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Yemen

Republic of Yemen Middle East Sanaa 26,052,966 inhabitants 527,968 sq km 49.35 inhabitants/sq km Yemeni rials (YER) population evolution

Famous people from Yemen

Here is a list of famous people from Yemen. Curious if anybody from Yemen made it our most famous people in the world list? Read the aformentioned article in order to find out.

Mukesh Ambani

Organization leader

Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani is an Indian business magnate who is the Chairman, Managing Director and largest shareholder of Reliance Industries Limited, a Fortune Global 500 company and India's second most valuable company by market value. He holds a 44.7 % stake in the company. He is the elder son of the late Dhirubhai Ambani and the brother of Anil Ambani. RIL deals mainly in refining, petrochemical and in oil & gas sectors. Reliance Retail Ltd., another subsidiary, is the largest retailer in India. In 2013, he ranked "37 in the list of "The World's Most Powerful People List - Forbes and in "2010, he was included in Forbes's list of "68 people who matter most". As of 2013, he is India's richest man and second richest man in Asia. Ambani is listed as the 22nd richest person in the world with a personal wealth of $21.5 billion. He has retained his position as the India's richest person for the sixth year in a row. Through Reliance, he also owns the Indian Premier League franchise Mumbai Indians. In 2012, Forbes named him as one of the richest sports owners in the world. He has served on the board of directors of Bank of America Corporation and the international advisory board of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is also the Chairman of the Board of Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, one of the leading business schools in India.

Tawakkol Karman

Award Winner

Tawakkol Abdel-Salam Karman is a Yemeni journalist, politician and senior member of the of Al-Islah political party, and human rights activist. She leads the group "Women Journalists Without Chains," which she co-founded in 2005. She became the international public face of the 2011 Yemeni uprising that is part of the Arab Spring uprisings. She has been called the "Iron Woman" and "Mother of the Revolution" by Yemenis. She is a co-recipient of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the first Yemeni, the first Arab woman, and the second Muslim woman to win a Nobel Prize and the youngest Nobel Peace Laureate to date. Karman gained prominence in her country after 2005 in her roles as a Yemeni journalist and an advocate for a mobile phone news service denied a license in 2007, after which she led protests for press freedom. She organized weekly protests after May 2007 expanding the issues for reform. She redirected the Yemeni protests to support the "Jasmine Revolution," as she calls the Arab Spring, after the Tunisian people overthrew the government of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011. She has been a vocal opponent who has called for the end of President Ali Abdullah Saleh's regime.

Ali Abdullah Saleh

Politician

Ali Abdullah Saleh is a Yemeni politician who was President of Yemen from 1990 to 2012. Saleh previously served as President of North Yemen from 1978 until unification with South Yemen in 1990. After more than 33 years in power, Saleh signed the Gulf Cooperation Council agreement in November 2011, paving the way for his vice president to become acting president until 21 February 2012; at that point the vice president would be elected to the presidency. On 22 January 2012, the Yemeni parliament passed a law that granted Saleh immunity from being prosecuted and he left Yemen for treatment in the United States. Saleh stepped down and formally ceded power to his deputy Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi at the Presidential Palace on 27 February 2012.

Abu Hurairah

Man

Abu Hurairah, was a companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and the narrator of Hadith most quoted in the isnad by Sunnis. Abu Hurairah spent 3 years in the company of the Prophet and went on expeditions and journeys with him It is estimated that he narrated around 5,375 ahadith. Abu Hurairah has been quoted as having a photographic memory.

Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi

Politician

Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi is a Yemeni major general and politician who has been the President of Yemen since 27 February 2012. He was previously the Vice President from 1994 to 2012. Between 4 June and 23 September 2011, he was the acting President of Yemen while Ali Abdullah Saleh was undergoing medical treatment in Saudi Arabia following an attack on the presidential palace during the 2011 Yemeni uprising. Then, on 23 November, Hadi became Acting President again, after Saleh moved into a non-active role pending the presidential election "in return for immunity from prosecution." Hadi was "expected to form a national unity government and also call for early presidential elections within 90 days" while Saleh continued to serve as President in name only.

Keith Vaz

Politician

Nigel Keith Anthony Standish Vaz, known as Keith Vaz is a British Labour Party politician and a member of parliament for Leicester East. He is the longest-serving Asian MP and has been the Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee since July 2007. He was appointed as a member of the Privy Council in June 2006. He has been named among the most influential Asians in Britain.

Habib Umar bin Hafiz

Teacher

Habib Umar bin Hafiz, is a Yemeni Islamic scholar, teacher, and founder and dean of Dar al-Mustafa Seminary.

Ramzi bin al-Shibh

Man

Ramzi bin al-Shibh is a Yemeni citizen being held by the United States as an enemy combatant detainee at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. He is accused of being a "key facilitator for the September 11 attacks" in 2001 in the United States. In the mid-1990s, bin al-Shibh moved as a student to Hamburg, Germany, where he allegedly became close friends with Mohamed Atta, Ziad Jarrah and Marwan al-Shehhi. Together, they are suspected of forming the Hamburg cell and becoming central perpetrators of the September 11 attacks. He was the only one of the four who failed to obtain a US visa; he is accused of acting as an intermediary for the hijackers in the United States, by wiring money and passing on information from key al-Qaeda figures. After the attacks, bin al-Shibh was the first to be publicly identified by the US as the "20th hijacker", of whom there have been several more likely candidates. Bin al-Shibh has been in United States custody since he was captured on September 11, 2002, in Karachi, Pakistan. He was held by the CIA in black sites in Morocco before being transferred to Guantanamo Bay in September 2006. Finally charged in 2008 before a military commission, he and several others suspected in the 9/11 attacks went to trial beginning in May 2012.

