Irreligion in Yemen is uncommon among Yemenis, as Islam is the predominant faith. [1] It is difficult to quantify the number of atheists in Yemen, as they are not officially counted in the census of the country. There is a great stigma attached to being an atheist in Yemen, so many Yemeni atheists communicate with each other via the internet. [1]
The punishment for leaving Islam in Yemen is the death penalty. [1] [2] [3] [4]
In response to the 2013 Sana'a attack, a Yemeni woman from Bajil in Hudaydah declared converting from Islam to Christianity and immediately, the government put her under investigations, after a chance timeout, sent her to a psychiatric hospital. [5] [6] By the end of 2013, a new page was founded on the Facebook and encouraging non-religious Yemenis to show up and not to get afraid of the wild community reaction. [7]
There has been also a broad misconception between secularism and atheism or even being non-religious, many activists were kidnapped due to that confusion, examples including the following events:
Irreligion in Yemen is uncommon among Yemenis, as Islam is the predominant faith. [1] It is difficult to quantify the number of atheists in Yemen, as they are not officially counted in the census of the country. There is a great stigma attached to being an atheist in Yemen, so many Yemeni atheists communicate with each other via the internet. [1]
The punishment for leaving Islam in Yemen is the death penalty. [1] [2] [3] [4]
In response to the 2013 Sana'a attack, a Yemeni woman from Bajil in Hudaydah declared converting from Islam to Christianity and immediately, the government put her under investigations, after a chance timeout, sent her to a psychiatric hospital. [5] [6] By the end of 2013, a new page was founded on the Facebook and encouraging non-religious Yemenis to show up and not to get afraid of the wild community reaction. [7]
There has been also a broad misconception between secularism and atheism or even being non-religious, many activists were kidnapped due to that confusion, examples including the following events: