Guns, Daggers… and More Guns

Weapons are an everyday part of life in Yemen, and it seems that not even Tony Horwitz finds it strange. “I awoke the next morning to the sound of automatic gunfire,” (page 40) was the thought that starts Tony’s day after his first night in Saada. It turns out that the gunfire is coming from a father teaching his son how to shoot. It seems as if guns in the Middle East could be related to a game of catch in America. However, guns aren’t the only things that are commonly found in Saada. Daggers, or jambiyas, are also seen with almost everybody in Yemen. Abdul, a Yemeni, tells Tony “Yemenis carried daggers the way Western men carry wallets.” (page 34) Even Tony eventually buys a dagger of his own. Guns become such an ordinary possession, that nobody even looks twice when a small boy of ten is seen carrying an AK-47. -mg