Yemen Under The Burqah

Gone are the days when Yemeni women, dressed in jeans and blouse, donned Kalashnikovs as socialist militants in the Republic of South Yemen. They have become black ghosts, their jeans hidden under the burqah, the integral veil.

Fourteen years after the re-unification of the two republics, the whole country has adopted the ultra-conservative mores of the North. Until 1962, when the Imam was deposed, Yemen was one of the most secluded countries on earth.

The ubiquitous black burqah is but one symptom of the radicalisation creeping all over the Muslim world which is...