This article scares me a little. They have closed down what we have always called “the sketchy Chinese restaurant.” This is the place over by Shamalia Hari. I have never heard of anyone eating there, but it was well known that you could buy alcohol there. I always figured that they had to be pissing off a certain segment by doing that, but you know that they were making quite a bit of money doing it.
As usual, that article leaves me with quite a few questions. The headline says Chinese restaurants, but it only talks about one. It also says that it is illegal to sell alcohol in Yemen, but I don’t believe that is the case. I believe that it is illegal to sell alcohol to Yemenis, but not illegal to sell to foreigners. There are other restaurants there that serve beer and other types of alcohol, but there are also bars like the Sheraton, the Movenipick, and the Russian club. I don’t know about the hotels, but the Russian club will not allow ay Yemenis in at all. They do a pretty brisk business, but if someone is looking for a lucrative business venture there, it would be very tempting to sell to the general public.
I have seen Yemenis drinking in a restaurant and I have seen them coming out of the one that was just closed. If this restaurant was closed for selling to locals and/or underaged folks then I can sort of, kind of understand the police closing it down. The worrying thing is that it seems to be widely believed that the new religious police were instrumental in closing this place down even before they are officially formed. It is a strong signal that the more conservative elements in Yemeni society are gaining strength.
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middle east, movenpick, Saudi arabia, whahabi, yemen, alcohol