Snapshot · The Moth
Bushra Al-Fusail described the 2015 Saudi coalition airstrikes as historically unprecedented for Yemen — a country accustomed to civil war but never before bombed from the air.
Where this was said
At 39:35 · chapter starts 39:10
Before the story begins, Jenness calls Bushra Al-Fusail to set the historical and personal scene. Bushra describes herself as a quiet rebel: at five, she was already asking her mother why girls had to stay in the kitchen while boys went with their fathers. She was what she calls 'daughter-father girl.' Her mother, she notes, always freaked out when she raised women's rights. She confirms this story takes place in 2015 in Sana'a, when Saudi coalition airstrikes began — historically the first time Yemen had been bombed from the air, despite the country's long history of civil war. Streets went empty overnight. Nobody knew which neighborhoods were safe. The context makes the bike ride that follows feel all the more staggering.
In 2015, Bushra Al-Fusail woke to her bed shaking and her father screaming to go to the basement. Saudi coalition airstrikes had begun. It was the first time in Yemen's history that its citizens had been bombed from the air — and it would confine the entire city indoors for weeks.
During the war and fuel crisis in Sana'a, the black market price of a gallon of petrol surged from $5–$15 to $80–$100, forcing Bushra Al-Fusail to improvise transportation.
Women in Yemen weren't legally banned from biking — society had just decided they couldn't. During a 3-day ceasefire, Bushra Al-Fusail gathered 5 borrowed bikes and 11 women on a bombed-out Sana'a highway. Threats poured in. But photographs of abayas flying behind bicycle wheels spread from Yemen to Canada to London.
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