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SHAFAQNA –The Houthi forces, backed by the Yemeni Republican Guard, seized a number of points inside the Midi Desert near the Saudi-Yemeni border today, advancing as far north as the Jizan Region of Saudi Arabia. According to Al-Masdar’s Yemen War correspondent, Tony Toh, the Houthi forces and their allies killed 41 fighters from the Saudi-led Coalition on Monday after seizing a number of sites from the latter. Making matters worse for the Saudi-led Coalition, the Houthi forces continued their advance in the Najran Valley, as they capturednew points near the provincial capital. The Saudi-led Coalition’s recent losses in the Jizan and Najran regions has taken a toll on their morale, as they ...

SHAFAQNA –The Saudi women who need their fathers, husbands and brothers’ permission to benefit their legal rights of working, studying and traveling, are now using social media in a bid to end males’ rule over their life. The Saudi women have created #سعودیات_نطالب_باسقاط_الولایة (#StopEnslavingSaudiWomen ) to emphasize that the govement should hear the women’s voice and respect their rights, adding that the progress of any society is evaluated by the situation of women. They have also reminded the Saudi rulers of regional women’s freedom to do whatever the Saudi females are baed. On the opposite side, the make opponents of the demand insist the necessity for respecting Saudi Arabia’s laws,...

[embedded content] SHAFAQNA –In order to bring you, our readers, closer to realities and truths, Shafaqna will conduct a series of exclusive podcast interviews with renown political analysts politicians, officials, religious leaders, and academics. As always our aim is simple – knowledge. In a world run, and based on falsehood, Truth has become somewhat of a rare commodity – still, we ought to seek what has been dissimulated as to rise truly free. As Imam Ali said: “Ask in order to understand, and do not ask in order to find fault, for surely the ignorant man who wants to lea resembles a man of knowledge, and surely a man of knowledge who wants to be difficult resembles an ignorant man who ...

SHAFAQNA –If the world has become desensitise to human suffering, there are still crimes so tragic and uecessary, so violent in nature and abominable in the tragedy they carry, that we caot help but pause. Should you have missed it somehow War has held Yemen hostage since March 25th, 2015, a day which saw Saudi Arabia unilaterally move against its impoverished neighbour in the name of “democracy building.” Yemen’s war you were told then, was a necessary evil, a democratic mean to end a popular movement Riyadh cared little for, since it spoke in negation of its religious extremism – Wahhabism. As Riyadh weaved its narrative the world sat back, gleefully deaf to the cries Yemen let out in its...

SHAFAQNA – Since al-Saud imprinted its will on the Hejaz … the country now bears the name of its owner, this one house has made a fortune on by claiming to be the righteous custodian of all Islamic traditions and holy sites, begiing with Mecca. According to The Economist, the kingdom generates over $8.5 billion in revenues per year – not exactly cheap change. Since the world has kept mum before the tyray of al-Saud rights activists have decided to call on Muslims to resist in a maer which will best hamper Riyadh – boycotting haj. SHARE Facebook Twitter Previous articleAyatollah Ali Khameini on Yemen: “Saudi govt. slaughters Yemeni children with US weapons” Next articleY...

SHAFAQNA – “When you witness that it is almost a year and a half now that Yemen has been under bombardment, is this a minor event? They are constantly bombarding a country. And they are not bombarding its military centers, rather they are bombarding its markets, hospitals, public squares and schools and the people’s houses and gatherings. This is not a minor event, rather it is a very grave crime. They do not understand what the month of Ramadan and a month of haraam are and they do not differentiate between children and adults. They have murdered so many children! Well, this is a grave crime as well which has unfortunately been committed by the Saudi govement. However, they have done so ...

SHAFAQNA-Saudi security forces shot dead a suspected militant who tried to detonate explosives outside a mosque in the Qatif region in easte Saudi Arabia, where many Shia Muslims live, the interior ministry said on Wednesday. “The man was shot outside a mosque in the town of Um al Hamam and died while being transported to the hospital. He had explosive materials in a bag,” an interior ministry spokesman was quoted as saying by Saudi state news agency SPA. Police found a Pakistani residency card on the man, the statement said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attempted attack on Tuesday but the militant Islamic State group has carried out several deadly shootings and b...

