Yemeni activist Tawakul Karman , Nobel Peace Laurete 2011

The Yemeni activist Tawakul Karman is one of three Nobel Peace Prize lauretes this year, the other two being Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Liberian Women's rights and peace activist Leymah Gbowe.

The Jury's motivation was:

for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work.

Tawakul Karman's reaction upon recieving the Nobel Peace Prize:



She dedicates the prize to the youth an women of the Yemeni and the Arab Revolution, and the peaceful way of these revolution. She celebrates at Change Square in Sanaa.

In my view, the fact that tawakul Karman recieved the prestigious award is a recognition of the crucial part played by women, not only in Yemen , but also in general in the uprisings during the "Arab Spring" This is as much a prize for Nawarra Negm, Esra Abdel Fattah , Mona Seif , Gigi Ibrahim, Lina Ben Mehenni to name but a few. It's also a tribute to the reclaiming of peoples power and an active citizenry in the Arab World as a whole.

I'm immensely proud and happy for Tawakul Karman and the Yemeni revolution whose struggle for freedom continues.

Above is a profile on Tawakul Karman from al Jazeera English series People & Power, Yemen: A tale of two protests from March 16th 2011. Another blogger's view on the matter for those knowing German from Hannes Alpen and Cristoph Sydow can be found here.