Majd Al-Qardaei was in February!

They are all Christians and gentlemen.

Al-Qardaei had experience in raiding the protectorates, such as Bayhan, and liberating them from the British, which was the reason for his imprisonment for four years in Sana’a, as his rebellion embarrassed the Imam and exposed his relationship with the colonizer.

Al-Qardaei was proceeding according to a plan drawn up by the revolutionaries to get rid of the rule of the Imamate, and that was his mission which he carried out carefully, and to declare a constitutional revolution in Yemen headed by the minister, and not only that, he withdrew from Haiz to Naqam with his companions to protect the revolution and Sana’a, and he held out for days until Sana’a fell and Imam Ahmad allowed it to be looted by the tribes and returned to his control, so Al-Qardaei withdrew to Khawlan and fell a martyr there, it was said ten days after the killing of the tyrant.

Historians agree that Al-Qardaei was the first to pave the way for the constitutional revolution, the prelude that accumulated the struggles of the free and pushed them to continue it until they achieved the pleasure of the republican victory on September 26. Hence, restoring the reputation of this national figure represents an important part of our struggle at the present moment in which we have returned to the crucible of our historical conflict with the Imamate, and our successive struggle in confronting their henchmen who are rooted in our land, our history and our identity, and they are now tampering with the symbols of our glory and our victories over them, and erasing their heroic lives from the Yemeni memory and the minds of the emerging generations, like the history of the martyr Al-Qardaei.

Al-Qardaei's personality and biography have many special features and dimensions that make him an inspiration and influencer in the Yemeni conscience. In addition to his political struggle, he was an eloquent poet who drew a national discourse with his colloquial poems and popular verses that still have an echo in the Yemeni oral memory and are passed down from generation to generation by ear, as they express courage, wisdom and bravery, and incite the spirit of resistance and embody the meanings of freedom and dignity in the Yemeni self. It is not his poems that receive this popular attention, but rather his stories and tales that encapsulate his strength and determination, including the story of his head-butting the tiger, and his famous saying "If you are the tiger, I am the lion and the camel will run away from us." This incident led to the cutting off of his nose, as in his picture, after he was able to defeat the tiger. This courage made his name given to every brave boy in the Yemeni popular context.

Hence, February has great memories and glories that are repeated in contemporary Yemeni history as distinct moments of victory related to struggle, fighting and changing reality. The glory of Al-Qardaei was in February 1948, the glory of the victory of the epic of the seventies was in February 1967, and the youth revolution of change in February 2011. All of these are inspiring struggles, national tours and important events in the Yemeni action resisting injustice and tyranny, and are linked to battles of sacrifice and loyalty for the sake of the homeland, loyalty that requires recalling heroic models and reviving the features of their heroism in our current moment, as they are enthusiastic motives and moral national reinforcements as we fight a deadly existential battle for our fate and the usurpation of our freedom.

It is not possible to achieve victory over our enemy while we are ignorant of the history of the founding heroes, and our awareness lacks the inspiration of the symbols of the national narrative that motivate bravery and emulate them, and continue on their path and embody the truth of their struggle, and the symbolism of the martyr Sheikh Ali Nasser Al-Qardaei should instill in us the values of sacrifice and heroism, and draw their features in shaping the national identity as a true belonging that connects us to our land and our history and glorifying those heroics with passion and emulation in order to change the map of our relationship and the concepts of our dulled nationalism, which surrendered to estrangement and separation from that bright history, so we were an easy prey for the priesthood to swallow again, and tamper with its existence and return it to the hateful past, because we neglected our history, which is a real experience in sensing danger, and we did not have fixed national references that confronted any erosion and defeat.