Yemeni man born without arms on writing with his feet and overcoming in a warzone

Khalil Abdullah Al Shahid learned to write, put himself through university and now supports his family and is a well known political commentator

Watching Khalil Abdullah Al Shahid write, his letters neat and beautifully formed, it is easy to believe that nothing is impossible.

Born without arms to a poor family in southern Yemen, the 34-year-old has taught himself to not only write with his feet and his mouth, but also to dress and groom himself and do repairs around the house.

"I started feeling the impact of my disability early. I wasn't able to do any simple task without my mother's help. But as I grew up, I realised that nobody can help me forever," Khalil told The National from his home in a small village in Al Azarik district of Dhalea province.

Instead of arms, Khalil’s upper limbs are two short stumps that end in hands with four fingers each, so he decided to learn to use his feet.

“I started to write with my toes, draw and paint with my toes, comb my hair with my toes, pick up things with my toes,” he says.

“I believed in myself and didn’t allow frustration to dominate my mind. I never thought that I am sick or handicapped. I worked hard to convince myself that I am equal to the others and I can do smart things much better than them … this was the secret which pushed me ahead until I defeated my disability.”

His determination got him through university, despite being laughed at by classmates when he began attending school.

“Attending school for the first time was the worst day in my life,” Khalil recalls.

“I remember the way my classmates bullied me, watching me trying to write with my leg. They laughed at me because of my shape and my old clothes.”

Pushing the limits

Khalil, who cites the noted blind Egyptian writer Taha Hussein as his inspiration, also credits a kindly teacher for encouraging him to persevere with his education.

“The mistreatment I was exposed to in my first days at school forced me to drop out of school and go back to herding goats until a good, human teacher called Ali Abbas – he has passed away – came to run the primary school.

“He changed my life. He encouraged me to go back to school and kept cheering me until I became the first one in my class,” Khalil says, his eyes tearing up.

After completing high school in his village, Khalil decided to go to college. He registered and started attending the classes at the Faculty of Education in Al Dhalea city, 20 kilometres away from his home.

“The friendly environment at college helped me finish my degree. My classmates were really friendly and helpful. Everybody looked proudly at me as a disabled person who was struggling to study. The only problem I faced was money. My father died while I still in secondary school and I had nobody to support me financially while studying at college,” Khalil says.

“I had to cut meals to save money. I remember I had to do my exam again because I couldn’t buy the course book.”

Khalil is married and has five children – three daughters, Dalia 8, Ruaa 6, Lina 5, and two sons, Mohammed 2, and Ahmed who is five months old.

While Mohammed has inherited his father disability, Khalil says he also has his smartness.

Khalil is the family’s breadwinner, supporting his wife and children working as a secretary for the education department of Al Dhalea governorate earning around 40,000 Yemeni rials a month (Dh1,836).

“We live on a tight budget because I haven’t got the promotion I deserve for holding a university degree,” he says.

One more dream

Now he is a well-known activist on Facebook where he writes political commentary about the ongoing situation in Yemen as well as short stories about his life to inspire the other disabled people to push themselves to overcome the odds.

Although proud of what he has achieved, Khalil says he has one more goal.

“I want to study psychology. Being a psychiatrist is such a dream for me. I want to tell the world how the handicapped people suffer in Yemen and I need to inspire and motivate those who battle with disabilities to keep up and never surrender,” he explains.

Khalil’s other wish is for peace in Yemen, saying the needs of thousands of disabled Yemenis have been pushed to the background amid the war between the government and Iran backed Houthi rebels that began in 2015.

“The world knows nothing about our suffering as people with special needs caught up in war. Nobody cares about us or fights for our forgotten rights,” he says.