the state religion. Article 3 states that “Islamic Shariʻah is the source of all legislation”.
The President of the Republic of Yemen must be a Muslim “of good character, [who] practices his Islamic duties” with “no dishonourable criminal record and if so, he has been reprieved” (Article 107, d). Voting and running for office in the lower chamber of Parliament, the House of Representatives, are not restricted to Muslims. To run, candidates must “fulfil their religious duties” (Article 64, b, 4).
The President, his deputy, members of the House of Representatives, the Prime Minister and cabinet members, the speaker, and members of the Consultative Council, take the oath of office by saying: “I swear by Almighty Allah to adhere to the Qur‘an (the Book of God) and the traditions established by Prophet Mohammed” (Article 160).
Officially, “freedom of thought and expression of opinion in speech, writing and photography” is protected under Article 42 “within the limits of the law”. The constitution requires that the State adheres to international human rights law (Article 6). In practice, neither the constitution nor other laws protect freedom of religion, belief, or conscience. Proselytising is forbidden. Blasphemy is also prohibited and punishable with fines or imprisonment.[7]
According to Yemen’s Penal Code, apostasy is a hudud crime (Article 12), i.e. an offence that exceeds the limits set in the Qur‘an. “Anyone who turns back from or denounces the religion of Islam is punished by the death penalty after being questioned for repentance three times, and after giving him a respite of thirty days. The Apostasy in public, by speech or acts, is considered contradictory to the principles of Islam and its pillars in intention and determination.” (Article 259)
Distorting the Qur‘an “in a manner which changes its meaning with the purpose of harming the natural religion” is punishable with up to five years in prison (Article 260).[8]
It is forbidden for a Muslim man to marry apostates from Islam. It is also forbidden for a Muslim woman to marry a non-Muslim.[9]
Under Article 52 of the constitution, “Residences, places of worship, and educational institutions have a sanctity which may not be violated through surveillance or search except in the cases stipulated by the law.”[10] In general, the construction of new buildings requires government approval, which implicitly includes places of worship even though they are not specifically mentioned.[11]
Article 60 (implicitly referring to Islam) states: “Defending religion and the homeland is a sacred duty, military duty is an honour, and national service is to be organised by law”.
Islamic religious education is compulsory in schools. In IRG-controlled regions, schools are expected to provide the same curriculum to both Sunni and Shi‘a pupils.[12] In Houthi-controlled areas, Zaydi[13] principles are taught.[14] Other forms of religious education are not provided in state schools. There have been reports of continued Houthi efforts to impose their religious practices on non-Zaydi residents in the northern areas under their control, including attempts to ban music, and forbid gender mixing in public places like cafés unless couples have children or carry proof of marriage.[15]
Yemen held three parliamentary elections after the unification of North Yemen and South Yemen in 1990, the last one in 2003.[16] The 2009 elections were cancelled because of a legal dispute over electoral reform. Then President Ali Abdullah Saleh stepped down in 2012. He was replaced by Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, who was elected for a two-year transitional period at the helm of a national unity government. This solution proved short-lived when the Houthi movement, a major political force in the former North Yemen, staged an armed takeover of the capital Sanaa in September 2014, allied with former President Saleh. Hadi resigned in January 2015 when Houthi fighters seized the presidential palace and fled to Aden, the former capital of South Yemen. The Saudi government was quick to intervene and on 26 March 2015, a Saudi-led coalition launched a military operation named “Restoring Hope” to reinstall President Hadi.[17]
In April 2022, President Hadi, although internationally recognised, resigned and transferred power to a presidential council.[18] Earlier that year his government had lost control over most of the population, the territory and its borders to a plethora of political groups, militant Islamist organisations and militias.[19]
