Houthis Privatize Public Schools for Financial Gain

A Yemeni boy carries a weapon as tribesmen loyal to the Houthis attend a gathering in Sanaa, Yemen, Saturday, Aug. 22, 2020. (AP)
A Yemeni boy carries a weapon as tribesmen loyal to the Houthis attend a gathering in Sanaa, Yemen, Saturday, Aug. 22, 2020. (AP)
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Houthis Privatize Public Schools for Financial Gain

A Yemeni boy carries a weapon as tribesmen loyal to the Houthis attend a gathering in Sanaa, Yemen, Saturday, Aug. 22, 2020. (AP)
A Yemeni boy carries a weapon as tribesmen loyal to the Houthis attend a gathering in Sanaa, Yemen, Saturday, Aug. 22, 2020. (AP)

Houthi militias have launched a campaign to privatize public schools in areas under their control. The move will affect hundreds of schools in Sanaa and other governorates held by the Iran-backed militia.

The move matches other Houthi efforts focused on raising funds and promoting their racist ideology

It also drew massive public rage from Yemenis who said that the privatization of public schools is a violation of the law and an attack against the right to free education.

In recent days, the Houthis also imposed a host of arbitrary restrictions against private schools in their territory. They also forced some schools named after member states of the Arab Coalition to rebrand.

Sources based in Sanaa revealed that among the privatized schools in the capital was the all-girl Balqis School. It was not only denationalized, but also made into an all-boy institution.

Pupils at Balqis School will now have to pay 65,000 Yemeni rials for each level between grade one and grade six. The registration fees for grades seven through nine stand at a staggering 85,000 Yemeni rials.

High school goers will need to pay 95,000 Yemeni rials to enroll.

Parents of pupils in Sanaa told Asharq Al-Awsat that the privatization of free education is another crime to be added to a long list of violations committed by the Iran-backed group against the education sector.

They also stressed that the Houthi move is illegal.

“Houthis seek to exploit public schools after privatizing them for material enrichment at the expense of the suffering of students and families,” Sanaa-based teachers and academics told Asharq Al-Awsat.

“Houthis ramped up their harsh crusade against Yemen’s educational and societal freedoms in August, including changing school curriculums to glorify Imam Al-Hadi Yahya, the father of the country’s Imamate which ruled north Yemen from 897 until 1962,” Inside Arabia reported on the Houthi violations against the education sector.



Israel Says Apprehended Members of Iran-backed Cell in Syria

06 July 2025, Palestinian Territories, Tulkarm: An Israeli soldier enforces a ban as he attempts to enter the Tulkarm refugee camp in the West Bank. Photo: Nasser Ishtayeh/SOPA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
06 July 2025, Palestinian Territories, Tulkarm: An Israeli soldier enforces a ban as he attempts to enter the Tulkarm refugee camp in the West Bank. Photo: Nasser Ishtayeh/SOPA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
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Israel Says Apprehended Members of Iran-backed Cell in Syria

06 July 2025, Palestinian Territories, Tulkarm: An Israeli soldier enforces a ban as he attempts to enter the Tulkarm refugee camp in the West Bank. Photo: Nasser Ishtayeh/SOPA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
06 July 2025, Palestinian Territories, Tulkarm: An Israeli soldier enforces a ban as he attempts to enter the Tulkarm refugee camp in the West Bank. Photo: Nasser Ishtayeh/SOPA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

Israel's military said Monday it had apprehended members of an Iran-backed cell in southern Syria, the second such operation it has announced in the past week.

Since the December overthrow of Syria's longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes primarily on military sites and carried out cross-border ground raids.

In a statement, the military said troops "completed an overnight operation to apprehend a cell that was operated by the Iranian Quds Force in the Tel Kudna area of southern Syria."

"For the second time in the past week... troops completed a targeted overnight operation and apprehended several operatives who posed a threat in the area," the statement added.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said Israeli forces raided early Monday a village in the Quneitra countryside of southern Syria and "carried out searches targeting several homes, which ended with the arrest of two brothers".

On Wednesday, Israel's military said its forces had apprehended members of an Iranian-backed "terrorist cell" in southern Syria and seized weapons.