Soutenance de thèse de Habiba ASHRAF SHERIF SHERIF

L’objet de cette thèse vise à apporter des éléments de réponse à une question de départ simple : comment un acteur collectif parvient-il à politiser une communauté en la restructurant sur des bases « confessionnelles » et pourquoi ? Autrement dit, comment les processus de construction communautaire s’élaborent-ils et se négocient-ils entre société et État ? Pour ce faire, nous avons choisi le Yémen et le Bahrein comme terrains d’étude privilégiés. Il s’agit alors de comprendre dans quelles mesures le fait communautaire chiite, de référence dans ces deux Etats, est porté par deux acteurs principaux - respectivement Ansâr Allah au Yémen et al-Wifâq à Bahrein. Nous établissons que la dynamique communautaire suit trois phases successives. La première phase (fin des années 1990 - 2011) correspond au processus de communalisation par les leaders des deux mouvements étudiés. La deuxième phase (2011 - 2014) correspond à la consolidation du processus de communalisation engagé par Ansâr Allah et al-Wifâq. Nous verrons comment le moment des révoltes arabes est devenu un moment assurant la re-configuration et le renforcement du processus de communalisation sujet de notre analyse. Enfin, la troisième phase (2014 - 2017) illustre la prise de contrôle de la communauté par les deux mouvements en question. Pour comprendre la succession de ces trois phases ; un plan chronologique composé de trois parties correspondant à ces phases esquissées était le mieux adapté à notre recherche. Partant de ce constat, nous nous sommes attachée à montrer comment Ansâr Allah au Yémen et al-Wifâq au Bahreïn ont reconstruit politiquement et socialement la communauté chiite, au point de réussir à se poser comme les représentants de cette communauté confessionnelle. En identifiant les contextes dans lesquels ces mouvements ont émergé, il est possible de souligner l’originalité de leurs objectifs et modes d’action et d’illustrer les rivalités qui les ont opposés à d’autres groupes socio-politique sur leur scène politique respective, dans des contextes autoritaires a priori contraignants pour l’action collective. Le corpus qui soutient notre analyse a été collecté par un travail d’enquête de terrain réalisé dans les deux terrains. Il comprend notamment l’ensemble des malâzims d’al-Houthi et les prêches et les discours du cheikh Issa Qassem, d’Ali Salman et d’Abd al-Malek al-Houthi.

The purpose of this study is to explore how and why does a collective actor manage to politicize and restructure a "sectarian" community. How the processes of community formation are built, maintained and negotiated between society and state? To answer this question, we privileged Yemen and Bahrain as case studies. The present work considers, rather than communities, the process of community formation. It is then necessary to understand to what extent the Shiite movement and the practical processes of community formation were maintained by two principal actors, Ansâr Allah in Yemen et al-Wifâq in Bahrain. Our research is drawn up in three successive phases. The first one (1990s-2011) explains the community-building and the processes of community formation by the leaders of the two movements. The second phase (2011-2014) corresponds to the consolidation of the process of communalization initiated by Ansâr Allah and al-Wifâq. We analyzed how the « Arab uprisings » have become a moment ensuring the reconfiguration and reinforcement of the process of communalization, subject of our study. Finally, the third phase (2014 - 2017) illustrates the community control by the two movements in question. To understand the succession of these three phases, a chronological plan was the most adapted to our research. Based on this observation/assumption, we analyzed how Ansâr Allah in Yemen and al-Wifâq in Bahrain have politically and socially reconstructed the Shiite community, to the point of succeeding in posing as the representatives of this sectarian community. By identifying the contexts in which these movements emerged, it was possible to underline the originality of their objectives and modes of action and to illustrate the rivalries that opposed them to other socio-political groups. We endeavored to collect data form Bahrain and Yemen during several fieldworks. We also based our analysis on the malâzims of Hussein al-Houthi and the sermons and discourses of both movements’ leaders in Bahrain and Yemen, namely sheikh Issa Qassem, Ali Salman and Abd al-Malek al-Houthi. This process of communalisation is observable, in these two cases, since the 1990s, according to a dynamic in three phases whose content will obviously be described and explained. To understand the succession of these three phases, it will be necessary to focus on the structural dynamics that carry them. To illustrate the initial problematic, it will be necessary to identify "strategic moments", to cut out sequences, and to illustrate their importance by relying on a rich and diversified corpus. The main question at the origin of this work is the following: how Ansar Allah in Yemen and al-Wifaq in Bahrain have politically and socially reconstructed the Shia community, to the point of succeeding in posing as the representatives of this confessional community? Indeed, the Shiite pre-al-Wifaq or pre-Ansar Allah story provides information on the profound nature of these two instances and the procedures related to the reconfiguration of the Shia community for each of the two cases. By identifying the environments in which they emerged, it will be possible to identify the originality of the objectives and modes of action of these two movements, and to illustrate the often fierce rivalries that opposed them from other groups within of their community, in an authoritarian context constrained by the action of the regimes in place.To mobilize, Ansâr Allah and al-Wifâq have reinvented the Shiite religious tradition. This work has been facilitated by the failures of national construction within these fragmented societies. This situation favored the construction and maintenance of a communalization maintained by Ansar Allah in Yemen and by al-Wifaq in Bahrain. We will thus see the anthropological, political and ideological modalities of Ansar Allah's takeover of the community in Yemen and al-Wifaq in Bahrain, against the backdrop of unequal negotiations between society and the state.