Hussein al-Houthi

a branch distinct from Iran's Twelver Shi'ism, but closer to Sunni practice than many assume.

The group was founded by Hussein Badreddin al-Huti, from whom the movement takes its popular name.

What began as a theological and cultural revival eventually became a militant resistance against what they saw as Saudi-imposed Wahhabi influence and political marginalization.

Ideology and religious foundation.

But it's been 12 years since the Houthis have been using the full powers of the institutions of the historical capital of Yemen and Sana'a to indoctrinate millions of children at all levels of school.

They've changed curriculums to the point where even the founding father of the Houthi movement, Hussein al-Houthi, is now a cartoon animation, like a cartoonish figure in the children books.

So as a child, you're brought up looking at this character as being, oh, you know, this is...

Wow, yeah.

But the Houthi family and some others did not kind of... toe that line.

Instead, you had, at the time, Hussein al-Houthi was really kind of pioneering the Saidi revivalist movement.

And he was also, he and his family were kind of in close contact with the Iranians.

They traveled to Iran, traveled to Lebanon.

So you had the civil war kick off in 2014 and really unfold until 2022 when a UN-brokered truce kind of quieted the fighting and The Saudi coalition was out and the front lines were kind of mostly steady with Houthis controlling the northwest of Yemen and then the Yemeni government forces controlling some of the south and the east central parts and then the eastern territory.

But...

And I should mention in 2004, Hussein al-Houthi, the group's founder, and he still holds kind of a mythical role in their ideology.

He was killed by the Yemeni government forces and ultimately the role of leader passed to his younger brother, Abdul Malik, who still kind of leads the group today and has been really instrumental in turning it from that guerrilla group in northern Yemen into a regional threat.

And he was also in Saleh's government.

And he was instrumental in the early days of the Sa'dah wars between 2004 and 2010, where he played a major role in killing the leader of Ansarullah, Hussein Badr al-Din al-Houthi.

And he had worked with the US government in his troops trained with US troops and so forth.

So you have people like that.

They are a Shia Islamist political and paramilitary organization.

And they were created in Yemen in 1994 by Hussein al-Houthi.

And that's where they get their name from.

Because this movement from the beginning has been dominated by the al-Houthi family, which is kind of a... larger clan, like, you know, pretty prevalent in countries in this part of the world, you know, in the Middle East.

And so they're dominated by this family and they were founded by Hussein al-Houthi.

And Hussein al-Houthi was killed in 2004.

And since then, the movement has been headed by his brother, Abdul Malik al-Houthi.

And they first emerged as an opposition government to the first president of Yemen, Field Marshal Ali Abdullah Saleh, who basically ruled the country since 1990 when the Soviet Union fell apart.

It's, it's on your Twitter page.

And in your documentary, you trace the Houthis' relationship with Iran back to Hussein al-Houthi's visit in 1995 to Iran, and you describe it as a turning point.

Uh, what happened inside Iran where he suddenly adopted Khomeiniism and, and why?

So, um, a, uh, the unfortunate reality about a short documentary is that you don't get to tell the whole, uh, the whole-

Now, in a, in a country that is still, uh, a, a new republic like Yemen, you, the, the, that didn't alert so much the, the, the state.

Yes, it was concerned about, about the, um, about the Islamic, uh, Revolution, but you need to have a country that is inclusive for, uh, for all.

But Hussein al-Houthi did travel to, uh, to Iran back in the, uh, 1980s.

He wanted to join the fight between Iran and Iraq, so he wanted to join the part of the volunteers who wanted to join the, the fight.

And the Houthis since then never truly accepted the republic.

And in 1995, Hussein al-Houthi goes to Iran.

He moves the Houthis from Zaidis, which is closer to the Sunni trends.

Mm.

And so he comes from an eminent family where his father, Badruddin al-Husi, was a zaidi, that's a branch of Shiism, a cleric and scholar that gave them enormous credibility within the religious community.

And his older brother or older half-brother, Hussein al-Husi, was the founder of the Husi movement itself.

And he too was a scholar who spent time in places like Iran and Sudan studying and that really rubbed off on the movement.

Abdul Malik took over the mantle shortly after his elder brother died or was killed, in fact, in 2004.

And so...

You know, it's been Abd al-Malik al-Husi who has led this movement through all of its warring years, from 2004 to 2010 when there were six wars inside Yemen.