On the evening of Tuesday, September 24, 2024, the streets of Taiz, southwestern Yemen, were filled with celebrations and popular marches to commemorate the 62nd anniversary of the September 26 Revolution, highlighted by fireworks displays.

In response to public calls, thousands of residents took to the streets, participating in large processions, launching fireworks, singing national anthems, and waving flags in celebration of the revolution.

Taiz Governor Nabil Shamsan stated that the commemoration of the September 26 Revolution represents “a celebration of the Yemeni people’s struggle and the valor of their heroes, who triumphed over oppressive rule and the imamate after enduring a difficult phase marked by injustice, terror, and brutal repression.”

According to the official Yemen News Agency Saba, Shamsan emphasized that the official and popular celebrations of the September 26 Revolution serve as inspiring lessons in how the free revolutionaries overcame ignorance and backwardness during a dark period in the country’s history, dominated by an imamate that ruled through oppression and ignorance.

He remarked, “The unity of the Yemeni people has dismantled the imamate, consigning it to the dustbin of history,” and called for a celebration of this national and heroic anniversary as a reminder of how to achieve victory through solidarity among all segments of Yemeni society, politically, militarily, and socially, to overthrow the Houthi imamate, which has plunged the nation into destructive wars and destroyed its economy, democracy, and political pluralism.

Shamsan concluded by stating, "We must defeat this gang and drive them out with the efforts of the army and popular resistance, as all Yemenis unite against this imamate, which is merely a regressive version of the imamate defeated on the dawn of September 26, 1962, when the republic was declared."

Yemenis will celebrate the 61st anniversary of the republic and the fall of the imamate regime on September 26, 1962. As September began, many Yemenis adorned their social media profiles with slogans and chants of the September 26 Revolution.

Since the coup against the legitimate government, the anniversary of the September 26 Revolution has become a platform for Yemenis in Houthi-controlled areas to express their rejection of the coup and their demands for the restoration of the republican system. They accuse the group of attempting to erase the revolution’s legacy from educational curricula and the media.

Many Yemenis believe the Houthi group is genuinely fearful, as it knows that a significant majority of the population rejects its ideology and governance style. In an effort to quell public dissent, the group raised the Yemeni flag in the famous Al-Sabeen Square in Sana’a alongside placards featuring the slogan of the “Khomeini Revolution.” However, they later prohibited flag sales in tailoring shops and launched a crackdown on activists advocating for the celebration of this occasion.