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| Protests in Yemen |
Yemeni Activist Tawakkol Karman accepting the Nobel Peace Prize
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| U.S.-allied with Saleh regime in Yemen Across Red Sea U.S. bombs Horn of Africa (Somalia) |
“… I stand before you in … one of the most important moments of
human history — coming from the land of the Arab Orient, coming from the land
of Yemen, the Yemen of wisdom and ancient civilizations, the Yemen of more than
5,000 years of long history, the great Kingdom of Sheba, the Yemen of the two
queens, Bilqis and Arwa, the Yemen that is experiencing the greatest and the
most powerful and the largest eruption of Arab Spring revolution, the
revolution of millions throughout the homeland which is still raging and
escalating today.…
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| Tawakkol Karman Human rights activist Journalist Nobel laureate |
“… [W]hen I heard the news that I had received the Nobel Peace Prize, I
was in my tent in the Tahrir Square in Sana’a. I was one of millions of
revolutionary youth. There, we were not even able to secure our safety from the
repression and oppression of the regime of Ali Abdullah Saleh.
“At that moment, I contemplated the distinction between the meanings of
peace celebrated by the Nobel Prize and the tragedy of the aggression waged by
Ali Abdullah Saleh against the forces of peaceful change. However, our joy of
being on the right side of history made it easier for us to bear the
devastating irony.
“Millions of Yemeni women and men, children, young and old, took to the
streets in 18 provinces demanding their right to freedom, justice and dignity,
using nonviolent but effective means to achieve their demands. We were able to
efficiently and effectively maintain a peaceful revolution in spite of the fact
that this great nation has more than 70 million firearms of various types.
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| Yemeni Protests |
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| Southwest Central Asia (Arabia) East/Horn of Africa |
“Here lies the philosophy of the revolution, which persuaded millions
of people to leave their weapons at home and join the peaceful march against
the state’s machine of murder and violence just with flowers and bare breasts,
and filled with dreams, love and peace. We were very happy because we realized,
at that time, that the Nobel Prize did not come only as a personal prize for Tawakkul
Abdel-Salam Karman, but as a declaration and recognition of the whole world for
the triumph of the peaceful revolution of Yemen and as an appreciation of the
sacrifices of its great, peaceful people.
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| 'Day of Rage" - Yemen |
“… This revolution will soon complete its first year since the moment
it was launched as a peaceful and popular revolution of the youth, with one
demand: peaceful change and the pursuit of free and dignified life in a
democratic and civil state governed by the rule of law. This state will be
built on the ruins of the rule of a repressive, militarized, corrupt and
backward family police rule, which has consistently brought Yemen to the edge
of failure and collapse during the last 33 years.
…“… [T]he Arab Spring revolutions have emerged with the purpose of
meeting the needs of the people of the region for a state of citizenship and
the rule of law. They have emerged as an expression of people’s dissatisfaction
with the state of corruption, nepotism and bribery.
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| Yemeni protesters |
“These revolutions were ignited by young men and women who are yearning
for freedom and dignity. They know that their revolutions pass through four
stages, which can’t be bypassed:
TOPPLING the dictator and his family,
TOPPLING his security and military services and his nepotism
networks,
ESTABLISHING the institutions of the transitional state, and
MOVING TOWARD constitutional legitimacy and establishing the modern
civil and democratic state.
“…Many nations, including the Arab peoples, have suffered, although
they were not at war, but were not at peace either. The peace in which they
lived is a false ‘peace of graves’ — the peace of submission to tyranny and
corruption that impoverishes people and kills their hope for a better future.
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| United Nations 192 member nations |
“… [A]ll of the human community should stand up with our people in
their peaceful struggle for freedom, dignity and democracy, now that our people
have decided to break out of silence and strive to live and realize the meaning
of the immortal phrase of Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab — ‘Since when have you
enslaved people, when their mothers gave birth to them free?’…
Tawakkol Karman shares this year’s Nobel Peace Prize with three other
women “for non-violent struggle, for the safety of women, and for women’s rights
to full participation in peace-building work.”
Sources and notes
TAWAKKOL KARMAN BRIEF
Tawakkol Karman shares the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize with: Leymah
Gbowee (Residence at time of award Liberia); and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (at the
time of the resident and President of Liberia).
She is the first Arab woman, the youngest Nobel Peace Laureate to date, and the second Muslim woman to receive a Nobel Prize
She is the first Arab woman, the youngest Nobel Peace Laureate to date, and the second Muslim woman to receive a Nobel Prize
Tawakel Karman (Arabic: توكل كرمان Tawak[k]ul Karmān;
Anglicized: Tawakul, Tawakkol, Tawakkul or Tawakel Abdel-Salam Karman) (32, b.
February 7, 1979, became the international public face of the 2011 Yemeni
uprising that is part of the Arab Spring uprisings.
2011 protests include protest on the ‘Day of Rage’ that
Karman had called for in Sana’a, Yemen, from February 3, 2011. During the
ongoing 2011 Yemeni protests, Tawakel Karman organized student rallies in Sana’a
in protest against the long-standing rule of Saleh’s government. [Wikipedia
note, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tawakel_Karman&printable=yes]
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2011/karman.html
“‘The Arab People Have Woken Up’: Yemeni Activist Tawakkol Karman
Accepts Nobel Peace Prize” [Speech given Saturday December 10, re-broadcast
with transcript on Democracy Now, December 13, 2011, http://www.democracynow.org/2011/12/13/the_arab_people_have_woken_up
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