Courtesy of May Saleh and Bahrain Mirror SHAFAQNA – Speaking on the sideline ofThe Inteational Conference to Support the Yemeni People – held on August, 20-21, 2016 in the British capital, LondonBahraini opposition figure, Saeed al-Shehabi, stressed on the importance of accountability, transparency and justice when addressing the issue of Yemen. “This is an illegal war with unfounded allegations and unjustified aggressions by the Saudis and must stop,” he emphasized during a workshop. “Every aggression and war in the world, since the second world war, has been addressed and has been called for to stop except this one. Why? Because the Saudis are involved,” he added. The themesof reparation, ...

Saudi pilots have launched yet another airstrike on a school in the Yemeni province of Ta’izz, with no information immediately available on possible casualties. According to Yemen’s al-Masirah television, the air raid hit the al-Rawd school in the district of Dabab in weste Ta’izz early on Monday.In the war Saudi Arabia has launched on Yemen, the Saudi forces have been targeting schools, hospitals, residential buildings, roads, markets and refugee camps. Reports by media outlets in the United States — which has offered intelligence support for the Saudi war by helping Saudi forces acquire “targets” — have pointed to the incompetence as well as cowardice on the part of the Saudi pilots conduc...

SHAFAQNA –The relationship between Saudi Sui and Shia has always been characterized by conflict. Shia Muslims in Saudi Arabia are a minority group that account for 10 to 15 percent of the population in a mainly Sui country. The Shia communities in Saudi Arabia are mostly concentrated in the Easte Province, where the population is estimated at 33 per cent. Since the 1980s, the nature of the conflict transition from military confrontation to the Saudi Shia’s movement for equal rights and affirmation of their culture. (Al Rasheed 1998). Saudi Shias are working establish their community in a Sui society that punishes their religious expression, limits their political participation and civil lib...

SHAFAQNA – The crowd is chanting “We won’t bow down” as Saudi jets circle over head #Sanaa#Yemen – @omeisypic.twitter.com/xxB5xfhwWx — Gissur Simonarson (@GissiSim) August 20, 2016 Millions flocked to the Yemeni capital, Sana’a this Saturday to publicly declare their support and allegiance to the Resistance – as fronted by the Ansarallah movement. As the crowd roared its determination to withstood foreign aggression, Saudi jets flew low in the sky – yet another attempt to bully a people into compliance. Undeterred men, women, and children stood in the capital, defiant in their determination to push against Wahhabi imperialism – a nation united in its Freedom, its faith, and its pluralism....

SHAFAQNA – Amal contacted me two years ago. She was 30 years old, a junior university professor, and she needed help. For four years her father had beaten her, locked her in her room, and threatened to stop her from working because she wanted to marry a non-Saudi professor. Now she wanted to explore a potential escape from the country of her birth, Saudi Arabia. For a Saudi woman, personal choice is a luxury. Her decisions must conform to her male guardian’s. Only women with agreeable guardians can control their lives. The rest must live with whatever limitations their guardians dictate. Amal consulted a lawyer, but it left her even more desperate. Courts approve less than five percent of a...

SHAFAQNA –Saudi Arabia’s human rights record, especially with regards to protecting women, has often been called into question. Although women’s rights have been incrementally extended in recent years – they were allowed to vote in municipal elections for the first time last year – their actions are still severely restricted. In a country where a woman caot even open a bank account without her husband’s permission, here are several other things they are still unable to do: Drive a car There is no official law that bans women from driving, but deeply held religious beliefs prohibit it, with Saudi clerics arguing that female drivers “undermine social values”. In 2011, the “Women2Drive” campai...