Shoshana Damari

Singer

Shoshana Damari was a Yemenite–Israeli singer known as the "Queen of Hebrew Music."

Abdul Majeed al-Zindani

Politician

Abdul Majeed al-Zindani has been described by Daniel Golden of the Wall Street Journal as "a charismatic Yemeni academic and politician." and by CNN as "a provocative cleric with a flaming red beard". A leading militant Islamist, he is the founder and head of the Iman University in Yemen, head of the Yemeni Muslim Brotherhood political movement and founder of the Commission on Scientific Signs in the Quran and Sunnah, based in Saudi Arabia. In 2004 the US Treasury Department published a press release stating that the United States had by executive order designated Zindani as a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist".

Abu Bakr Salem Belfkih

Singer-songwriter

Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi

Military Person

Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi was a Zaidi religious leader and former member of the Yemeni parliament for the Al-Haqq Islamic party between 1993 and 1997. He was an instrumental figure in the Sa'dah conflict against the Yemeni government, which began in 2004. Al-Houthi, who was a one-time rising political aspirant in Yemen, had wide religious and tribal backing in northern Yemen's mountainous regions. Al-Houthi was accused by the Ali Abdullah Saleh regime of trying to set himself up as Imam, of setting up unlicensed religious centers, of creating an armed group called Shabab al-Muomineen, and of staging violent anti-American and anti-Israeli protests, as Al-Houthi's followers felt Yemen's government was too closely allied with the United States. According to a Sheik al-Houthi disciple, he had lived part of his life with his family in Qom, Iran. He claimed also that Al-Houthi's relationship with Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was similar to Hizbullah's leader Hassan Nasrallah. On 18 June 2004, Yemeni police arrested 640 followers of Hussein who were demonstrating in front of the Sana'a Grand Mosque, and two days later the Yemeni government offered a bounty of $55,000.00 for al-Houthi's capture and launched an operation aimed at ending his alleged rebellion. In July, Yemen Army forces had killed 25 al-Houthi supporters and upgraded the bounty for the Shi'ite cleric to $75,500.00. After months of battles between Yemeni security forces and the Believing Youth, on 10 September the Yemeni Interior and Defense Ministries released a statement in which they declared that Sheikh al-Houthi had been killed with twenty of his aides in the Marran district, Saada Governorate.

Rizwan Khan

Presenter

Rizwan "Riz" Khan is a British television news reporter and interviewer. From 2006 until April 2011 he hosted his own eponymous television show on Al Jazeera English. He first rose to prominence while working for the BBC and CNN.

Ahmed Saleh

Diplomat

Ahmed Ali Saleh is the eldest son of former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh, and was a commander of approx. 80,000 troops of the Republican Guard unit of the Yemen Army.

Aden Gillett

Actor

John Aden Gillett is a British actor best known for playing the role of Jack Maddox on the popular BBC series The House of Eliott. Gillet was born in the city of Aden, Yemen, from which he got his name. Schooling included Elizabeth College, Guernsey Aden trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. He has received a number of awards and honors for his work, including the Tree Prize, the Sir Emile Littler Prize, the Vanbrugh Prize and the Radio Prize. He received the Theatre World Award for Best Newcomer on Broadway for his performance in "An Inspector Calls" at the Royale Theatre, Broadway. He has played many roles on the stage, including Mr Banks in a new production of Mary Poppins and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing. In films, he has appeared in The Winslow Boy and The Borrowers. He is active in the Theatre Royal at Bath with the Peter Hall Company in numerous productions of Shakespearean plays and other classics, including Antony and Cleopatra, As You Like It, and at The Old Vic in The Tempest. He also appeared in Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit, and Private Lives, and in George Bernard Shaw's Man and Superman. On television, he appeared as Robin Hood in Ivanhoe and as Peter Townsend, Princess Margaret's forbidden love, in The Queen's Sister. He also appeared in Harry Enfield's Television Programme.

Abu Musa Ashaari

Man

Abu-Musa Abd-Allah ibn Qays al-Ash'ari, better known as Abu Musa al-Ashari was a companion of the prophet Muhammad and important figure in early Islamic history. He was at various times governor of Basra and Kufa and was involved in the early Muslim conquests of Persia.

Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden

Businessperson

Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was a Saudi businessman working primarily in the construction industry and the father of Osama bin Laden.

Yahya Muhammad Hamid ed-Din

Noble person

Yahya Muhammad Hamid ed-Din became Imam of the Zaydis in 1904 and Imam of Yemen in 1918. His name in full was His majesty Amir al-Mumenin al-Mutawakkil 'Ala Allah Rab ul-Alamin Imam Yahya bin al-Mansur Bi'llah Muhammad Hamidaddin, Imam and Commander of the Faithful. Yahya Muhammad Hamid ed-Din was born on Friday 18 June 1869 in Sanaa into the Hamidaddin branch of the al-Qasimi dynasty who ruled most of Yemen proper and South Saudi Arabia today for over 900 years. Upon the death of his father in 1904, Yahya became Imam, effectively ruler over the mountainous areas of the future North Yemen. However, the Ottomans who made claim on the area did not recognize the rule of the Imams of Yemen since their entry into Yemen. His Qurayshi descent and vast canonical knowledge also meant he was proposed as a khalifa by the Islamic scholar Mohammad Rashid Rida following the abolition of the Caliphate in Turkey.

