Sadiq Ghalib is a very distinguished artist. He came back from Saudi Arabia in the beginning of the 90s. He has been able to establish a wide reputation in a very remarkably short time. He has participated in many shows and festivals in Yemen and other countries. The last festival he participated in was the Taiz Third Cultural Festival in which he presented two portraits: "The First Injury" and "Deprivation".He was also chosen by Taiz University to supervise the work of the Yemeni artist; Ishtiaq Kaid who traveled to Egypt to participate in Ain Shams University Festival for plastic arts held on July 17. The Yemen Times met the artist, Sadiq Ghalib, and had the following chat with him:

Q: Will you please brief yourself ? and which one appeals to you more; painting or sign-writing?
A: My name is Sadiq Ghalib, known by Sadiq 99. I was born in Gabble Habashi in 1963. My start was at school. When a child, I used to spend my pocket-money on sheets and colors. It was Al-Zubairi school that played a great role in molding my talent. I first started with painting, sign-writing came next. As far as plastic arts is concerned, I do not belong to a specific school. All schools of plastic arts appeal to me and I always travel through them in pursuit of beauty. Sign-writing is an art by itself and it has its own pioneers. Unfortunately, this art is now threatened by computer writing programs which only serve materialistic purposes.

Q: Have you been influenced by other artists?
A: No, but I like the works of some of them. For example, I like the Surrealist Salvador Dali. Among the Arabs, I like the Lebanese Wajeeh Nahlah and in Yemen, Abdul Ghani Ali Ahmad.

Q: What were your best portraits that made you popular?
A: My best portrait is a romantic one called " Deprivation". This portrait expresses the ever-lasting longings of woman to man. In fact, my portraits often have a social and romantic sense and most of them are surrealistic.

Q: How do you evaluate plastic arts in Yemen? How do you perceive its future?
A: Plastic arts know no limits. Unfortunately, in Yemen the well-known artists have retired to commercial advertisements. Plastic arts' future in Yemen seems promising. There are a lot of good young artists in Yemen who will lead this art to its glory. I am sure that these young artists will be up to our expectations, especially, Hakeem Al-Akil.

Q: What are the obstacles that face the artist in Yemen? How can he overcome them?
A: The obstacles are as follows:
1- The absence of a real school for teaching plastic arts and its principles.
2- The absence of galleries.
3- The artists' tendency to publicize his works.
4- The false pride of some artists who refrain from helping the new generation of artists.

Q: What would you do if you were the Minister of Culture?
A: I have never hoped to be a minister, but I wish to see the following in Yemen:
1- Galleries.
2- Helping talented artists participate in international exhibitions.
3- holding monthly symposiums and seminars.
4- Establishing a syndicate for solving the artists' problems.

Q: Do you think that the media has served plastic arts in Yemen?
A: We would like the media to pay special attention to plastic arts and the Yemeni artists.

Q: What are your ambitions? Have you achieved some of them?
A: I am still in the beginning of my career. I have participated in 24 international group shows and I have made more than three solo exhibitions in Yemen and other countries. I also have entered many national and international competitions. When I was in Saudi Arabia, I participated in many exhibitions there and others in Egypt and Jordan. Many prizes and certificates were awarded to me and I am still keeping them. My hope is to see plastic arts in better condition. Another hope is to draw the picture that I have been looking for and have not been able to draw yet!

Q: At the end of our interview, would you like to say anything else?
A: Yes. I would like to ask the syndicate in Sana'a why it hasn't got a branch in Taiz. Finally, I thank the Yemen Times and its members and may God bless its founder, the late Dr. Abdulaziz Al-Saqqaf.

Farouk Al-Kamali
Imad Al-Saqqaf
Yemen Times, Taiz

The allotted programs for children, like cartoons or translated foreign stories, are produced not for our Muslim children but for the Western children. Even the Western society discards a lot of various kinds of these films, such as, films of scientific fiction, space films and the hostilities taking place in space. All these kinds of films have clearly been proved by scientists, to cause havoc on the children's psyche, because they are easily and willingly accepted by children which later manifest in violent acts. Consequently, it becomes exceedingly difficult to change their attitudes. Besides, children become engrossed in imagination. Examples of such films are Grandizer, Brave Trios, Turtles and the White Fish. In addition to this, there are kinds of animated cartoons and films which comprise love stories; for instance the smartening up of the female cat's eyelashes in order to look sexually attractive and the concentration on displaying the manners of combat to woo the female. All these animated cartoons have their harmful impact on the children's intellect that is shaping up.

Negative effects of the media on the young generation:
Undoubtedly, TV is one of the most influential means which has its far-reaching effects on the audience in general, and the young generation in particular. Psychologists have observed that TV gratifies the children's natural impulse for adventure. Moreover, it strengthens their desires to assert an independent entity away from the control of their parents. Psychologists also point out that TV engenders a certain harshness of feeling which leads to a gross misconduct. The violent acts, detective programs and melodramatic adventures including, killing, clashes, burning, and death can potentially disturb the children and perhaps, some of them might develop emotional disturbances or complaints of psychological diseases, such as involuntary bed-wetting and soon some of them may even experience panic. In the state of Boston in the U. S. A. a nine-year-old child has failed in almost all school subjects and suggested to his father for sending a box of poisoned confection to teaching staff of the school. When his father asked for the reason, he said that he has taken the idea from TV.

Psychologists and specialists media studies have confirmed that the TV has a wide negative role on the adolescents. It takes the young minds away from the practical realities motivating them to a sickly and dreamy world. Once children were asked about a historical personality who is an emblem of courage and bravery. One of the children replied that it was Grandizer!.

