The Houthis are threatening dozens of private schools in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, with fines and closure for refusing to pull students and teachers out of classrooms for rallies promoting the militia's military escalation in Taiz and other battlefronts and glorifying its leader, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi.
School sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Houthis had ordered private schools in Sanaa and its outskirts to hold at least three student marches and rallies a week, both on school grounds and in nearby streets, cutting into classroom hours and turning schools into platforms for political propaganda and military mobilization.
Since seizing control of Sanaa, the Houthis have revised school curricula and introduced sectarian and mobilization activities, drawing warnings from human rights groups and the United Nations over the ideological indoctrination and military recruitment of children.
School administrators in the Safiya, Sabeen, Azal, Wehda and Tahrir districts have resisted the orders under pressure from parents threatening to withdraw their children over disrupted lessons and activities unrelated to education.
The education ministry in the Houthis' unrecognized government responded by threatening a range of penalties.
The threats come as the militia steps up mobilization activities in public schools under its control, coinciding with a military escalation in several provinces in recent weeks and amid accusations that it is seeking to recruit more fighters from among students.