Salim Hamdan

Man

Salim Ahmed Hamdan is a Yemeni man, captured during the invasion of Afghanistan, declared by the United States government to be an illegal enemy combatant and held as a detainee at Guantanamo Bay from 2002 to November 2008. He admits to being Osama bin Laden's personal driver and said he needed the money. He was originally charged by a military tribunal with "conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism," but the process of military tribunals was challenged in a case that went to the US Supreme Court. In Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, the Court ruled that the military commissions as set up by the United States Department of Defense were flawed and unconstitutional. DOD continued to hold Hamdan as an enemy combatant at Guantanamo. After passage of the Military Commissions Act of 2006, Hamdan was tried on revised charges beginning July 21, 2008, the first of the detainees to be tried under the new system. He was found guilty of "providing material support" to al Qaeda, but was acquitted by the jury of terrorism conspiracy charges. He was sentenced to five-and-a-half years of imprisonment by the military jury, which credited him for his detention as having already served five years of the sentence. A Pentagon spokesman noted then that DOD might still classify Hamdan as an "enemy combatant" after he completed his sentence, and detain him indefinitely.

Abdul Aziz Abdul Ghani

Politician

Abdul Aziz Abdul Ghani was a Yemeni politician who served as Prime Minister of Yemen from 1994 to 1997, under President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Ghani was a member of the General People's Congress party. Ghani also served as Vice President of the Yemen Arab Republic and as the Prime Minister of the Yemen Arab Republic twice. His first term was from 1975 to 1980, and his second term was from 1983 to unification in 1990. Abdul Ghani was the president of the Consultative Council from 2003 until his death in 2011. He studied political science in the USA at Colorado College, Colorado Springs, and invited Professor Fred Sonderman of that college to visit Yemen in November 1977. He died in Saudi Arabia on 22 August 2011 from injuries suffered in a June assassination attempt on President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a government official with Saleh in Riyadh said. Abdulaziz Abdulghani is the first senior political figure to have died from the explosion in Saleh's palace mosque which forced the president and a number of his aides to seek medical treatment in Saudi Arabia.

Ali Al-Nono

Footballer

Ali Al-Nono is a Yemeni footballer who plays as a striker for Al-Ahli San'a'. He was the captain of the Yemen national football team. and is the all-time leading scorer in the history of the Yemeni League

Ali Salim al-Beidh

Politician

Ali Salim al-Beidh is a Yemeni politician who served as the General Secretary of the Yemeni Socialist Party in South Yemen and as Vice President of Yemen following unification in 1990. He left the unification government in 1993, sparking the 1994 civil war in Yemen and then went into exile in Oman. He is a leader of the Southern independence movement known as Al Harak.

Cahide Sonku

Actor

Cahide Sonku, born Cahide Serap was a Turkish actress, model, writer and the first female film director in Turkey. Sonku was founder of her own movie production company Sonku Film in 1950.

Muhammad al-Badr

Politician

H.M. Muhammad Al-Badr was the last king of the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen and leader of the monarchist regions during the North Yemen Civil War. His full name was Al-Mansur Bi'llah Muhammad Al-Badr bin Al-Nasir-li-dinu'llah Ahmad, Imam and Commander of the Faithful and King of the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of the Yemen.

Abdul-Malik al-Houthi

Military Person

Sheikh Sayyid Abdul-Malik al-Houthi is a leader of the Zaidiyyah insurgency in Sa'dah Governorate, Yemen. His brothers Yahia Badreddin al Houthi and Abdul-Karim Al-Houthi are also leaders of the insurgency, as was his late brother Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi. He was claimed to have been heavily injured during an air raid in December 2009, a claim denied by Houthi spokesmen. On 26 December 2009, it was claimed that Abdul-Malik has been killed after 2 days from a heavy air strike from the Royal Saudi Air Force. The claim however was refuted by the Houthis which then released video evidence proving he was alive.

Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar

Soldier

Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar is a major general of the Yemeni army. Born in Sanhan village, Sana'a - Yemen on 20 June 1945, he was raised in a conservative religious family, and received a bachelor's degree in 1974, majoring in military sciences. al-Ahmar did doctoral studies at the Nasser Supreme Military Academy in Cairo in 1986. He served as President Saleh's chief military adviser, and was at one point considered Yemen's second-most powerful man. He helped recruit Islamic fundamentalists to fight in Afghanistan during the Soviet-Afghan War. Relations between Saleh and Mohsen had reportedly soured years before the uprising due to his rivalries with two of the president's sons. This souring of relations led to an apparent attempt by the President Saleh to kill Mohsen by asking Saudi Arabian military commanders to bomb an alleged rebel base which was in fact Mohsen's HQ. On March 21, 2011, al-Ahmar said he would protect the anti-government Yemeni protesters, along with other top Yemeni army commanders, in a move that was later condemned as 'mutinous' by President Saleh. On December 19, 2012, al-Ahmar was effectively fired from his position by President Hadi as part of Hadi's efforts to restructure the military and remove the political and military elite remnant from former President Ali Abdullah Saleh's rule. The forces previously under al-Ahmar's command, most notably the First Armoured Division, will be absorbed into the Defence Ministry.

Shah Jalal

Man

Hazrat Shah Jalal is a celebrated Sufi Muslim figure in Bengal. Jalal's name is associated with the Muslim movement into north-eastern Bengal and the spread of Islam in Bangladesh through Sufism, part of the long history of travel between the Middle East, Persia, Central Asia, Indian subcontinent, and East Asia. He was buried in Sylhet, Bangladesh, formerly known as Jalalabad, while the country's main airport is named in his honour.

Abdullah al-Sallal

Politician

Abdullah al-Sallal was the leader of the North Yemeni Revolution of 1962. He served as the first President of the Yemen Arab Republic from 27 September 1962 to 5 November 1967. Al-Sallal led the revolutionary forces that deposed King Muhammad al-Badr and deposed the Mutawakkalite Kingdom of Yemen. He presided over the newly founded Republic, with close ties to Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt which served as the YAR's strongest ally in the war against the Saudi Arabian-backed Mutawakkalite royalists that lasted into 1968. Yemen's President Abdullah al-Sallal negotiated with tribal leaders. Six different men held the position of Prime Minister under as-Sallal, including al-Sallal himself three times. He held both titles from the formation of the republic until 26 April 1963, when he appointed Abdul Latif Dayfallah, as well as briefly in 1965 and from 18 September 1966 until the end of his presidency. Abdul Rahman al-Iryani, as-Sallal's successor to the presidency in 1967, served as Prime Minister in 1963 and 1964. Hassan al-Amri held the post three times.

