22nd of dismay: Fatima Noman
YemenExtra
M.A.
Fatima Noman is a Yemeni American witness of the US-backed Saudi war currently residing in the Yemeni capital of Sana’a. Noman will be YemenExtra’s journalist for today:
I once heard someone say the phrase “Making peace is harder than making war.” At the time, that seemed so irrational, so absurd. On April 17, 2016 just before I closed my eyes, I made one final plea to God. A plead to end this storm of air raids -that have been surrounding me for 14 months now- and fell into a slumber. Waking up hurriedly, to see the news only to be hit with a shock of disappointment that the air raids never stopped and my plead wasn’t heard. To think that for a moment I believed peace would prevail, how silly of my 17 year old self.
Read More: https://www.yemenextra.net/2017/05/10/solidarity-statement-to-the-people-of-yemen-randi-nord/
A few days passed and news that the peace talks were back on came and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t flooded by a new rush of hope. It’s funny how much a human can hope. As happy as I was, I was equally perplexed. Bewildered by how the same people who send missiles in the earliest hours of dawn can also manage to speak of peace. Perhaps I am just not that good with multitasking, after all who am I to judge?
It’s been over a month since my plead to God and he answered me today in the most unexpected way. I woke up quite early to revise for my upcoming exams; meanwhile I was hearing the distressing roaming of the air crafts but just dismissed them. Suddenly my window shook accompanied by a strong boom; I ran scuriedly to where my family were watching the unification day celebrations on TV. I cuddled up next to my mom when a second blast came and the curtains swayed. Then a third and a fourth till the finale, which was the seventh. All the while my eyes were plastered on the TV, my mouth was slightly open, and I was in shock about what I saw. I expected that after seven terrifying sound bombs my people would evacuate the scene, but rather they started chanting; “By spirit, by blood, we will redeem you Yemen”. And once again I am proven wrong; to merely think these bombs might dispatch our spirits. It is impossible!
To say the least, I am quite disappointed in Saudi Arabia, why did they feel the need to send sound bombs during our glorious unification day? and while we are having “peace talks”? But then again what can you expect from people who mercilessly kill baby infants and the physically disabled?!
In the end, no matter how long we are showered by air raids we will never give in to Saudi. We will never forget who we are, no matter how hard they try to wipe out our identities. This is Yemen and we’ve been here for the past 3000 years and there is no bomb strong enough to make us forget that. We are rooted in the soils of our country, eternally.
