Free Yemeni Movement

The Free Yemeni Movement (al-yamaniyin al-ahrar) was a nationalist political movement active in the politics of North Yemen from the mid-1930s until the 1962 coup which ushered in the Yemen Arab Republic and the 8-year North Yemen Civil War.

The movement began with generalized opposition to the rule of Imam Yahya Muhammad Hamid ed-Din, a conservative ruler who was deeply suspicious of foreign influence and as a result kept his land isolated and deprived of modern technology. He once famously said: "I would rather that my people and I remain poor and eat straw than let foreigners in, or give them concessions, no matter what advantage or wealth might result from their presence." Yahya's motivation was more patriarchal than tyrannical; he believed that as a sayyid it was his responsibility to protect the imamate from infidels and modernity.

After Yemen's defeat by Saudi Arabia in their border war in 1934, rumors arose of a plot among army officers, the Imam's son Ali and Ghalib al-Ahmar of Hashid. In Sana'a and other urban centers a generation of young intellectuals (made up of sons of Yemen officials and large landowners, some of which were graduates of or teacher's at the Imam's schools in Sana'a), known as the shabab, began debating the issues of the day. Reading groups became circles of dissent, and the shabab would become the most ardent critics of Yahya.

The two who would take the first practical steps towards turning dissatisfaction into a mass political movement were Yemenis trained in Cairo, where they were influenced by the Muslim Brotherhood: Muhammad Mahmud al-Zubayri, a poet of the al Qadhi clan and Ahmad Muhammad Numan, a Sunni from the southern highlands. Numan had been in Cairo since 1937, studying at the al-Azhar University, working for Arab nationalists and writing articles and pamphlets critical of the conservative nature of the imamate in Yeman. Numan's complaints involved abuse of authority by local officials, lack of direct appeal for petition to the Imam and oppressive taxation. Numan did not challenge the existence of the imamate and in fact flattered the crown prince, , who he believed supported the idea of reform. Zubayri arrived in Cairo in March 1940 and immediately looked up Numan. Over the next year the two founded al-Katiba al-Ula (the "first Battalion"), a discussion group for Yemeni nationals interested in reform. They also contributed articles to Cairo newspapers.

...
Wikipedia