Adnan Farhan Abd Al Latif

Man

Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif, also known as Allal Ab Aljallil Abd al Rahman, was a Yemeni citizen imprisoned at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, from January 2002 until his death in custody there.

Abū Muhammad al-Hasan al-Hamdānī

Scientist

Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥasan ibn Aḥmad ibn Ya‘qūb al-Hamdānī was an Arab Muslim geographer, poet, grammarian, historian, and astronomer, from the tribe of Banu Hamadan, western 'Amran/Yemen. He was one of the best representatives of Islamic culture during the last effective years of the Abbasid caliphate.

Mohammed Basindawa

Politician

Mohammed Salim Basindawa is a Yemeni politician who has been Prime Minister of Yemen since 10 December 2011.

Hamid al-Ahmar

Politician

Hamid al-Ahmar is a Yemeni multimillionaire businessman and politician. He is the general secretary of the Preparatory Committee of the National Dialogue for the JMP and a member of opposition party Yemeni Congregation for Reform, commonly known as Islah. He is a son of Abdullah ibn Husayn al-Ahmar, the former head of the Hashid tribal confederacy of Islah which is now headed by Hamid's older brother Sadeq, and the former Speaker of the Yemeni HR since 1993. Senior Al-ahmer has been known in Yemen as the presidents’ maker and breaker. His uncle, after whom he is named, was executed by the Yemeni Imam Ahmed Hameed Al-deen during the Yemeni civil war of 1962-1968. "After all, the heinous murder of his ambitious uncle and grandfather led his father to mobilize the Hashid tribes, normally supporters of the Imam, to the side of the revolution when it broke out in north Yemen in 1962. The efforts of his father, family, and tribesmen eventually led to the permanent demise of the Imamate’s 11 centuries’ rule." As a youth, he spent summers in the United States, staying with a family to learn English. He earned a bachelor degree in economics with honors at Sana'a University. He went into buying, eventually owning cellular telecom Sabafon, the Islamic Bank of Saba, and at least a dozen other businesses.

Nasir al-Wuhayshi

Military Person

Nasir Abdel Karim al-Wuhayshi, alias Abu Basir, is a citizen of Yemen and the leader of the Islamist militant group Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. He once served as Osama bin Laden's secretary and presided over the January 2009 merger of the Saudi Arabian and Yemeni splinters of Al Qaeda into AQAP. Ayman Al-Zawahiri confirmed al-Wahayshi's appointment as leader of AQAP in a video posted online. Both Saudi Arabia and Yemen consider the militant leader to be among their most wanted fugitives. Nasir al-Wuhayshi served as a private secretary to Osama bin Laden for years in Afghanistan. He left Afghanistan in 2001 and was soon arrested by Iranian authorities, who handed him over to his native Yemen two years later where he was imprisoned without charges. In February 2006, Nasir al-Wuhayshi was one of 23 Yemeni captives who escaped from custody from a maximum security prison in Sana'a. Al-Wuhayshi became the leader of Al-Qaeda's Yemeni operations after the former leader was killed in a US Predator drone strike in 2002. His authority seems to derive mostly from his long proximity to Osama bin Laden. Nasir al-Wuhayshi and three other men appeared in several threatening videos released in January 2009. Al Wuhayshi published an additional video calling for violence in February. He claimed the increase in western warships off the Horn of Africa to fight piracy were really intended to oppress Islam. According to Yemeni military officials he was killed in southern Yemen on August 28, 2011. On Oct. 25, 2011, AQAP denied that he was killed.

Mona Mahmudnizhad

Deceased Person

Mona Mahmudnizhad was an Iranian Bahá'í who, in 1983, together with nine other Bahá'í women, was sentenced to death and hanged in Shiraz, Iran because of her membership in the Bahá'í Faith. The official charges ranged from “misleading children and youth” because she was teaching children who had been expelled from school for their beliefs and serving in an orphanage to being a ‘Zionist’ because the Bahá'í World Centre is located in Israel.

Sadiq al-Ahmar

Politician

Sheikh Sadiq bin Abdullah bin Hussein bin Nasser al-Ahmar is a Yemeni politician and the leader of the Hashid tribal federation and the Al-Islah tribal confederacy. He succeeded his father Abdullah ibn Husayn al-Ahmar in these positions after Abdullah's death in 2007. He is best known for his role in the 2011 Yemeni uprising, in which fighters under his command attacked and seized government facilities in the Battle of Sana'a.

Valerie Vaz

Politician

Valerie Carol Marian Vaz is a British politician and lawyer. A member of the Labour Party, she has served as the Member of Parliament for Walsall South since the 2010 general election.

Claude Moraes

Politician

Claude Moraes is a British Labour Party politician who has been a Member of the European Parliament for London since 1999. He is also the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party in the European Parliament.

Shalom Sharabi

Rabbi

Sar Shalom Sharabi, also known as the Rashash, the Shemesh or Ribbi Shalom Mizraḥi deyedi`a Sharabi, was a Yemenite-Israeli Jewish Rabbi, Halachist, Chazzan and Kabbalist. In later life, he became the Rosh Yeshiva of Bet El Yeshiva in the Old City of Jerusalem. His daughter married Rabbi Isaac Gagin of Jerusalem, making him the grandfather of Shem Tob Gaguine, the "Keter Shem Tob."

