Amira Al-Shariff for The New York Times
Tawakkol Karman is a leading member of Yemen's
largest Islamist party, Islah. Her selection was widely seen as an
endorsement of the revolts in the Arab world.
By LAURA KASINOF and ROBERT F. WORTH
Published: October 7, 2011
SANA, Yemen — She is only 32 years old, an outspoken human rights
activist and mother of three who was unknown outside her own country
until she began leading anti-government protests this year.
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“Giving it to a woman and an Islamist? That means a sort of re-evaluation,” said Nadia Mostafa, a professor of international relations at Cairo University. “It means Islam is not against peace, it’s not against women, and Islamists can be women activists, and they can fight for human rights, freedom and democracy.”
Ms. Karman was one of three women awarded the prize on Friday, alongside President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia and the Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee. They were the first women honored by the committee since 2004, and the Nobel citation made clear that female empowerment was the primary message.
“We cannot achieve democracy and lasting peace in the world unless women obtain the same opportunities as men to influence developments at all levels of society,” it read.
Ms. Karman seemed stunned by the award as she sat surrounded by admirers in the worn blue tent where she has lived in a sprawling protest camp for nine months. Many expected the award to go to one of the protest leaders in Egypt or Tunisia, where the revolts have succeeded in toppling authoritarian leaders. Yemen’s rebellion is far from over, and many fear that it could still devolve into civil war. And for all her activism, Ms. Karman remains a controversial figure here as a leading member of the nation’s largest Islamist party, Islah.
For these reasons and others, her selection by the Oslo-based Nobel committee seemed more an expression of hope for the future — what some commentators called wishful thinking — than a recognition of past achievements, much like the Nobel Peace Prize granted to President Obama in 2009. In both cases, the committee appeared intent on recognizing potential and hoping that its imprimatur might help drive events in its desired direction.
“It sounds churlish to say this, but it seems premature because she’s quite young and has been active for only a few years,” said Nesrine Malik, who writes on Arab and Middle Eastern Affairs in London, mainly for The Guardian. “There’s an element of, ‘We’re being hopeful,’ and it’s almost irrelevant what’s been achieved.”
Yet Ms. Karman’s selection was also widely seen in the Middle East as an endorsement of the revolts that broke out across the Arab world early this year, where popular uprisings have challenged entrenched leaders and empowered the disenfranchised. Ms. Karman made clear that she saw the prize that way.
“This is a victory for Arabs around the world,” she said on Friday afternoon, her brown eyes wide, a red flowered veil around her head. “And it will end the dictatorship of Ali Abdullah Saleh,” Yemen’s longtime president.
The award offered a brief respite for a people, and a nation, that are bogged down in a protracted standoff that Ms. Karman helped to start. Mr. Saleh refuses to leave power. Protesters refuse to leave the streets. And lethal gun battles often break out between forces loyal to the president, and defectors who have joined the opposition. Supporters gathered around Ms. Karman’s tent excitedly, chanting “God is great” and “This is the biggest prize in the world!” Even the government, which has in the past cast Ms. Karman as a villain, offered congratulations.
Although Ms. Karman is well known here for her bravery and early leading role in the protests — she acquired the nickname “Mother of the Revolution” — many of the more independent protesters resent the dominating influence of Yemen’s main Islamist party, known as Islah, and Ms. Karman’s role in it. She was seen by some as domineering and selfish, and her influence in the protests has waned in recent months.
Yet Ms. Karman’s Islamist politics are central to her role here. In a sense, she stands as an exemplar of the complexity of Islamic political movements, which are often misperceived in the West as monolithic and menacing, and are likely to play a powerful role in any governments that emerge from the Arab revolutions of 2011. Islamist parties are expected to do well in Tunisia and Egypt, which plan to hold parliamentary elections soon.
Ms. Karman has repeatedly clashed with the leaders of Islah. But instead of leaving the party, as many others have, she has tried to reshape it in a more open and tolerant direction. She has openly challenged hard-liners such as Abdel Majid al-Zindani, a cleric and party leader who has been labeled a terrorist by the United States Treasury Department.
Three years ago she stopped wearing the full facial veil, shocking many of her colleagues. Her father and uncle are prominent figures in Islah, and she has used that lineage to help push her reformist agenda.
Women like Ms. Karman have played roles across the Arab world in the protests of 2011, raising hopes that their contributions would translate into broader social and political rights. But that too, remains an aspiration, and women appear to have lost their voices in the new orders taking shape in Egypt and elsewhere.
Even in person, Ms. Karman flouts stereotypes: she speaks in a strident, passionate voice, hands jabbing the air as she defends her views on the Yemeni revolution (do not try calling it a mere rebellion). She seems as comfortable talking politics with men as she is with women, and — unlike many opposition figures — she has long been willing to criticize the Yemeni president directly.
Her face has become a common sight on television screens and newspapers in recent months, despite frequent attempts by the government and its allies to smear her as a traitor and an ideologue. She has received countless death threats, and for months she has not dared to visit her own home except in disguise. But after the award was announced, even the government joined in the general celebration. A Web site that belongs to Yemen’s ruling party published a statement congratulating Ms. Karman.
Sitting in her tent on Friday night after a day of manic celebration, Ms. Karman reminisced about her path to politics. She founded an advocacy group in 2005 called Women Journalists Without Chains. In 2007, she began staging sit-ins in front of Yemen’s Parliament and cabinet buildings, demanding greater press freedoms and more humane treatment for marginalized groups. She only gained national recognition when she took to the streets in January with a few dozen other young people to call for Mr. Saleh’s resignation. She was arrested, and her detention drew large crowds onto the streets for the first time, in what is now seen as the start of the Yemeni uprising.
“Martin Luther King has inspired me the most because he sought change peacefully,” Ms. Karman said. “Also Gandhi and Nelson Mandela, but really to the largest extent it’s Martin Luther King. We try for change using his same methods.”
Later in the evening, Ms. Karman finally took a break to chat by phone with her mother, who had called to congratulate her on the prize. She sat on the thin mattress where she has slept for months, next to her only piece of furniture, a flimsy wooden table with a TV on it. Her own children were absent: they are living with their grandparents, far from the tumult and danger of the tent city.
But Ms. Karman did have one companion. A small boy, whose father was killed by a sniper’s bullet during the protests, clung to her side.
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