A UN-backed ceasefire entered into force in April 2022, but failed to be extended at the 2 October 2022 deadline.[20] Large-scale ground operations have not occurred since then, but military activity continues on a lower level. After several years of fragile truce, there is a “palpable” fear of a return to all-out war in Yemen, according to Hans Grundberg, UN Special Envoy for Yemen. In March 2025, he noted “a rise in rhetoric from the parties to the conflict, pre-positioning themselves publicly for military confrontation”.[21]
Incidents and developments
In January 2023, Amnesty International called on the IRG and the Houthi authorities to free women who have completed their jail sentences but remain detained because there is no male guardian to whom to release them.[22]
Also in January 2023, the Carnegie Middle East Center reported that Houthis were compelling shops selling abayas, the cloaks worn by women and girls, to only sell garments that were long and black.[23] In July 2023, Houthis implemented gender segregation at Sanaa University’s Mass Communication College. They justified the move on religious grounds and for the safety of women.[24]
That same month, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy published an analysis about how the Houthis were using their Code of Conduct to indoctrinate the approximately one million public-sector employees under their control. The code, according to the analysis, “continually distorted religious concepts” and required employees to celebrate Houthi religious events “regardless of their personal perspective”. It was based on the beliefs and statements of the movement’s leadership (Abdul-Malik al-Houthi is the current leader), as well as its lectures and lessons on the Qur‘an rather than the Qur‘an itself.[25]
In April 2023, at least 85 people, many of them children, were crushed to death in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, during a charity handout by a local businessman marking the end of Ramadan. According to the Houthis, an uncoordinated distribution of alms, which they were trying to control, was the reason for the panic. The alms givers in turn accused the Houthis of trying for weeks to prevent them from distributing cash and insisting that any distributions be run by the rebel group. The Houthis stated they would pay about US$2,000 in compensation to each family who lost a relative, while injured people would get about US$400.[26]
In June 2023, direct flights from Yemen to Saudi Arabia resumed. There had been no connection since 2016. The flights carried Yemeni Muslims heading on pilgrimage to Makkah and signalled an easing in tensions between the two countries.[27]
Also in June 2023, UN experts called for the release of 17 Bahá'ís who had disappeared after a raid by Houthi militia in Sanaa. According to their statement, in May 2023, the group of Baháʼís had peacefully gathered in a private residence to elect the community’s national governing body when Houthi gunmen suddenly stormed the meeting. Later some of the detainees were released,[28] although the last four were freed only in August 2024.[29] In June 2023, the Houthi Grand Mufti in Sanaa launched a violent verbal attack against Bahá'ís in Yemen, accusing them of seeking to harm the country and calling on society and militias to unite against Bahá'í beliefs.[30]
That same month, the Houthis banned the import of Swedish products to protest the burning of a copy of the Qur‘an in Sweden. “Yemen is the first Islamic country to ban imports of Swedish goods after its violations and desecration,” said the Houthi Trade Minister, Muhammad Al-Ashwal.[31]
In September 2023, the Hudson Institute reported that the Houthis had made almost 500 changes to the country’s school curriculum to boost their ideology – among them, the notion that the al-Houthi family had a divine right to rule because of supposed links to the Prophet Mohammad’s dynasty. According to the study, the Houthis launched a campaign in 2023 under the banner of “Learning and Jihad” to attract some 1.5 million children to their summer camps.[32]
After the attack by Hamas against Israel on 7 October 2023, Houthi fighters fired rockets at Israel, as well as Israeli and other shipping in the Red Sea. In January 2024, they announced that they would limit their attacks to Israeli ships.[33] In March 2025, they declared that attacks would resume if no humanitarian aid was delivered to Gaza.[34]
In October 2023, Imam Munir al-Saadi of the al-Shafi’i Mosque in government-controlled Aden was arrested for “inciting sedition”. According to reports, the imam had called Hamas a “malignant movement” after its attack on Israel.[35]
Houthi officials have made repeated hostile remarks against members of the Jewish faith. In November 2023, Mohammed Ali Al-Houthi, a member of the Houthi Supreme Political Council, said that Jews did not love anyone but themselves, and had been continuously working to eradicate humanity. He went on to say that the Houthis had mobilised against Israel as “jihad for the sake of Allah”.[36]
