Yemenis are repeatedly mentioning the old saying: “Egypt’s present is Yemen’s future.” This statement proved true at the beginning of last century when Yemen established a monarchy after the rise of King Fuad in Egypt. Furthermore, Yemen adopted a national, military regime after Egypt's late President Gamal Abdel Nasser took power. Then, when former President Hosni Mubarak assumed power, Yemen formed a regime affiliated with the West. Most recently, the Yemeni revolution flared up in 2011, days after the Egyptian one erupted. For a long time, Yemen has been molded by the Egyptian model to the extent that some curricula in Yemeni public schools were reproduced from Egyptian ones.

Lately, the Egyptian crisis has rippled into Yemen, and has been addressed by the official rhetoric of the elite, public, activists and partisans. The discussion can be heard everywhere — cabs, buses and nightly Ramadan gatherings. Seculars and liberals gloated over the Muslim Brotherhood’s loss, provoking responses from Yemen's Brotherhood. Yemen's own issues — regardless of how delicate they may be — were rarely discussed in comparison with Egypt's. This was further highlighted when Sanaa barely spoke of an important event commemorated by the South Yemen Movement, the July 7 anniversary of the 1994 civil war against the south. Usually this event attracts media attention, but this time, Egypt stole the limelight.

On the night of July 3, after the Egyptian army ousted former President Mohammed Morsi and assigned Adly Mansour in his place, demonstrators — including women — took to the streets of Sanaa at midnight in support of the decisions made by army commander Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. At this time of the night and in such conservative society, passersby are typically nowhere to be seen in the streets of Sanaa, let alone women. The demonstration took place in the same square that embraced the demonstrations of the Yemeni youth calling for the toppling of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2011.

Paradoxically, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Sanaa on the afternoon of July 8 in support of Morsi’s legitimacy. They frowned upon what they called a military coup, and the army’s crackdown on Morsi supporters in front of the Egyptian Republican Guard headquarters. The paradox resides in the symbolism of the location: Tahrir Square in Sanaa, the same location that hosted the upheaval of revolutionary powers — the Yemeni Congregation for Reform and, notably, the Muslim Brotherhood — against Saleh. Earlier, scores of Islamic activists headed to the Egyptian Embassy in protest of Morsi’s deposition.