User:Tasseel Nicolas/sandbox

Social hierarchy in contemporary Yemen (Yemen page)
There is a system of social stratification in Yemen that was officially abolished at the creation of the Republic of Yemen in 1962, but in practice, this system has not disappeared. This system means that Yemeni society is organized around hierarchical ranks. The manifest between ranks is manifested by descent and occupation and is reproduced by marriages between people of the same ranks. There are five status groups within the Republic of Yemen. At the top of hierarchy, there are the religious elites, also called sada. These are then followed by the strata of judges (quad). The third hierarchical status is the qaba’il, who are the peasants who belong to tribes and who live mainly from agriculture and trading. The fourth group is called the mazayanah. This group is composed of people who had no land and are providing different kinds of services such as butchers and craftsmen. Finally, at the bottom of the hierarchy were the slaves (a’bid) and even further below them Al-Akhdam, which means servants.

Social conditions (Al-Akhdam page)
The social inequality of the Al-Akhdam is also analysed by Anne Meneley from a gendered perspective. Indeed, in Yemeni society, women have a certain number of practices to respect in order to be considered pious in the eyes of society. These practices are, among others, a certain behavior to be respected such as wearing the veil or a way of socializing and maintaining relationships. Women from the elite are linked to power and contribute to reproducing the relations of dominance that are exercised towards the Akhdams. In the eyes of the elite, Akhdam women are not respectable because they do not exercice acceptable moral behavior. They do not wear chador but, instead, they wear colorful gowns with wide sleeves and they go to the suq to sell goods even though the suq is supposed to be a place for men only. All these inappropriate behaviors, according to the dominant class, accentuate the domination of this class by opposing the respectable and pious elite and the Akhdams women who do not wear the veil and are morally inferior.

Activism and international visibility (Al-Akhdam page)
The search for rights and recognition is a daily task for the Akhdams. Every day is a new struggle for this marginalized and discriminated against community. This daily struggle for survival further reinforces the stereotypes that other social classes have about the Akhdam community. To change this, many petitions and letters are being written asking the state for welfare and other assistance. This way of negotiating without violence and insurgency is due to the fact that the Akhdam community does not take the state as the enemy but as the one that has to defend the weakest citizens. These requests and petitions rarely succeed. An event will come to change the situation a bit. In 2011, a popular uprising was taking place that called for egalitarian citizenship and recognition of the diversity of identities within Yemeni society. By egalitarian citizenship, the Yemeni people mean that every Yemeni on the street is equal. This uprising led to a transition period, running from March 2012 to February 2014, which was supposed to lead to a new, more cohesive Yemen. Al-Akhdams had high hopes for the transition phase. They hoped that it would bring about radical changes in their position within society.

Stereotypes and global discource on race (Al-Akhdam page or maybe Yemen, not sur for that one)
The Akhdams are associated with a number of stereotypes. They are immoral because they let their wives interact with men, they are ignorant of the Islamic religion, they are lenient towards theft and alcohol, or they are nomads without any property. The emergence of the notion of race and racism in contemporary Yemen is linked to the emergence of the European racial configuration in the 1930s and then in Egypt following the revolution of 1952. In the Middle East, it is the "unsuriyya" term that will spread. The notion of “unsuriyya” or racism emerged in public discourse in Yemen in the 1950s as a critique of Hashemite privilege. Akhdams activists and politicians rely on the color of their skin to denounce the marginalization of their people. This amplifies their international visibility.