Ali Hamza Ahmed Suleiman Al Bahlul

Man

Ali Hamza Ahmad Suliman al Bahlul is a Yemeni citizen who has been held as an enemy combatant since 2002 in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camp. He boycotted the Guantanamo Military Commissions, arguing that there was no legal basis for the military tribunals to judge him. He was convicted in November 2008 of performing media relations for the Saudi Osama bin Laden, the founder of Al-Qaeda, and sentenced to life imprisonment, after a jury of nine military officers deliberated for less than an hour. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia overturned his conviction on January 25, 2013. The court ruled that the charges of which he was convicted were not recognized war crimes at the time he was accused of committing them.

Ali Mohammed Mujur

Politician

Ali Mohammed Mujawar served as Prime Minister of Yemen between 7 April 2007 and December 10, 2011 and prior as electricity minister. Following the anti-government uprising in Yemen, President Ali Abdullah Saleh fired Mujawar and the other members of the Cabinet of Yemen on March 20, 2011, but asked them to remain until a new government is formed. During the uprising, on 3 June 2011, Mujawar was seriously injured in the same attack which critically wounded President Saleh. He is undergoing treatment in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Yisrael Kessar

Politician

Yisrael Kessar is a former Israeli politician who served as a Knesset member for the Alignment and Labor Party between 1984 and 1996.

Yisrael Yeshayahu

Politician

Yisrael Yeshayahu Sharabi was a Yemen-born Israeli politician, minister and the fifth Speaker of the Knesset.

Ala Al-Sasi

Soccer Midfielder

Ala Al-Sasi is a Yemeni football Midfield for Club Al-Ahli San'a' .

Abdul Qadir Bajamal

Politician

Abdul Qadir Bajamal was the Prime Minister of Yemen from 31 March 2001 until 7 April 2007. He is a member of the General People's Congress party and had been appointed by President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Before Bajamal's appointment as Prime Minister, he had served as Foreign Minister from 1998 to 2001.

Samir Naji Al Hasan Moqbel

Man

Samir Naji al Hasan Moqbel is a citizen of Yemen, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internee Security Number is 043. The Department of Defense reports Moqbel was born on December 1, 1977, in Ta'iz, Yemen. On April 15, 2013, the New York Times published an Op-ed by Moqbel titled "Gitmo is killing me". In it he described that he would not eat "until they restore my dignity." He wrote that he had lost 30 pounds and described how it feels being force fed. "As it was thrust in, it made me feel like throwing up. I wanted to vomit, but I couldn't," Moqbel wrote. "There was agony in my chest, throat and stomach. I had never experienced such pain before. I would not wish this cruel punishment upon anyone." His Op-Ed stirred wide commentary.

Qahtan Muhammad al-Shaabi

Politician

Qahtan Muhammad al-Shaabi was the first President of the People's Republic of South Yemen. Al-Shaabi's National Liberation Front political organisation wrested control of the country from the British and won political supremacy over the opposition Front for the Liberation of Occupied South Yemen in 1967. On 30 November 1967, the protectorate of South Arabia was declared independent as the People's Republic of South Yemen with al-Shaabi as President. Al-Shaabi held the presidency until 22 June 1969, when a hard-line Marxist group from within his own NLF seized control. He was replaced by Salim Rubai Ali and jailed, then placed under house arrest until the 1970s, and lived quietly in Aden from his release until his death in 1981. Al-Shaabi was originally an agricultural officer from Lahej, who fled to Cairo in 1958. In 1962, he was announced the head of a National Liberation Army, formed in Egypt, and in 1963 or 1965, he was chosen the founding head of the NLF. Upon independence in 1967, he was the best-known NLF leader and the only one over 40 years old. As part of the Nasserist nationalist right-wing faction of the NLF, he fought the Marxist left wing for a year and a half until his ouster in the 22 June Corrective Move, also known as the Glorious Corrective Move, in 1969. The government declared in 1990 that the deposition was "in the absence of true democracy".

Mesaad Al-Hamad

Soccer Defender

Mesaad Al-Hamad is a Qatari footballer who is a right defender for Al Sadd. He is a member of the Qatar national football team. He was born in Yemen.

Faisal Bin Shamlan

Politician

Faisal Othman Bin Shamlan was a Yemeni intellectual, technocrat, political reformist and public figure. He was a Yemeni member of parliament who had held the post of Oil and Mineral Resources Minister in the post-unification government of Yemen. Prior to the reunification of Yemen in 1990, Shamlan was the Minister of Infrastructure and Oil in the socialist government of South Yemen. He was the recognized presidential candidate of the Yemeni opposition coalition, a coalition which consists of the Islamist Islah, the Yemen Socialist Party and several smaller parties, in the 2006 presidential election, but was defeated by incumbent president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Zadok Ben-David

Man

Zadok Ben-David is an Israeli artist working in London. He was born in Beihan, Yemen; his family immigrated to Israel when he was an infant. He studied at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design from 1971 to 1973. He continued his studies at University of Reading and Saint Martin's School of Art, where he studied sculpture and later taught, from 1977-1982. In 1988, Ben-David represented Israel in the Venice Biennale. Ben-David’s largest solo show to date was at the Guangdong Art Museum in Guangzhou, China in spring 2007. He has received many awards, including the Grande Biennial Prémio at the XIV Biennale Internacional de Arte de Vila Nova de Cerveira in Portugal in 2007, and the Tel Aviv Museum prize for sculpture 2005. In 2008, he was commissioned to make a sculpture for the Beijing Olympics. Ben-David’s show “Human Nature” at the Tel Aviv Museum had had the highest attendance in the thirty-year history of the museum when it ended in February 2010. Since 1980, Ben-David has had more than forty solo exhibitions. His works are held in the collections of public and private institutions in Europe, East Asia, the United States, Israel and Australia.