In November 2023, the Swedish-Algerian journalist Yayha Abu Zakariya said on Houthi-affiliated Al-Masirah TV that before Europeans sent Jews to the Arab world, the Jews used to kidnap and slaughter European children and use their blood to make “Matzah of Zion” as part of a Jewish ceremony. The allegation had first been made in Norwich, UK, in 1144, and later spread to other parts of Europe. A few months before Zarkariya’s broadcast, Kevin Maguire, the Lord Mayor of Norwich, made a public apology to the Jewish community for what he confirmed was a false allegation, which had led to the murder of 17 Jews in the city.[37] Zakariya, nevertheless, went on to describe Jews as pigs, murderers and criminals.[38]
In March 2024, The Times of Israel reported that the Houthi’s were still not allowing Yemen’s last Jew, Salem Levi Marhabi, to leave the country.[39] Marhabi had been arrested in 2018 for allegedly assisting in smuggling a Torah scroll into Israel from Yemen. Although his prison term has expired, he is still being held in a Houthi prison. Some reports suggest that he was tortured. The paper also revealed how, in 2021, nearly 100 Yemenite Jews were evacuated from Yemen to Egypt.[40]
In March 2024, the jihadist group al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) named Sa‘ad bin Atef al-Awlaki, also known as Abu al-Laith, as its new leader. The Yemeni national allegedly had direct ties to the former al-Qaeda leader Usama bin Laden who sent him back to Yemen.[41] In December 2024, AQAP announced that they had executed 11 individuals, including the Yemeni journalist Mohamed Al-Maqri, whom they had abducted in 2015 after accusing him of spying.[42] In January 2025, the group claimed that they had made eight attacks against the United Arab Emirates (UAE)-backed forces of the Southern Transitional Council, most of whom operate in Yemen’s Southern Abyan Governorate.[43] In February 2025, Abu Yusuf Al-Muhammadi Al-Hadrami, a senior member of AQAP, was killed in a bomb blast in Marib.[44]
In July 2024, an Israeli was killed by a drone in Tel Aviv. The Houthis claimed responsibility for the attack.[45]
In July 2024, Pope Francis appointed Archbishop Christophe Zakhia El-Kassis, Apostolic Nuncio to the United Arab Emirates, to the additional position of Apostolic Nuncio to Yemen.[46] In August 2024, the Apostolic Vicar of Southern Arabia, Bishop Paolo Martinelli, called for the re-opening of the Catholic Church’s mission to Yemen as soon as possible to help a nation “abandoned for a decade and victim of a conflict that seems to interest few”. He said that, as soon as he could, he would go there “and give the signal of a renewed presence”. According to the bishop, there are two communities of Mother Teresa’s Sisters in North Yemen and one priest. The idea of sending a second priest was considered in autumn 2024, but was put on hold due to an escalation in the conflict. However, Caritas Poland is also present.[47] Before the civil war, the country was home to about 2,500 indigenous Christians, plus 15,000 to 25,000 non-native Christians, mostly from Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia. Since then, the Christian population has dropped significantly,[48] and estimates now range from 12,000 to just a few hundred.[49]
In November 2024, Houthis and Salafi jihadists denounced a festival in Saudi Arabia as “desecration of sanctities” and a “distraction” from the war in Gaza. The festival included fashion shows, concerts, and dance performances that lasted until February 2025.[50]
Prospects for freedom of religion
After a decade of war between the Iran-backed Shi‘a Houthi militia and forces loyal to the Saudi-backed and internationally recognised government, the political and humanitarian situation in Yemen is dire. The recurrent outbreaks of fighting between Shi‘as, Sunnis, jihadists, and tribal groups have left the poorest country in the Middle East in a state of chronic civil war.[51] Recently, concerns have grown that the military conflict might escalate again. The imposition of the Houthi version of Zaydi Shi‘a faith on Muslims, especially women, and hostility towards religious minorities like the Baháʼís is cause for major concern. Houthi attacks on Israel and Israeli ships in the Red Sea after October 2023 have been accompanied by a rise in antisemitic rhetoric. At the same time, the Sunni jihadist group AQAP is a threat to both non-Sunni Muslims and non-Muslim minorities.[52] Consequently, prospects for religious freedom in Yemen are negative.
Sources
Yemen