Racial discrimination in the Arab world - the Al Alhdam

racial discrimination in the Arab world ... Yemeni paper Al-Tagheer ...the paper had space to tackle another serious social ill in Yemeni society: racial discrimination. The celebrated Yemeni poet Ali Al-Maquarri warned that Yemen's blacks, pejoratively called Al-Akhdam (servants), are ill- treated and suffer a fate far worse than slavery and that they have to contend with systematic racial discrimination. His novel "Black tastes, black odours", was received with much critical acclaim in his native Yemen and elsewhere in the Arab world. Al-Maquarri's views, the paper said, will hopefully prompt others -- media workers, writers and human rights activists -- in the Arab world to be more sensitised to the cause of blacks.

NGO report on caste-like discrimination against "Al-Akhdam" people in Yemen, ..... drums "to talk" about oppressed lives, the hope for a life in dignity, ...
http://www.idsn.org/tekst/developments.htm

In Yemen there exists a caste-like system that keeps Al-Akhdam social group as the ... Even though overt racial oppression is no longer permissible by law, ...
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Caste_system

fatalistic and encourages people to tolerate the horrible oppression .... They are known as “Al Akhdam” — the servants. Set apart by their African features, ...
http://www.india-forum.com/forums/index.php?act=Print&client=wordr&f=2&t=1658

discrimination against the Al-Akhdam people is a practiced social reality in .... Movement against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism
http://www.idsn.org/Documents/pdf/Press_release_Yemen.pdf

Int’l Movement against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR), ... “In Yemen, the Al-Akhdam in a socially condemned group engaged in disposal of ...
http://www.franciscansinternational.org/docs/statement.php?id=464

social and economic exclusion of the akhdam seems to continue as a hereditary trait
http://books.google.com/books?id=beJP_BOIhEcC&pg=PA224

Human Rights Index of United Nations Documentsc) persistent reports of de facto discrimination against descent-based, culturally distinct communities, among others, the Al-Akhdam ...
http://www.universalhumanrightsindex.org/hrsearch/search.do;jsessionid=06F9DC61E26648B5AF4F8E82BF292EB6?countries=176&accessType=country&regionCountry=country&orderBy=category&lang=en&currentPage=9

In Yemen, there is a minority of people with dark complexion called al-Akhdam. Historically speaking, their presence in Yemen has been a result of the Ethiopian pre- Islam invasion in 525 BC. Settling down in Yemen and throughout the years have adapted a life style in which they practice many trades especially folklore dancing, handicrafts, cleaning and some other free trades. Unofficial statistics show that the population of this minority reaches 500,000 inhabitants living in Sana’a, Shabowa, Lahj, Abyan, Aden and al-Hudaida... they complain from the harassment that al-Akhdam females suffer by the local men who find weddings an opportunity to do so with pretty dancers or singers. Demographic distribution of al-Akhdam in the suburbs is defined according to the tribes. For every tribe has its own Akhdam group of men and women. This group knows its limits and can not cross the red lines between them and the tribe they are living with. In the cities this trend is almost extinct because in most weddings al-Akhdam’s artistic services have been substituted with that of the locals, by this depriving the Akhdam of one source of income. Recently, al-Akhdams have started to become relatively politically active, and in the democratic environment and multi-party system, they have decided to form a political party of their own calling it “Free Blacks Society” whose sole intention is to defend their rights and demand their needs to be fulfilled enhancing by that their living.
http://www.yementimes.com/article.shtml?i=669&p=culture&a=1

Minority Report: Yemen's Akhdam "Out-Castes" They have lived in Yemen for well over a thousand years. They are Arabic-speaking Muslims. And yet they are Yemen's great outcasts. Meet the Akhdam.
http://www.ordoesitexplode.com/me/2005/11/minority_report.html

The study deals with a case of extreme social practices of cruelty and violent socio-economic exclusion of "Al-Akhdam", a minority social group
http://www.law.emory.edu/ihr/huda.html

Languishing at the Bottom of Yemen’s Ladder - New York Times Set apart by their African features, the group known as “Al Akhdam” form a kind of hereditary caste in Yemen.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/27/world/middleeast/27yemen.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Discrimination Against Al-Akhdam People in Yemen ...
http://www.mahalo.com/Caste_System

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