Yemen no-fly zone prevents 2015 grad from celebrating with family

Although many members of the Class of 2015 recently celebrated graduation with loved ones, the occasion was bittersweet for one student.

Safaa al-Saeedi, Trinity '15, who grew up in Ibb, Yemen, was unable to be with her family for graduation due to the no-fly zone imposed on Yemen in March. Al-Saeedi has not returned to Yemen—which was one of the countries affected by the Arab Spring in 2011 and has remained in turmoil—since the summer of 2012 and has mainly relied on Skype, Facebook and email to communicate with her family.

“[Graduation] would have been more special if my father and other family members were there,” al-Saeedi wrote in an email Tuesday. “But I enjoyed celebrating it with many great friends and their families.”

Al-Saeedi wrote that she does not know of other students from Yemen, but has found support from faculty members and students from countries in the region. Despite the challenges she is facing, al-Saeedi explained that she does not want people to pity her, but instead wishes to bring attention to the challenges that other parts of the world are facing.

Al-Saeedi noted how Yemen has transformed since her childhood there.

“The Yemen I grew up in was relatively a peaceful place, at least with a predictable future, surrounded with people with more hope,” Al-Saeedi wrote. “Now, Yemen has become an unpredictable place. Nobody knows where it is heading.”

Recently, the country has been wracked both by an insurgency and by Saudi-led airstrikes. An estimated 1,820 people have been killed in the conflict, according to the United Nations. Al-Saeedi noted that the situation in Yemen is confusing, both for herself and those living there.

“Many factors are at play,” al-Saeedi wrote. “One single answer will not do justice to the complexity of the situation at hand.”