Demeter’s quest

impressions of Huda Al Sarari

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Amanta Scott, encaustic on canvas on panel, 102x102cm, 2020

The Goddess Demeter searched endlessly for her daughter, Persephone, abducted and taken into the underworld by Hades.

Joining a group of mothers searching for their missing children, Yemeni Human Rights Lawyer, Huda Al Sarari investigated and exposed a clandestine network of secret prisons in Yemen supported by foreign governments where thousands of men and boys are illegally detained, tortured and abused.

“The most pressing humanitarian issue in the world today is discrimination and racism.”

— Huda Al Sarari

For me, Huda Al Sarari’s story echoes Demeter’s search for her daughter, Persephone, following her abduction and rape by Hades.

Goddesses gallery

the rape of persephone

Goddesses gallery

"Lady of Auxerre"

Lady of Auxerre, a female statuette in the Daedalic style. Limestone with incised decoration, formerly painted, ca. 640–630 BC, Louvre Museum

photo from Wikipedia

Statue of Isis - Persephone

Statue of Isis - Persephone holding a sistrum, Temple of the Egyptian Gods, Gortyn, 180-190 A.C.

image from Wikipedia

Persephone

Throning goddess, marble statue supposed to be Persephone, queen of the underworld, 480-460 BC, found in Taranto, Italy. (Berlin inventory number Sk 1761), Pergamon Museum, Berlin

image from Wikipedia

Queen of the Night

Rectangular, baked clay relief panel; modelled in relief on the front depicting a nude female figure with tapering feathered wings and talons, standing with her legs together; shown full frontal, wearing a headdress consisting of four pairs of horns topped by a disc; wearing an elaborate necklace and bracelets on each wrist; holding her hands to the level of her shoulders with a rod and ring in each; figure supported by a pair of addorsed lions above a scale-pattern representing mountains or hilly ground, and flanked by a pair of standing owls. Known as the "Burney Relief" or the "Queen of the Night".

British Museum

image from Wikipedia

Ratto di Proserpina (The Rape of Persephone)

Gian Lorenzo Bernini, 1621-1622, Galleria Borghese, Rome, Italy, photo by Amanta Scott

Ratto di Proserpina

Gian Lorenzo Bernini, 1621-1622, Galleria Borghese, Rome, Italy, photo: Amanta Scott

Ratto di Proserpina

Gian Lorenzo Bernini, 1621-1622, Galleria Borghese, Rome, Italy, photo: Amanta Scott

The Rape of Proserpina

Hans von Aachen, 1587, Brukenthal National Museum, image via WikiComons

The Return of Persephone

Frederic Leighton, 1891, public domain

Demeter Mourning for Persephone

Evelyn De Morgan, c.1906, public domain

Huda Al Sarari

Huda Al Sarari is a Yemeni lawyer and activist, born 1978. Huda Al Sarari raised international awareness of human rights violations in Yemen when she investigated and exposed a clandestine network of secret prisons supported by foreign governments, where thousands of men and boys are illegally detained, tortured and abused.

In 2016 she was contacted by a group of mothers seeking the whereabouts of their sons who had gone missing. Having no success with the Yemeni courts, she resorted to social media and managed to unearth the truth about prisons previously unknown to the Yemeni judicial system.

Huda Al Sarari founded the Union of Mothers of Abductees which resulted in the release of 260 prisoners. 2000 people are still missing. After her own son was wounded and died in hospital, she left the country.

Huda Al Sarari was awarded the Aurora Humanitarian Prize, 2019; and the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, 2020. She has worked with the Yemeni Women’s Union, the Adala Foundation for Rights and Freedoms; and the National Committee to Investigate Allegations of Human Rights Violations.