"We are waiting for his return....Our lives are passing very slowly." These were the words of the forcibly hidden politician's daughter. The member of The Islah party, Mohammed Qahtan, is hidden scince more than four years in the Houthi prisons in Sana'a.

 

 

Qahtan, the beloved commander of his opponents as well as his supporters, is similar to Qahtan the beloved father, whose daughter Fatima gives many details about what he left behind in the house when he was forced to leave it in a black day for the whole country. Puting such a person in prison helps to put the country in a darkness.

 

"We learned from my father to practice life with determination and bravery and despite his absence we have remained as he wants to see us, strong despite the weakness caused by his absence." said Fatima while she was looking at her father's library.

 

Fatima and the rest of the family members live in Qahtan's house in the center of the capital, Sana'a, where nothing is more frightening to the whole family - the older ones and the younger ones - than the unanswered questions:"Where is my father and why is he alone among the others? Why are rumors going around him?".

 

During the four-year period, the family didn't despair of the protests demanding the release of Mohammed Qahtan and his comrades in the Houthis prisons - the group which emptied universities and streets and filled the prisons.

 

Fatima, the eldest daughter of Mohammed Qahtan, said that the family was subjected to "many harassment during several protest in Sana'a, wherever the perpetrators saw a picture of Qahtan or heard his name they feel that we remind them of a frightening and disturbing thing."

 

While she was talking, Fatima stoped for a moment to count the ways that the family used to know anything about Qahtan but without any progress.

 

"Although we have contacted important organizations and personalities in the country but yet they have not reached to anything related to my father's condition and whenever they come to talk to us, they say they have informations that he is okay, but have the seen him? The answer is no they never say him" she said. "All of them communicate with the family from time to time and we are in the forth year of his disappearence and about to enter the fith year but until now we don't know anything about him."

 

Maysa, Fatima's little daughter is waiting to see her grandfather like all the other small family members who are used to hug him and play with him and have long conversations about childish matters that no one else pays attention to.

 

Five-year-old Maysa, after a long list of big questions that she and the other senior members of the family couldn't find answers for, she offers an innocent solution to all these hidden questions that no one except The Houthis know its answers. She says:"We will wait for the Houthi to sleep and break the door and get my grandfather out while they are sleeping". She imagines the scene as if the Houthis are innocent kids like her who kidnapped her grandfather. Fatima smiles with tears in her eyes while she's imagining the innocent scene of her daughter.

 

"Everyone wants to see him. His family, his neighbourhood and every person who knows him as the man who loves his nation and is loyal and loving with everyone. He reflects the dreams of the simple and poor people and he is ussually smiling to to the kids, old people, friends and opponents." Fatima said.

 

A few days ago, the Houthi group tried to enter the house using a military force. The gunmen tried to break into the house but one of the women in the neighborhood stopped them at the door. They told her to tell the Qahtan's family to leave the house within three days, unless the Zainabiyat will be sent to expel the family from their house.

 

Fatima says that the gunmen "terrified the the grandkids of Qahtan and caused the collapse of the mother who suffered of the absence of the father who supported her in the whole journey of life, the person whose political activities didn't distract him from being a good husband and a great father."...

 

According to Fatima, they wrote on the wall of the house "reserved by the Specialized Criminal Court" and went away. This caused anger in the community, tribal figures and social media activists, which prompted the group to deny what they have done and then they informed the family that the procedure of seizing the house was canceled."

 

The agreement on releasing detainees....

 

At the beginning of December of 2018, Swedish talks began between the Yemeni parties and as it started the UN envoy Martin Griffith announced an agreement between the parties (the government and the Houthis) to release all prisoners and abductees on both sides within 40 days, but until now the agreement has not been implemented.

Just days before the agreement was announced, the Houthi group allowed the kidnapped minister of defense, Mahmoud Al-Subaihi, to contact his family and then they allowed President Hadi's brother to contact his family but they didn't allow Mohammed Qahtan to have the same right.

 

Mohammed Qahtan's family is not betting on the agreements of Sweden, and by observing the faliure that is happening in Hodeidah's file that didn't reach to clear agreement. This led the family to not trust the agreement of exchanging prisoners but they hope that the it can reveal the fate of Mohammed Qahtan and return him safely to his family and his lovers.

 

Fatima once again looks to the same huge library that has always been an important part of her father's life. She ended the conversation by saying what she started:"We expect his return with great concern amid rumors from time to time that crashed a lot but did not kill us and will not, until our country returns back as it was and my father shines as a sun."

 

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