SHAFAQNA –Custodian of Astan Quds Razavi said in the meeting with authorities of the Aual Meeting of Hazrat Ali Asghar (A) World Congress, “Arbaeen is exclusive to Imam Hussein (A) so that Ashura would not remain in Karbala and to be lost in history. This movement indicates that Ashura movement is alive forever.” Sayyed Raeisi in the conference held in Quds auditorium of Central Library of Astan Quds on Friday evening, Aug 5, said, “The sacred bloods shed over the earth on Ashura was for reviving Islam and providing for establishment of Islamic sovereignty by Imam Mahdi (AJ).” Referring to a part of Arbaeen pilgrimage prayer that considers Imam Hussain’s (A) blood as a cause of wiping ignor...

SHAFAQNA –Six aid agencies call on the UN to hold the Saudi-led Coalition to account Six aid agencies today expressed their disappointment that the Saudi-led Coalition has not been put back on the UN’s list of parties responsible for grave violations against children in Yemen. The agencies – Action Contre La Faim, CARE, Intersos, Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam and Save the Children – called for tangible progress in protecting children caught up in the conflict in Yemen to have been demonstrated when the UN Security Council meets for its aual debate on Children and Armed Conflict on August 2. According to UN verified data nearly 2,000 children were killed or injured in Yemen during 2015, w...

SHAFAQNA –Both the Saudi-led coalition and Yemen’s Houthi rebels have violated the humanitarian law during the past six months of the conflict. That’s according to the latest report by the United Nations. The document in particular blames Houthi rebels for using civilians as human shields. At the same time it accuses the Saudi-led coalition of bombing civilian targets despite Riyadh’s claims that it adheres to inteational law. Catherine Shakdam, Director of Programs for the Shafaqna Institute for Middle Easte Studies told Sputnik if sides genuinely looking for a settlement and how likely is the coalition to be held accountable for the violations of inteational law in this regard. SHARE ...

SHAFAQNA-Iran said the United Nations (UN)’s decision to temporarily reverse the blacklisting of Saudi Arabia for killing Yemeni children amounts to a betrayal of the defenseless minors. Gholam-Ali Khoshroo, Iran’s ambassador and permanent representative to the UN, made the remark at a UN Security Council meeting to discuss children and armed conflict on Tuesday. Back in June, the UN blacklisted Saudi Arabia after concluding in a report that Riyadh had been responsible for 60 percent of the 785 deaths of children in the Saudi war on Yemen last year. A few days later, however, the world body aounced that Saudi Arabia would be taken off the list pending a joint review with Saudi Arabia. Khosh...

SHAFAQNA –UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is being urged to publicly reject Saudi Arabian “propaganda” claims conceing three young men on death row, amid fears the protestors are set to be executed in the country – despite being convicted as juveniles. Following recent activity and comments on influential Saudi Arabian Twitter profiles, human rights groups are growing increasingly conceed over the future of Ali al-Nimr, who was sentenced to death for his role in anti-govement protests in 2012 — while he was just 17 years old. Recent comments have suggested Ali al-Nimr could be facing imminent execution, while two other men, Dawoud al Marhoon and Abdullah al Zaher — who were 17 and 15 at ...

SHAFAQNA –In recent comments to the press, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, a man who has been long been an advocate for secularism, and laicism is now calling for Islam to be reinvented so that it matches with France’s republican values. While I respect the idea that France is entitled to its rules and regulations, and while I caot imagine Muslims living in France having any other ambitions but to follow the rule of law, if in fact they want to remain on French territory – by the way Islam commands for all to abide by the legislation of their respective countries, I draw a strong line at the intention behind PM Valls’ comment. What PM Valls is implying is that Islam needs reforming. Dea...

SHAFAQNA –If Muslims in France don’t help the country to battle extremists and those who threaten the Republic, it will be “increasingly hard” for Paris to guarantee freedom of Islam, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said. “Through its history and its geography… and through its immigration, France maintains very strong ties with Islam,” Vallswrote in a long essay in Le Joual du Dimanche, a French weekly newspaper. According to the PM, Islam is “second-largest religion” in France and many French Muslims don’t have to identify themselves “as an Arab-Muslim culture.” However, a “terrible poison” of extremism has started spreading in the country, the French PM wrote. “Slowly, insidiously, aga...