Iran-allied Houthi militias have been racing for weeks to complete printing and distribution of hundreds of thousands of highly politicized books derived from Khomeini literature and teaching.
Houthi militias hope to impose sectarian prints across public and private schools during the coming academic year, 2018-2019, according to educational officials in Sanaa.
Officials, speaking under the condition of anonymity in fear of facing Houthi oppression, said that militias had already formed a committee of seniors and followers to reconsider the Yemeni curriculum adopted in general education systems.
Over the course of five months, the Houthi-assigned education review committee approved radical changes, especially for curricula pertaining to Islamic education, the Holy Quran and sciences, civil studies and history. Most altered material aimed to fall in line with the Khomeini ideology.
Houthi amendments to textbooks complement their efforts to mold public education institutions under their control as part of their effort to alter the social identity of Yemenis and target national culture, sources told Asharq Al-Awsat.
The amendments include excerpts glorifying Houthis, and the movement’s leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi, as well as other coup-linked figures. It goes without saying that the new books project tremendous pro-Iranian sectarian content.
According to sources, Houthis are deliberately altering Yemeni history and promoting Iranian influence by including a tribute paid to clerical rule.
Sources reported that the militias ordered a number of public and private printing presses under their control to print thousands of revised textbooks.
Houthi leaders, in recent speeches, stressed the need to eliminate standing education systems, slapping them as “American-Israeli curricula,” saying that the Yemeni society needs to embrace Houthi ideology and to self-identify with the coup’s implicit sectarian project.
According to local sources, the new Houthi curriculum provides glorification to the period of the Persian occupation of Yemen, as well as adopting the ‘Persian Gulf’ naming to refer to the Arab Gulf. More so, the new content stipulates that religious sanctity shrouds Houthi ruling.
