When the village was divided on Eid day

This societal division was the first I had ever witnessed in my life, occurring in this way at the level of our village and the neighboring villages.

Most people celebrated the holiday, and I was one of them.

While some people fasted according to Houthi instructions..

We broke our fast and attended, they fasted and were absent

Morning: The Houthis reinforced their gunmen at the checkpoints. They were arresting anyone wearing new clothes or carrying a chicken. At the checkpoint, they stopped a man who was going to visit his relative in areas they controlled. The man was covered in blood on both sides of his face when they stopped him. He thought they were going to say “Eid Mubarak” to him. They asked him to get out, and he was surprised: “Is he dead?”

Ramadan is your custom.. you are here.. you fast with them..

He kept trying to clear himself of the accusation, to no avail, until he saw their leader and some of his men putting "whale snuff" under their lips.

- Who are these people? We're all repeating our rituals, even your friends... we need to shave... easy?

We are mujahideen. We have breakfast normally.

When he was unable to leave them, he gave them a medical report stating that he was sick and could not fast.

They reluctantly accepted the medical report and the money he was going to give to his sister and her children, and forced him to remove the qat from his mouth.

I slept in the afternoon, as many do on Eid al-Fitr. The ordinary people who fasted saw us as wrong, while the followers of the Houthi cycles went further: they saw us as sinful, and there is no doubt that the original Houthis see us as their ideas reveal: infidels by interpretation.

As the Eid sun set, the crescent moon appeared and it was confirmed that we were right and they were wrong, those who celebrated the Eid fired guns into the air, while those who fasted ate their breakfast in silence and with inspiration.

After dinner, they raised their voices to praise God and began preparing for the Eid prayer, while we gathered to stay up late and begin fasting for the six days of Shawwal on their Eid. Although we were from the same region, we never met, shook hands, or saw each other's Eid clothes.