{"id":2111,"date":"2019-05-04T00:47:56","date_gmt":"2019-05-03T21:47:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/?p=2111"},"modified":"2019-05-09T02:49:19","modified_gmt":"2019-05-08T23:49:19","slug":"a-modern-voice-in-a-time-of-war-samaa-al-hamdanis-journey-from-reluctant-american-to-modern-millennial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/a-modern-voice-in-a-time-of-war-samaa-al-hamdanis-journey-from-reluctant-american-to-modern-millennial\/","title":{"rendered":"A MODERN VOICE IN A TIME OF WAR: SAMA\u2019A AL-HAMDANI\u2019S JOURNEY FROM RELUCTANT AMERICAN TO MODERN MILLENNIAL"},"content":{"rendered":"
In the midst of the current crisis going on in Yemen, it is not unusual to find Sama\u2019a Al-Hamdani discussing causes and outcomes of the Yemeni conflict across the television screens of international media, from CNN to Turkish-based TRT English to BBC and Chinese-run CGTN.<\/strong><\/h6>\n

Special Report<\/span><\/strong>
\nBy Kipp Cozad – YAN<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

She has been a powerful voice on expert panels that address the competing roles of international and local players in Yemen. On one such panel in 2015, Sama\u2019a found herself among a group of experts, including Saudi Ambassador Al-Jubeir, in which she advocated for an end to foreign intervention a few short months after the beginning of the Saudi Arabian air campaign in Yemen. Sama\u2019a shared, \u201cI recall concluding that it was my professional and moral obligation to state the facts as I believed them: Yemen\u2019s war will lead to a humanitarian crisis, and ultimately, a political settlement will have to be mediated. I indeed spoke as an anti-war activist.\u201d
\nThe trajectory of this stance has led Sama\u2019a to be one of the many expert voices of discontent in regards to the conflict. However, the war has certainly changed her personal and professional path: \u201cI never in a million years would have guessed that I would end up settling in the United States or be considered a Yemen-American activist.\u201d Yet, here she is.
\nSama\u2019a came to the United States a year after her high school graduation in order to reunite with her mother. Sama\u2019a came reluctantly. She wanted to remain in Yemen and continue with her schooling and work, but her family tugged at her to join them. As she did, Sama\u2019a jumped headlong into her new home in the US, however she recognized her privilege: \u201cI am no more special than anybody in Yemen. It\u2019s just that I was born to the right family that was able to send me here to study\u201d. Sama\u2019a believes the question of origins in Yemen has become politicized. Despite the fact that Sama\u2019a lived most of her life in the capital, Sana\u2019a, she has family from disparate places in Yemen, from Taiz to Dhamar to Ibb, Aden and Abyan.
\nIt has become important for Sama\u2019a to cast aside regional identities and for all Yemenis to stake their claim to Yemen as a whole. For her, the divisions that are defined by region have become destructive within the Yemeni political climate today: \u201cI believe in the modern nation-state\u2026.I feel connected to everywhere [in Yemen].\u201d She is greatly inspired by her parents, both of whom had careers in Yemen, stating \u201cI feel like I had a good family model of what I want to be, which is a citizen of Yemen with a good job [so that I] can contribute to society.\u201d
\nWhen asked where she obtained such an outspoken and forceful persona, Sama\u2019a contends it comes from her beloved grandmother, Fatimah Al-Hajji, who she refers to as Hajjiyah, who served as the matriarch for her family during her formative years in Yemen. \u201cHer objective,\u201d Sama\u2019a explains, \u201cwas to instill resilience, in the most feminist fashion\u201d. During those childish outbursts, Grandma Hajjiyah would exclaim, \u201cBe a woman!\u201d She demanded that Sama\u2019a be strong and taught her how to command \u201cinner strength and determination,\u201d a quality that has served Sama\u2019a so well all these years later.
\nAs Sama\u2019a pondered how American she has become, she shared her thoughts on the Yemeni-American community as a whole. She sees Yemenis that have immigrated to the US through millennial eyes: \u201cYemenis in America are more Yemeni than Yemenis in Yemen. Especially those that came here in the 1970s. They hold on to a Yemen that is frozen in time \u2013 which I admire to a certain extent. Yemenis that have come from Yemen in recent years have progressed and they merge their identity with a global one.\u201d
\nSama\u2019a, by living in DC, rather than in the midst of the Yemeni diaspora, has become fully American in her mind: \u201cI live like a millennial in DC.\u201d But there is a struggle associated with her experience, as she admits, \u201cMine is a first-generation immigrant story chasing an American dream that we all acknowledge is no longer attainable, especially for those that don\u2019t have specific backgrounds. As long as my name is Sama\u2019a Al-Hamdani and I am from Yemen, I am going to be at the bottom of the food chain here.\u201d
\nSama\u2019a is proud to be both American and Yemeni: \u201cI feel very at ease at being both Yemeni and American. It feels natural. Because I was born and raised in Yemen, the Yemeni part is so comfortable. Because my mother and my mother\u2019s mother were Yemeni, I will always have that with me\u2026.Yemenis are a tenacious people and they are really resilient. I have somehow tapped into that\u2026.the people are so tolerant and patient [in Yemen].\u201d
\nSama\u2019a cares deeply about Yemen. Though her voice is strong, she has been mischaracterized based on her assessment of the current conditions in Yemen. \u201cHaving different perspectives is natural, but a lot of the mischaracterization is intentional and is intended to distract audiences from my anti-war messaging and shift the conversation away to my appearance or [my] family.\u201d
\nShe, like many Yemeni-Americans, has a sense of responsibility to her ancestral homeland. Through her project with The Yemeni Cultural Institute for Heritage and the Arts, Sama\u2019a aims to highlight the artistic heritage of Yemen. It is the one thing that is removed from the conflict.
\nIn the midst of the long tragedy that is the Yemen War, Sama\u2019a has staked her claim in America. She is yet one more voice that is directing others to understand her native land, both in regards to the current political events and in more sanguine ways that recall Yemen\u2019s wondrous artistic past and present.
\nIn addition to her work as director of the Yemeni Cultural Institute for Heritage and the Arts, Sama\u2019a Al-Hamdani is a visiting fellow at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University. You can follow her @Yemeniaty on Twitter.<\/p>\n

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