Another authority on TV says "TV inscribes in the minds of the children an epidemic and utilitarian values culminating in absent-mindedness, paralyzing and hindering the progress of intellect and giving a free hand to a sickly and ghostly fantasm". After this, I wonder how we can teach our children the importance of self-abnegation, values of patience, necessity of persistence in life and so on. Watching TV might become an addiction like that of drug. Is it possible for our TV to help our addicted children get rid of this crisis?.
- Grandizer: violence,
- The White Fish: War
- Captain Magid: football-victory by the use of force,
- Adnan and Leena-passions of love affair,
The skiing Heroes-impact of the use of the modern machines, all these films have been watched by our children of all ages with the following inevitable consequences: increase of misfortune, quarrel with each other in the street and in the school, involuntary bed-wetting, making passes at the young girls, smoking, running away from school and going to cinema.

By: Abduh Moqbil Abduh Ahmad

Dr. Azza Muhammed Abdo Ghanem
Professor of Psychology

The other day, I took some foreign females to a Yemen wedding. They were so astonished by the luxury and euphoria of it all. Women irrespective of their age - young and old - or their status - rich and poor - or their looks - pretty or ordinary - were so exquisitely dressed with beautiful dresses and gold jewelry it was hardly possible to envisage them as an oppressed group. Some of them carried bundles of expensive Qat and a hubbly bubbly and was driven by a male family member who would call later to return her home. This evinced clearly care and respect on the part of male partners whether it was a husband or father. This picture repeats itself in all quarters with all women wearing the latest fashions - perhaps the rich with greater extravagance.

It was rather paradoxical but most becoming that nations called for democracy a few weeks ago, stressing female freedom and participation as well as pluralism from the heights of Sana'a. Yemen has enjoyed three female rulers long before Western democracies. Bilqis the Queen of Sheba ruled long before Islam, established a well known civilization and irrigation dams (and it is said married King Sulaiman later). The remains of that empire can still be seen in Marib and God knows how much is hidden under the buried town. Asma bint Shihab was the wife of king Ali Al-Sulaihi and his right hand. She was renowned for her literary ability and eloquence as well as knowledge of jurisprudence.
She was imprisoned after her husband's assassination by Alahwal but managed to get her son to rescue her 8 months later and returned with him to help rule Yemen for many years from Sanaa.

Sayede Arwa Al Sulaihi ruled for almost 40 years before and after her husband's death. She was educated by Asma bint Shihab - her mother in law - and was well known for her intelligence and wisdom. The country flourished economically due to her rule with Jibla as her choice for the throne. So around 1000 years ago first Asma then Arwa sowed the seeds fro female respect and participation which we are told in contemporary times is of paramount importance.

But it was Islam in its teachings that outlined the quality rules. It is reiterated in the holy Quran how men and women are equally responsible in duties, obligations, punishment, and rights long before any other religion or ideology ventured into such issues. So 1400 years ago, Islam stipulated the rules in a most intricate and detailed system. Distortions that have cropped up were due to ignorance, the interference of social mores and customs and the meddling of some of those who implement with other intentions.

There are so many issues that were clearly specified as landmarks of equality for women e.q. personal ownership of property, choice of a leader, choice of a husband - long before women of other religious were allowed to do so.
Yet all that the west can see is that female rights have been usurped by the right of the male to take more than one wife - which was an exception and not a general rule. We forget how many murders of spouses would have been avoided, and how many adulteress would have been prevented.

This is not the place to discuss the details of such issues, but it is the intention of this article to dispel the myth and the misconceptions that women in Yemen have no rights, no power, no freedom etc. They do have a lot. However the problem is that the marital contract sets duties and rights for each partner-complementary rather than identical. Just because these differ from the status quo or expectations or baseline of the newly born democracies it does not mean that they are fallations or inferior. It is simply a different equation. You have to accept it with all its paraphernalia and stop patronizing others.

Women in Yemen had political rights to vote long before many other democracies. There has been a positive change of attitude even to active participation in decision making and executive positions. The recent election of a doctor of medicine to the highest executive committee of the GPC party by a wide majority is such a positive sign. Another development is the soon to be first female ambassador to a European country, a highly intellectual female who has been a deputy minister for some time. Another academic female started a private university on her own. We have had female deans of faculties t the universities. We have a female study center at the university. We have had nearly 26 females in the foreign core. We have over 100 female members of staff at Sana'a University alone i.e. 12% of the total. We enjoyed coeducation since 1970 at all our universities. Women get equal pay in all spheres of the public sector.

So on both the official level and the personal stance, females have a great deal of power in spite of the fact that we have not been able to solve the illiteracy problem of over 70% of females in Yemen. There are many issues that need to be clarified in future papers, issues that are used to stretch to gap and exaggerate the gender differences e.g. inheritance, divorce rights, polygamy, the right as a witness, the veil, decision making-management and responsibility.
But there are actively the most practical and common sense explanations for all exceptions and idiosyncrasies that run parallel to general rules. An intransigent law would create difficulty for special cases and the beauty of Islam is that it is a whole system of life and not only of beliefs.

To close let us just look at some of the sayings of the Prophet Mohammed (P) that convey the following meaning:
Precedence of the mother over children: your mother, your mother, your mother, then your father.
Preference of girls: your best offspring are girls. It is best to start your family with a daughter. Who ever supports needy girl shall end in heaven. If you buy a gift for the children start with the daughters.