It would be difficult, judging from the headlines, to find anything that fractious and war-torn Yemen actually agrees upon. However, though the country now finds itself engulfed in civil war, there is one thing that brings almost all Yemenis together, rebel and loyalist alike: khat chewing.
Chewed between the teeth and the gums, and most commonly identified by the protruding cheeks of its users, khat is the more colloquial shorthand for the mildly narcotic leaves of the catha edulis plant native to the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa. Chewing the plant's stripped leaves produces a mild high like that caused by many amphetamines and, to a lesser extent, excessive coffee drinking, and its use is rampant throughout most of Yemen.
Although it would be difficult to say assuredly what effect the war there has had on khat consumption across the country, estimates suggest that at least 80 percent of Yemen's male population chews khat on a near daily basis -- typically indulging in the afternoon and on into the evening.
Writing in 2009, Time's Andrew Lee Butters rather succinctly described the plant and the pervasive grip it has on the country:
"For its many devotees, khat is a social lubricant on a par with coffee or alcohol in the West. Indeed, because chewing the leaf isn't forbidden by Islam, ‘khat is alcohol for Muslims,' says Yahya Amma, the head merchant at the Agriculture Suq, one of the largest khat markets in the city. ‘You can chew it and still go to prayers.' The leaf's energy-boosting and hunger-numbing properties help university students focus on their homework, allows underpaid laborers to work without meals and, according to local lore, offers the same help to impotent men that Westerners seek in Viagra. Evening khat ceremonies -- regular salon gatherings (usually only of men) to chew and chat about matters great and small -- are the country's basic form of socializing."
Khat can be a costly habit however in an economically impoverished country like Yemen, where most citizens are forced to subsist below the poverty line. The plant's cultivation is also having deleterious effects on the country's environment. Its profitability has made khat growing omnipresent, leading to an agrarian monoculture that has, consequently, increased food prices and put even more of a pinch on the average Yemeni's spending power.
Worse still, khat farming consumes a tremendous amount of water in a part of the world that is already stricken by drought, and its cultivation accounts for up to 40 percent of the water drawn from the Sana'a Basin.
"Farmers are willing to put up with the plant's high demand for water because it has a more regular yield than other crops and because the market for it is virtually guaranteed," writes Adam Heffez of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "Every cubic meter of water used for [khat] cultivation returns a profit five times as great as that for the next most lucrative crop, grapes."
The water crisis is directly tied to Yemen's seemingly endless bouts of instability, as militant groups such as al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, look to use the water weapon to win over local populations. Moreover, the longer Yemen's current conflict drags on, the more difficult it will be for the government and the international community to continue water conservation efforts there.
Even now, after nearly a year of war, khat remains a divisive issue in Yemen. Local officials have instituted bans, and have even resorted to burning metric tons of the plant confiscated from smugglers. Others have condemned and prohibited its use under Islamic law.
Khat, however, appears to be one constant in this often unpredictable country. As one merchant told The Guardian earlier this year, "If you ban it, people will have nothing to do to kill time, and if you lift the ban, you bring back the financial burden on your family."
Inside a Yemeni Khat Session [VIDEO] -- New York Times
Yemen's Socatra Burns Two Tonnes of Khat -- Reuters
How Yemen Chewed Itself Dry -- Foreign Affairs
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