Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.

My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.

As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.

What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,

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If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds.

This is the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Samaya Bach. Today I'm taking

you back to the 27th of January 2011 when a mass uprising that had begun sweeping the Arab world took hold in Yemen.

Thousands of people took to the streets in the capital Suna in protest that would eventually

lead to the country's long-time ruler Ali Abdullah Sala stepping down. The situation in Yemen had become unbearable.

A lot of young people were already going out on protests,

especially after the president announced that the Constitution would

be amended in favour of his re-election and for his son to succeed him.

There was also a rise in corruption and inflation at the time. Ishrakh andtery was a lawyer and women's rights advocate from the southwestern city of Taiz.

With a relatively educated population, Taiz, the cultural capital of Yemen,

would later become known as the cradle of the revolution.

The explosion of a revolution wasn't strange at that time.

What stoked the situation more were the Arab Spring events that took place in January,

in Tunisia and then Egypt.

From the 11th of February 2011 when news broke that the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak had stepped down,

Yemenis began to feel that the possibility of a new future was within reach.

President Hosimubark has decided to step down.

...