Zecharia Glosca

Politician

Zecharia Glosca was Yemenite Jew and Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for the Yemenite Association between 1949 and 1951.

Khadija al-Salami

Film Director

Khadija al-Salami, is the first Yemeni female film producer. Al-Salami resides in Paris, France. At an early age, al-Salami was sent to live with relatives after her mother divorced her father over severe domestic abuse. At age 11, she was forced by her uncle into an early marriage and was raped by her husband. Some weeks later, after much protest and disobedience, her husband returned her to her uncle, who immediately disowned her and returned her to her single mother. She escaped the immense family and society pressure by finding employment with the local television station and simultaneously attending school in the mornings.

Fahd al-Quso

Man

Fahd Mohammed Ahmed al-Quso, also known as Abu Huthaifah, Abu Huthaifah Al-Yemeni, Abu Al-Bara', Abu Hathayfah Al-Adani, Abu Huthaifah Al-Adani, Fahd Mohammed Ahmed Al-Awlaqi, Huthaifah Al-Yemeni, or Abu Huthaifah Al-Abu Al-Bara, was alleged to be a terrorist by American and Yemeni officials, and on the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list. He was wanted by the FBI, Interpol, and the United States Department of State, which had offered 5 million dollars to anyone with information about him. He was killed by a US airstrike on May 6, 2012.

Ali Mohsen

Football player

Ali Mohsen Al-Moraisi was Yemen’s greatest football player, and the first to ply his trade in the Egyptian league with Arab giants Zamalek in the 1960s. He was the first foreigner to ever finish top-scorer of the Egyptian league. He once scored in a 7-1 defeat by Real Madrid in 1961, while playing for a select side with several players from Zamalek, Ahly and Al-Masry. Played against the greatest players in the world such as: Pele, Di Stéfano, Zagallo, Puskás, Didi, Garrincha, Santos, Santa Maria, Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst, also played with the greatest stars the Arabs : Ammo Baba, from Iraq, Sidiik Mnzul, Borai Abdalkhar, from Sudan, Chicha of Morocco, Hassan Al-Amir, from Algeria .. And others After retiring from playing, he coached Somalia in 1973, and managed Al-Satra in Southern Yemen, before moving to Johar Al-Rab. The national stadium in Sana'a is named after the player. He was appointed councilor for Minister of Youth and Sports until his death in 1994. The Ali Mohsen Al-Moraisi Tournament has been played annually in his honour since 1992, in cooperation with Aden Football Association. The Moraisi Football Tournament was started in 1992, in cooperation with Aden Football Association.

Debbie Almontaser

Organization founder

Dhabah "Debbie" Almontaser is an American Muslim schoolteacher of Yemeni descent. She was the founding principal of the Khalil Gibran International Academy, a New York Arab-themed public school, named after the Christian Arab poet, Khalil Gibran.

Mohammad Ahmed Abdullah Saleh Al Hanashi

Man

Mohammad Ahmed Abdullah Saleh Al Hanashi was a citizen of Yemen, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. Al Hanashi's Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 78. The Department of Defense reports that Al Hanashi was born on February 1, 1978, in Al Habrub, Yemen. On June 2, 2009, the Department of Defense reported that a 31 year-old Yemeni captive named "Muhammed Ahmad Abdallah Salih" committed suicide late on June 1, 2009. Camp officials did not allow journalists who were at the camp for Omar Khadr's Guantanamo military commission to report news of his death until they left Guantanamo.

Avraham Taviv

Politician

Avraham Taviv was a Yemen-born Israeli politician.

Jaber A. Elbaneh

Man

Jaber A. Elbaneh is a Yemeni-American who was labeled a suspected terrorist by the United States after it emerged that he had attended al-Farooq alongside the Lackawanna Six, and remained on at the camp after they returned home. He fled to Yemen, where he worked as a cab driver before turning himself in to authorities. As Yemeni officials squabbled over his US$5 million reward, he escaped in a mass breakout along with a number of other high-profile prisoners, and was added to the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list. When Yemen convicted him in absentia for conspiracy in a plot against oil facilities, he again turned himself in to the police, and served a 5-year sentence. He is related to Susan Elbaneh, the only American victim of a terrorist attack against the U.S. Embassy in Yemen in September 2008.

Abdul Karim Abdullah al-Arashi

Politician

Abdul Karim Abdullah al-Arashi was a Yemeni politician who served as the President of the Yemen Arab Republic briefly from 24 June to 18 July 1978. He was preceded by Ahmed al-Ghashmi and succeeded by Ali Abdullah Saleh. He also served as Vice President of Yemen Arab Republic from 1978 and as speaker of the Constituent People's Assembly. He died on June 10, 2006 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Isra Girgrah

Professional Boxer

Isra Girgrah, is a world champion female boxer.

Shimon Garidi

Politician

Shimon Garidi was an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset between 1951 and 1955.

Yiḥyah Qafiḥ

Man

Yiḥyah Qafiḥ served as the Chief Rabbi of Sana'a, Yemen in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He founded the Dor Dai movement in Judaism, which intends to combat the influence of Lurianic Kabbalah and restore the rational approach to Judaism, such as is represented by the thought of Maimonides, Sa'adiah Gaon, et al., and to encourage strict adherence to the Halakha explicitly as formulated in the Mishneh Torah.

Fekri Al-Hubaishi

Soccer

Fekri Al-Hubaishi is a Yemeni football striker. He currently plays for Al-Saqr. He is a member of the Yemen national football team.

Run Wrake

Film Director

Run Wrake is a film director, film producer and screenwriter.

