Who Is Rashid Al Haddad? This Houthi Pirate Nicknamed ‘Timhouthi Chalamet’ Has Gone Viral

A Yemeni social media influencer dubbed the “hot Houthi pirate” urged his followers to not focus on his looks and focus more on helping free Palestine.

Rashid Al Haddad has gone viral on social media for posing aboard container ships hijacked by Houthi rebels from Yemen and also for his resemblance to Timothée Chalamet, the American actor.

He has asked encourages his tens of thousands of followers to turn their attention to the war in Gaza and not how he looks. “I didn’t talk about beauty or anything else, but our cause is Palestine, and this is not the time to talk about beauty,” Rashid ‘Timhouthi Chalamet’ Al Haddad said in a post in Twitter.

According to an Instagram post by news outlet MiddleEastEye, the TikTok account of Al Haddad has been banned.

“I hope that my message reaches you, a free Palestine, and we ignite it against the Israeli aggression that violates human rights,” he says in one of his videos.

Rashid has shared multiple videos of himself and other young men claiming to be Houthi pirates aboard the Bahamian-flagged, Japan-chartered Galaxy Leader container ship which they boarded on November 19. The 25 crew members, mostly Filipinos, continue to remain in captivity.

Other men who featured in his videos seen aboard the ship appeared to be filming and taking photos and were captured approaching the ships on small wooden skiff.

The Houthis are documenting videos of their raids on the container ships and releasing them online via Telegram messaging app. Yemeni politicians and military chiefs have also shared their messages and speeches on social media platforms.

Rashid first posted videos from the vessel on his Instagram page in November and has reshared several videos from his time aboard the hijacked container ship. Rashid said on social media that he is “ready for sacrifice and eager for martyrdom” and said the Houthis “will bomb all Israeli ships”.

He is seen sporting a brown khaki webbing and has an AK-47 slung over his shoulder. A report by UK-based The Telegraph said that Rashid may not be a genuine Houthi pirate and has not shared any footage of the actual hijacking of the Galaxy Leader or from aboard any other vessels.

On his Instagram Threads page, Rashid describes himself as “media personality, actor and photographer”. He has 27,000 followers on Instagram and 10,000 on X and has amassed thousands of likes and views on TikTok and Instagram.

He has developed a fan following and some of his fans have even set up a fan account on X.

The Houthi pirates are on the verge of destabilizing global trade which they say is an act of supporting Palestinian terrorist group Hamas against Israel in the ongoing war between the country and the terrorist group.

The US and the UK have led a series of Western air strikes on their positions in Yemen last week.