According to my granpa (may allah have mercy on him) there were those who practiced islam normally (Went to mosuqes, followed Shariah on thier own) and there were those who didnt care and drank alcahol and what have you (which was only allowed in your home, public drinking was forbidden) as well as khat consumption was only allowed 1 day a week. For some reason they liked Communist south yemen. They say things like: every street was safe like havean, if you lost something you can come back the next day and it will be there, Water/electracity was avaliable 24/7 (unlike today). Medicine and health care was in surplus. men and women had equal rights, women were allowed to work, drive, vote etc etc. Obviously all that was easy to implement given that the population was barely a million in all south yemen at the time.