Enforced Disappearance for the Second Time in Sana'a
On Friday, June 26, 2020, it seemed like an ordinary day in the Bayt Mayad neighborhood of the Sab'een District in Sana'a city. Eman Muhammad Yahya Al-Bashiri, a 34-year-old Yemeni woman and housewife, was going about her daily life when she left her home in the afternoon. However, something broke that day, as she simply did not return — she was forcibly disappeared.
This was not the first time Eman had been subjected to disappearance. She had endured another enforced disappearance in February 2019. That day, Eman went out to throw away the garbage but did not come back. A car with tinted windows stopped beside her, containing two women and a man in civilian clothes. They asked her for the location of the Ministry of Education, then she felt a prick in her hand and lost consciousness.
Her mother, Mrs. Habiba Muhammad, 60 years old, recounts bitterly:
"In the first instance, Eman went out to throw away the garbage. A car stopped beside her, with two women and a man in civilian clothes. They asked her where the Ministry of Education was, and then she felt a prick in her hand and lost consciousness. We searched for her for a long time until we received a call from an unknown number. It was Eman on the other end, crying and asking us not to abandon her."
After six months, on a day in December 2019, Eman returned home. But what returned was not the same body, nor the same soul. She was frighteningly emaciated, her skin covered in bruises, crawling on the ground because she could no longer walk. Her vacant eyes... all told a story that words failed to express.
Her mother, Mrs. Habiba Muhammad (60 years old), with tears in her eyes, says:
"My daughter didn’t want to talk much. She dismissed us with sarcastic smiles. She told us once: 'I was in prison, not in a hotel.' That was all we got from her."
Despite her wounds, Eman began to regain some of her health, little by little. However, fate did not allow her much time. In June 2020, just six months after her release, Eman went out to buy some food and forcibly disappeared again, as if the earth had split open and swallowed her.
Since that day, the family has not received any confirmed news about her. They knocked on every door, filed official memorandums, enlisted lawyers, and appealed to security and judicial institutions. Yet no one responded. The replies ranged from "We don’t know" to "We don’t have her," and sometimes even "Maybe she ran away."
Her mother says:
"We went to the criminal investigation unit; at first, they denied her existence. Then suddenly, they contacted us during Ramadan 2023, telling us: 'Bring a paper from the neighborhood chief and come to take her.' We rejoiced, we cried, we hurried... but upon our arrival, they said she was not there. After that, they requested clothes and food for her, then returned to deny everything."
The voice of Eman's mother is not unfamiliar in Yemen. It is the voice of dozens of mothers, wives, and daughters who carry pictures of their missing loved ones, moving from one place to another between confusion and hope, knocking on closed doors, searching for a spark of truth or a thread of mercy, only to know: "Are they still alive?"
The Ansar Allah armed group (Houthis) must reveal the fate of Eman Al-Bashiri, disclose the fate of all forcibly disappeared individuals, release all those detained arbitrarily, work to end the crime of enforced disappearance that still affects hundreds of victims in areas under their control, and open transparent and independent investigations to identify those involved in the crimes of enforced disappearance and hold them accountable, as well as provide redress for the victims and their families