Fatima Sulaiman Dahman

Arabic Speaker

Fatima Sulaiman Dahman is a Yemeni sprinter. She competed in the 100 metres competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics; she ran the preliminaries in 13.95 seconds, which did not qualify her for Round 1.

Ali Abdullah Ahmed

Man

Ali Abdullah Ahmed, also known as Salah Ahmed al-Salami, was a citizen of Yemen who died while being held as an enemy combatant in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 693. Joint Task Force Guantanamo counter-terror analysts estimated he was born in 1977, in Ib, Yemen. Ali Abdullah Ahmed died in custody on June 10, 2006. His death was announced by the Department of Defense as a suicide, on the same day that the deaths of two other detainees were said to be suicides. Their deaths received wide coverage in the media. His younger brother, Muhammaed Yasir Ahmed Taher, is also held in Guantanamo. They had been held since 2002.

Muhammad al-Gharbi Amran

Man

Muhammad al-Gharbi Amran is a Yemeni short story writer, novelist and politician. He is known for his short stories and for his controversial novel Mushaf Ahmar. He is also a former deputy mayor of Sanaa. He was born in Dhamar and studied history at university, obtaining a Master's degree in the subject. He has written five collections of short stories, starting with Al-sharashif. His stories have been translated into English and Italian, and have featured in foreign-language anthologies such as Oranges in the Sun and Perle dello Yemen. al-Gharbi Amran served as the deputy mayor of Sanaa for several years in the latter half of the 2010s. His first novel Mushaf Ahmar was published from Beirut in January 2010. The novel deals with vexing social problems like extremism and the oppression of women in Yemeni society. Two months after the publication of the book, Amran was relieved of his duties as deputy mayor. Amran claimed that this was due to the controversial content of his novel, although this was denied by the authorities. Later in 2010, a group of intellectuals boycotted the 27th Sanaa Book Fair, accusing the organizers of banning several books including Mushaf Ahmar. This too was denied by Yemen's Book Authority.

Ali al-Muqri

Man

Ali al-Muqri is a Yemeni novelist and writer. The author's work has been published in Banipal magazine. Two of his recent novels Black Taste, Black Odour and The Handsome Jew have been longlisted for the Arab Booker Prize.

Salem Saeed

Footballer

Salem Abdullah Awadh Saeed is a Yemeni international footballer who plays for Al-Hilal Al-Sahili, as a goalkeeper.

Akram Al-Selwi

Soccer

Akram Al-Selwi is a Yemeni football forward who is currently playing for Al-Hilal Al-Sahili. He is also a member of the Yemen national football team. Al-Selwi played for Yemen at the 2003 FIFA U-17 World Championship in Finland.

Yehuda Hashai

Politician

Yehuda Hashai is an Israeli former politician who served as a member of the Knesset for the Alignment from 1980 until 1984.

Akram Al-Worafi

Footballer

Akram Al-Worafi is a Yemeni football midfielder.

Al Hajj Abdu Ali Sharqawi

Man

Al Hajj Abdu Ali Sharqawi is a citizen of Yemen held in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. The Department of Defense reports that he was born on 26 May 1974, in Ta'izz, Yemen. As of June 4, 2011, Abdu Ali al Haji Sharqawi has been held at Guantanamo for six years nine months.

Haim Cohen-Meguri

Politician

Haim Cohen-Meguri was an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Herut and Gahal.

Abdallah Salim Bawazir

Author

Abdallah Salim Bawazir was a renowned Yemeni novelist, short story writer, columnist and author. He was born in the town of Ghayl Bawazir in Hadhramaut province. He finished his formal schooling at the age of 16 and, due to his family's poverty, went off to Aden in search of work. He worked there for several years in various commercial stores before returning to Hadhramaut in 1962. However his stay in Al-Mukalla, the capital of Hadhramaut, proved short-lived and he went back to Aden in 1963, working as manager of a well-known commercial store for the next 33 years. In 1997, he tried one more time to settle down in Al-Mukalla but this attempt too proved unsuccessful. He went back to Aden for the last time to live out the final years of his life. Bawazir was a prolific author and worked across a range of genres including short stories, novels, plays, children's books, and autobiography, not to mention shorter journalistic pieces for newspapers and magazines. As early as the 1950s, he was writing a column in Angham magazine. His first published short story entitled "Hikaya" came out in 1961 in the pages of Al-Taliyaa, an Al-Mukalla newspaper. Another of his stories for Al-Taliyaa entitled "The Devil's Tree" was eventually included in the national school curriculum. Al-Taliyaa also published his first play Al-Muhakama in 1962. His works heavily reflected the turbulent social and political scene of the 1960s.

Amat Al Alim Alsoswa

Woman

Amat Al Alim Alsoswa served as the Assistant Secretary-General, Assistant Administrator of United Nations Development Program and Director of its Regional Bureau for Arab States. Alsoswa was born in Taiz, Yemen and holds a B.A. in Mass Communications from Cairo University and an M.A. in International Communications from the American University in Washington, DC. She speaks Arabic and English fluently and communicates in French and Russian. She was the first woman undersecretary in the Ministry of Information, first woman Ambassador and first female Minister. At a young age, Alsoswa began her career as journalist of the nation. She began broadcasting at the age of 10 in a local radio program in the Governorate of Taiz. Later on, Alsoswa she was a TV anchor in Yemen's Television where she served as a political commentator and news broadcaster. Between 1984 and 1986, she worked as Deputy TV Programs Director at Sana’a TV, where she held the most senior position as a woman in Yemeni television. Subsequently, she became Chief Editor of Mutaba’at I’elamiah Journal, a monthly magazine focusing on communications and media affairs. From 1989 to 1991, Alsoswa led the Yemeni Women’s Union before Yemen’s reunification. From 1997 to 1999, she was Undersecretary at Yemen’s Ministry of Information and Chairperson of the National Women’s Committee. Between 2000 and 2003, she served as Yemen’s ambassador to Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands, where she was Yemen’s Permanent Representative to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, based in The Hague. In May 2003, Alsoswa was appointed the Minister of Human Rights in Yemen, the first human rights woman Minister in Yemen’s history. During her tenure, she established and oversaw Yemen’s first Human Rights Ministry, initiated the country’s first national human rights report, and established a public human rights resource center.

