Al Mukalla: Since Ayyat’s colleague proposed in January, she has been unable to find a slot in her full schedule to announce her engagement and share joyful moments with her family and friends.
Ayyat and her husband-to-be Emad hail from the Yemen’s southern city of Aden and have been working with the UAE Red Crescent since September last year when a massive humanitarian campaign was launched to help people in liberated areas. “My initial plan was hiring a wedding hall in Aden to officially announce my engagement and celebrate with our families and friends. But I could not find time as I was too busy distributing aid.”
She suggested arranging the ceremony in her house. “We realised later that we cannot make it home. Taking even a short break from work means delaying vital aid to the needy,” she said.
The bride-to-be decided not to disrupt their humanitarian work and keep carrying their engagement rings until they found the right time to exchange them officially.
Heading a team of several aid workers, the 24-year-old Ayyat was responsible for distributing Red Crescent aid to people along the south-western coast of Yemen near Bab Al Mandab.
Last Saturday, Ayyat was forced to halt distribution and flee a small village near Thoubab region due to intensive shelling by Al Houthis. “I was so sad because we stopped giving aid to the people there,” she said.
Out of the blue, Emad suggested that that was the right moment to announce their engagement and swap rings, to boost his future wife’s morale. “We invited our team members, guards and villagers and exchanged engagement rings. It was a ten-minute break... and then we went back to our work,”
In the deeply conservative Yemen, engagement and wedding celebrations take place individually for men an women, keeping with traditions that call for gender segregation. Ayyat said she did not mind challenging the traditions if her actions would put smiles on the faces of the under-privileged people in Bab Al Mandab. “I do not mind breaking social practices if this will make other people happy. I know that if I celebrated my engagement in Aden, many poverty-stricken people would not have received aid on time,”
Social media users who saw Ayyat and Emad’s heart-warming photos congratulated them and hailed them for helping the poor.
Before joining the UAE Red Crescent in September, Ayyat and her fiancé worked as volunteers during the peak of government battles against Al Houthis in the port city of Aden. Both were part of a team of volunteers collecting money and medicine from well-off locals and distributed them to the needy. “We used to give out medicine to people with diabetes and cash to extremely poor people,”
As both were assisting the needy, Emad admired Ayyat’s dedication and hard work. He fell in love with her but could not disclose his feelings as he was “pretty shy” according to Ayyat. “In November, unexpectedly, he sent me a Whatsapp message saying he loves me,” she said. Ayyat has a degree in business administration while Emad is an information technology teacher.
Seeking control of more territories and in an attempt to dislodge president Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi from Aden, Al Houthi militants advanced into the south early last year. Ayyat said that the Al Houthis expansion and ensuing fighting exacerbated the humanitarian situation, especially in the strategic Bab Al Mandab region. When the rebels were pushed out of the south in August, a humanitarian crisis unfolded in the liberated area. The UAE Red Crescent subsequently sent Ayyat’s team with food and medical supplies to Bab Al Mandab.
“People are very poor. They have nothing; no drinking water, no food, no health services. They live cottages made of cardboard and wood. We provided them with food and blankets. “
Due to growing number of the needy in these villages, the team goes home at midnight and comes back at 5am.
Ayyat and Emad plan to celebrate their wedding in a year and a half when they have enough money, hoping that the war in their country is over by then.
