Houthi war on Ibb mosques.. Seizing and closing women’s prayer areas in Ramadan

Local sources confirmed that the terrorist Houthi militia seized a mosque inside the city of Al-Qaeda, south of Ibb Governorate (central Yemen), the second in a few days, while a number of women's prayer halls were closed in several cities in the governorate.

The sources said that the cultural supervisor in Al-Qaeda city in Dhi As-Sufal directorate, called "Abu Jibril Al-Nawaa" stormed the "Abdul-Wahhab" mosque in the city and expelled the imam of the mosque and replaced him with another imam from the militia, days after seizing the "Hael" mosque in the same directorate.

The sources added that the incident was met with popular rejection and widespread condemnation of the campaigns targeting mosque imams during the holy month of Ramadan, noting that what is happening comes as part of a plan to seize the rest of the city’s mosques, in addition to an attempt to alienate worshippers from mosques under Houthi control and thus prevent Tarawih prayers from being held in them.

In a related context, the Houthi militia has closed a number of women’s prayer rooms in the governorate’s mosques since the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan.

Local sources said that the Houthi militia closed a large number of women's annexes in mosques in the city of Ibb and its districts, to prevent them from performing Tarawih prayers.

Since taking control of the province by force in the fall of 2014, the Houthi militia has closed women’s prayer halls and turned them into private residences or barracks for its militants.