Sharaf Mahfood

Football player

Sharaf Mahfood is a Yemeni football striker for Club Al-Tilal، Yemen's top scorer the season: 1990–91، He played for Yemen national football team in the qualification series for the 1994 FIFA World Cup.

Habib Abdulrab Sarori

Man

Habib Abdulrab Sarori is a Yemeni computer scientist and novelist. He was born in Aden and pursued higher studies in France, obtaining a Masters degree in Informatics from the University of Paris 6 in 1983, followed by a PhD from the University of Rouen in 1987. He is currently a professor in the Mathematical and Software Engineering Department at Rouen and also at INSA de Rouen. He has published numerous scientific papers over the last two decades. He is also the author of textbooks in computer science. Abdulrab has published literary works in both French and Arabic. His novel La reine étripée was published in 2000. He has also written short stories and novels in Arabic, his most recent novel being Arwa. His short story The Bird of Destruction was published in English translation in Banipal magazine, in an issue devoted to contemporary Yemeni writing.

Reema Abdo

Swimmer

Reema Abdo is a former backstroke swimmer, who was born in the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen and competed for Canada at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California. There the resident of Picton, Ontario won the bronze medal in the 4x100m Medley Relay, alongside Anne Ottenbrite, Michelle MacPherson, and Pamela Rai.

Ali Khousrof

Olympic Judo Athlete

Ali Khousrof is a Yemeni judoka who competes in the men's 60 kg category. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, he was defeated in the second round by Yann Siccardi.

Abu Bara al Yemeni

Man

According to the 9-11 Commission Report Abu Bara al Yemeni was a citizen of Yemen who was slated to participate in al Qaeda's attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001. Abu Bara al Yemeni did not end up participating in the 9-11 attacks because he was not able to get a visa to travel to the United States. In April 2011 the whistleblower organization WikiLeaks published formerly secret Joint Task Force Guantanamo detainee assessments. The assessment for Abd al-Rahman Abdu Abu Aghayth Sulayman listed his stay in a Kandahar guesthouse operated by Abu Suhaib al Taize, as a justification for his detention. The assessment said Abu Suhaib al Taize was an alias for Abu Bara al-Taizi, whose real name was Zuhail Abdo Anam Said al Sharabi.

Mohammad al-Shaibani

Man

Mohammad al-Shaibani is a Yemeni journalist and poet. The author's work has been published in Banipal magazine. He has published 3 poetry collections as of 2011.

Amin Al-Sanini

Football player

Amine Al-Sunaini is a Yemeni football Goalkeeper and Club Al-Ahli San'a'

Shimon Ben-Shlomo

Politician

Shimon Ben-Shlomo is an Israeli former politician who served as a member of the Knesset between 1984 and 1988.

Khaled Baleid

Soccer Midfielder

Khaled Baleid is a Yemeni football Midfield who is currently playing for Al Tilal Aden. He was also a member of the Yemen national under-17 football team. Baleid played for Yemen at the 2003 FIFA U-17 World Championship in Finland.

Mohammed Ali Hassan Al-Moayad

Man

Sheik Mohammed Ali Hassan Al-Moayad is a Yemeni cleric who was convicted in 2005 on U.S. federal charges of conspiring to provide material support and resources to Hamas and Al Qaeda. His conviction was overturned in the Court of Appeals in 2008. He then pleaded guilty to conspiring to raise money for Hamas, was sentenced to time served, and deported to Yemen. Prior to his arrest, he was the imam of the main mosque in Sana'a and a high-ranking member of Yemen's opposition Al-Islah party.

Shmaryahu Ben-Tzur

Politician

Shmaryahu Ben-Tzur is a former Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for the National Religious Party between 1996 and 1999.

Abdulaziz Al-Saqqaf

Economist

Professor Abdulaziz Y. Al-Saqqaf was a Yemeni human-rights activist, economist, and journalist. Saqqaf established the Yemen Times, unified Yemen’s first and most widely read English-language independent newspaper, in 1991, and was the winner of the N.P.C.'s International Award for Freedom of the Press for 1995. He was also a leading economist at the state-owned Sana'a University. He won the lifetime Achievement Award of the 2006 Middle East Publishing Conference in recognition of his efforts in promoting freedom of the press in Yemen and in the region. Dr. Saqqaf was killed in 1999 when he was hit by a car. Despite appeals by Dr. Saqqaf's heirs to re-open an investigation into the accident due to indicators that it may have been a carefully coordinated assassination, the authorities in 1999 refused to do so, resulting in a withdrawal from the trial proceedings against the car driver. Saqqaf's elder son Walid and younger daughter Nadia, who currently runs the Yemen Times, have mentioned on more than one occasion that they believe the accident was orchestrated due to their father's frequent critical writings against the former president of Yemen Ali Abdullah Saleh.

AbdulWahab Raweh

Politician

Dr. Abdulwahab Abdo Raweh is an active Yemeni politician and was in the Yemeni cabinets. He has been in the cabinets of Abdul Aziz Abdul Ghani, Faraj Said Bin Ghanem, Abdul Karim al-Iryani, and Abdul Qadir Bajamal. In 2006, he became the president of Aden University in Yemen until June 15, 2008, when he was elected in the Shoora Council of Yemen.