He was expelled from Egypt in 1959 for allegedly being a Communist,[1][3] and after a brief period in Yemen he moved to Moscow, where he learnt Russian and studied literature at the Gorky Institute.
He later served briefly as head of Yemen Airlines and Director General of Aviation, but fell out of favor with the government and was imprisoned again in 1972, for eight months.
This second stint in prison was allegedly due to two short stories he wrote, as part of his collection "Our Uncle Saleh" (Arabic: عمنا صالح العمراني).
[5] He published three collections of short stories: al-Ard, ya Salma ("Our Land, Salma", 1966), Shay’ ismuhu al-hanin ("Something Called Love", 1972) and ’Ammuna Salih ("Uncle Salih", 1978); as well as two novellas: Yamutun ghuraba’ ("They Die Strangers", 1971) and Sana'a: madeena maftuha (Sana'a: An Open City, 1977).
His novella They Die Strangers, for example, is about a Yemeni national who opens a small shop in Addis Ababa but has a long-standing desire to return home.