Houthis forcing Yemenis to pay for praying

Noura Bendari

The Houthi militia uses all tools to get money from ordinary Yemenis.

The militia has recently imposed a fine on prayer at the mosques affiliated to it. It recently distributed posters to the mosques, asking those frequenting those mosques to pay money for praying at them.

It justified this by saying that the money would be used in paying the electricity bills of the mosques.

Those performing the dawn prayer at the mosques have to pay 100 riyals each, according to the posters distributed by the Houthis to the mosques.

Those performing the dusk prayer and the last prayer have to pay 50 riyals, whereas those performing the weekly Friday prayer have to pay 100 riyals.

The posters have stirred up debate and anger among Yemenis. Yemeni activists accused the Houthis of trying to incite Yemeni citizens against the legitimate government of their country, especially after the Houthis had removed the posters from the mosques.

Yemeni Information Minister Muammar al-Eriani commented on the matter on Twitter.

He accused the Houthis of imposing taxes that had never been imposed throughout the history of Yemen.

“The Houthis intentionally humiliate the Yemeni people,” al-Eriani said. “This shows that their downfall is closer than anybody can imagine.”

Yemeni journalist Saleh al-Bidani commented on the issue by saying that the Houthis will charge the Yemenis for breathing the air of their country one day.

“This is no joke after the militia had charged the Yemenis for praying at the mosques,” al-Bidani said.

Ordinary Yemenis expected fellow citizens to stop going to the mosques and pray at home because of the new fees.