Flowers not bullets! Social experiment in Yemen promotes ‘culture of love’

A small group in Yemen carried out a social experiment to see how society reacts towards the culture of love and not war, through randomly giving flowers to people from different social categories in Sanaa.

Sarah, Marwa and Younis - who carried out the experiemnt named “Jouri” (rose) - were shocked by the unexpected and conservative reactions of some people who did not want to be offered a flower.

Marwa told Al Arabiya that the idea first started because they were searching for a positive and new method to spread love and forgiveness in a society that has endured the pain of war.

There was a man who refused to be given a flower and when he saw us filming the experiment, he got into an argument with Younis and threw the flower.

Another person thought that they were foreigners when we gave him the flower. Also, a girl refused to take the flower because she thought at first that she was being harassed, but accepted it after explaining the idea to her.

The main message behind our experiment was to show people that society has forbidden love and encouraged wars. “Our parents saw the video and said that it was a very good idea,” she said.

When asked about their objectives, Marwa said: “Our main objective is to spread happiness and love. We strongly support the culture of peace and forgiveness; what we did was not an initiative but rather an idea that was recorded with a mobile phone.”