NGO CSW57 Forum
is proud to announce
Woman of Distinction 2013 Awardee
Tawakkol Karman
2011 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
Tawakkol Karman is the Yemeni political activist
who shared the Nobel Peace Prize with two
other female activists in 2011. All were given
the award "for their non-violent struggle for the
safety of women and for women’s rights to full
participation in peace-building work." Tawakkol
Karman was born in Yemen. Her father, Abdul
Salam, was a legal expert who later became the
government minister for legal and
parliamentary affairs. Karman earned a master's
degree in political science from Sana'a
University. In 2005, she helped found Women
Journalists Without Chains with seven other
female journalists to provide a voice for
women’s rights and freedom of expression in
Yemen.
Women Journalists Without Chains has been
publishing yearly reports on press freedom in
Yemen, which documented growing levels of
governmental abuse. Karman also started a list
of the most “anti-free press” people in Yemen,
which she posted publicly. The organization
established a daily news website, and runs
journalist training seminars for women and
young people. Women Journalists Without
Chains expanded its scope to include yearly
reports on corruption in Yemen, as well as other
p r o j e c t s p r o m o t i n g g o o d g o v e r n a n c e,
democratic reform, and civil rights. Karman also joined the Islah, Yemen's
conservative Islamist opposition party. Her
activism earned her the enmity of the
government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh,
which harassed and jailed her more than once.
During the "Arab Spring" of 2010 and 2011, as
activists were fighting entrenched rulers in
countries like Egypt and Tunisia, Karman began
leading Yemeni protests against the rule of
President Saleh. Her floral headdress, unusual
in a country more used to women in
conservative black chadors, became her
trademark, and though she was only 32 she
earned the nickname of "Mother of the
Revolution." Following her award of the Nobel
Peace Prize in October of 2011, President Saleh
agreed to step down after 33 years as president.
At age 32, she was the youngest person ever to
win the Nobel Peace Prize.