The Iranian Houthi militia (classified on the terrorist list) announced the opening of competition for males only, for 473 scholarships offered by Iran, as part of its efforts to Shiite and sectarianize society and destroy the faith and identity of Yemenis.

According to a statement by the Ministry of Higher Education in the (unrecognized) Houthi government, “study scholarships include bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral studies for the academic year 2024/2025 AD, according to the conditions specified on the official website of the ministry.”

Although the Houthi Ministry claims that the scholarships are allocated to students in all governorates of the Republic, including the liberated ones, its conditions limit the application for these scholarships to “males” by students in 10 categories, the majority of which give priority to militia members.

Among the categories specified by the Houthi Ministry is the category of first-degree relatives of those it described as “martyrs of aggression,” meaning those killed in war, and those it called “martyrs,” meaning those killed by the militia. It stipulated that the application be submitted in the name of the student by its “Martyrs Foundation.” , similar to Iranian institutions, which means limiting this category to its members.

The Ministry identified two categories of wounded from what it called “aggression” - war wounded and “wounded” fighters who were injured on the fronts and their first-degree relatives, provided that they were registered with the Ministry of Health, which is under the administration of the Houthis in Sana’a.

It also required student applicants to obtain a Persian language study certificate, provide a commercial guarantee, and pass the test (personal interview) of the Tehran embassy in Sana’a in an attempt by the militia to increase enrollment in the Persian language department created at Sana’a University in mid-2016, which was supervised by an Iranian leader named Mortada. Abdeen, who was residing at the time in Sanaa, established it for the purpose of teaching the Persian language, as part of the Iranian invasion project in Yemen by exploiting the control of its arm, the Houthi militias.

The legitimate government in the interim capital, Aden, did not issue any comment on this Iranian-Houthi move, which observers considered to fall within the Iranian regime’s blatant interference and aggressions that are increasing in Yemeni affairs, and Tehran’s continued support for an armed coup group classified as a terrorist organization that poses an unimaginable danger. Not only on Yemen, but also on the region and the entire world.

The Houthi militia annually sends hundreds of Yemeni youth, most of them of the same lineage, to study in Shiite seminaries in Iran and Iraq, with about 800 scholarship students provided by Iran, as part of Tehran’s efforts to wrest Yemen from its Arab surroundings politically, militarily, economically, and culturally, in a real threat to security. The intellectual, cultural and linguistic aspects of the Yemeni society, within the scheme of sectarianism, replacing and bulldozing the national identity and replacing it with the Persian identity.