Stalking Yemen's Streets: Self-Appointed Morals Police

Nader Abdul Kadoos, a 50-year-old returning student, was set upon by one such street committee last month in the southern port city of Aden, in a confrontation that received broad attention in Yemen’s news media.

Kadoos’s apparent offense was to stroll out of the gates of Aden University after class in a group of male and female students.

About five bearded men pounced on the students, grabbing one woman by the hand to hold her while two other female students escaped in taxis, Kadoos recounted. The men slapped some of the male students. “Is this a lover’s lane?” the leader of the gang shouted, according to Kadoos.

More bearded men appeared from nowhere to upbraid the group, while some outraged passersby stopped to defend the mostly young men and women.

“Do you want us to wait until they start having sex in the street?” Kadoos recalled one of the bearded men shouting back at the crowd.

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