Iran's efforts to teach Persian, promote culture fail to resonate in Yemen

ADEN -- Despite the incentives Iran is offering for Persian language students at Sanaa University's Faculty of Languages and its affiliated Centre of Translation and Language Teaching, enrollment has remained persistently low.

This shows a lack of interest among Yemenis, and even among Houthi loyalists, in delving deeper into Iranian culture, education officials said.

Persian language teaching centres began to pop up in Yemen many years ago and have continued to open. But they remain unpopular, despite the low cost of classes.

The enrollment figures for Sanaa University's Persian Language Department show that only four students registered for this year, despite the reduction of the academic requirements for admission and a 50% reduction in cost.

The perks of joining the Persian Language Department include the opportunity to travel to Iran during the summer holiday to get acquainted with Iranian culture after passing the second level, Asharq al-Awsat reported.

Fourth level students who pass the course with distinction would get the opportunity to complete their postgraduate studies in Iran, the newspaper said, with a teacher alluding to other privileges, including public sector employment.

Just four students were registered in the Persian Language Department this year, and only six last year, according to Ali Mohammed, a Student Affairs employee at Sanaa University's Faculty of Languages.

Two years ago only three students were registered, he told Al-Mashareq, and this forced the college to withdraw the programme and the students to defer their language studies until the next year.

The faculty's other departments -- translation, English, French and German -- have a stronger enrollment record than the Persian department, he said, even though they do not offer the same incentives.

'Linguistic and cultural colonisation'

The university's Centre of Translation and Language Teaching stopped teaching Persian six months ago due to the lack of interest among students in enrolling in these classes, according to the centre's registrar, Mukhtar Ali.

This is probably because there are few employment opportunities for Persian speakers, said Sanaa University student reception staff member Yahya Saleh.

The Houthis have closed seven university departments at Sanaa University, including Arabic Language, Antiquities and Tourism and the Libraries, under the pretext that they were not profitable, political analyst Abdullah Ismail said.

Yet in 2016 they opened the Department of Persian Language "for the aim of linguistic and cultural colonisation", he added.

The first intake of Persian language students -- dubbed the "Qassem Soleimani" class -- graduated in 2020.

Iran has been promoting the teaching of Persian in Yemen as it is a means to further its hegemony and impose the doctrine of Wilayat al-Faqih (Guardian of the Jurist), which calls for allegiance to Iranian leader Ali Khamenei, he said.

Many people have not accepted this, even though the Iran-backed Houthis have been in power in parts of Yemen for more than eight years, he said.

'Little interest' in learning Persian

Iranian ideology and the Persian language are in decline in the world and in Yemen, fueled by Iran's attempts to impose its culture on Yemeni society by force, said Saeed al-Sharaabi, a student at the university's English Department.

This "created internal resistance and societal rejection due to the conflict and incompatibility between Iranian culture and Arab culture", he said.

Yemenis have little interest in learning the Persian language, he added, noting that "there is no real motivation for learning it, as it will not be a means for anyone to achieve the desired future".

In past decades, Arab scientific circles used to attach great importance to the Persian language and culture; however, this changed after the advent of the Khomeini regime, which turned this admiration into rejection.

This is due to the Iranian regime's ongoing attempts to dominate Arab societies and obliterate their identity.

Reluctance to enroll in Persian classes stems from "the Yemeni street's rejection of the extremist Iranian ideology the Houthis have been trying to impose on the people since they seized control", researcher Nawal Abdul Rahman said.

Despite the Houthis' control of state institutions and their efforts to promote the Persian language and Iranian ideology, these efforts have borne little fruit, she told Al-Mashareq.

Though efforts to push Persian studies at the university level have largely failed, she pointed to the attempt to spread the Persian language in Houthi summer camps, where children chant songs in Persian.

This is designed to spread sectarian Iranian ideology at an early age, she said.