everytime i meet someone new, get e-mails from readers, or just get stopped because of my brown-ness, i get asked the same question..where are you from?!
my father is from Yemen and my mother is from Egypt. i was born and raised in Washington DC, i’m American. i take great pride in where i’m from and love the fact that i’m middle eastern. in about a week or so, i’ll be visiting Yemen to see my country for a second time. i’m really excited about this part of my trip because it’s been so long since i’ve seen my family there and i think i’m finally old enough to take in Yemen for what it really is, it’s history, it’s culture. i cannot wait to photograph that country.
as soon as the word “yemen” comes out of my mouth, most people have absolutely no idea what i’m talking about. “what’s yemen? where the fuck is that?”..but i can’t really blame them. you barely hear about the country in the news, it’s small, doesn’t have much to offer to american media. yet, i’ve noticed that so many europeans set their travels to yemen, to see it’s history (which it has a lot of) and experience the beauty of that country. it’s disgusting how much ignorance america has led it’s people to carry.
a couple days ago, i was looking through the newspaper here when something caught my eye.
Can a weed really destroy a country? Yes.
god damn. this article really blew me away. this is where i’m from, and it’s on the verge of non-existence? wow. when i went to yemen as a child, i remember seeing almost everyone sporting a huge bulged cheek full of qat. i didn’t think much of it, i thought it was part of the culture, i never thought of it as a drug. apparently, i was wrong.
i strongly urge everyone who reads this blog to read that article…and actually, take more time to read in general. it’s amazing how little we really know about this enormous world..
xoxox