Tawakul, mother of revolution

London: She is known among Yemenis as "the iron woman" and the "mother of the revolution."

A conservative woman fighting for change in a conservative Muslim and tribal society, Tawakul Karman has been the face of the mass uprising against the authoritarian regime of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The 32-year-old Tawakul has been an activist for human rights in Yemen for years, but when she was arrested in January, it helped detonate protests by hundreds of thousands demanding the ouster of Saleh and the creation of a democratic government.

But the outspoken journalist and human rights activist has long been a thorn in Ali Abdullah Saleh's side, agitating for press freedoms and staging weekly sit-ins to demand the release of political prisoners from jail a place she has been several times herself.

Now inspired by the uprising in Tunisia and the resignation of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, she finds herself at the head of a popular protest movement which is shaking the Yemeni regime to its core.

"With two civil wars, an Al Qaida presence and 40 per cent unemployment, what else is President Saleh waiting for? He should leave office now," she says, claiming that Yemen, like Tunisia and Egypt, needs an end to a dictatorship in the guise of a presidency.

"This revolution is inevitable, the people have endured dictatorship, corruption, poverty and unemployment for years and now the whole thing is exploding," she says.

Tawakul has many grievances against her government but it was a shaikh's tyranny against villagers in Ibb, a governorate south of the capital, that ignited her activism. "I watched as families were thrown off their land by a corrupt tribal leader. They were a symbol to me of the injustice faced by so many in Yemen," she says. "It dawned on me that nothing could change this regime, only protest."

Tawakul originally hails from the southern Yemen of Taiz, a city known for its prominent middle class and university intellectuals that has long been a hotbed of opposition to Saleh. Her father, Abdul Salam Karman, was once the legal affairs minister under Saleh, but resigned to protest corruption in the government.

While she identifies herself first and foremost as a campaigner for Yemen's alienated youth, she is also a member of Yemen's leading Islamic opposition party, the Islah, a group that has caused alarm in the west, mainly because of its most notorious member, Abdul Majid Al Zindani, a former Osama Bin Laden adviser considered a terrorist by the Americans. Tawakul has a mixed relationship with the Islah. She says it was the best party in Yemen for supporting female members but last October she ran into trouble after publishing a paper condemning ultra-conservative party members for blocking a bill that would make it illegal to marry girls under the age of 17.

"The extremist people hate me. They speak about me in the mosques and pass round leaflets condemning me as un-Islamic. They say I'm trying to take women away from their houses."

A longtime activist for human rights and freedom of expression, Tawakul had organised protests and sit-ins as early as 2007, referring to her regular gatherings outside government offices in Sana'a as the "Freedom square."

She headed Women Journalists without Chains, an organisation advocating press freedoms.

In December 2010, the uprising erupted in Tunisia after a local fruit vendor in the North African nation, Mohammad Bouazizi, set himself on fire.

In Yemen, Tawakul led protests in support of the Tunisians. The small protests, comprising no more than 200 people roving the streets of Sana'a, were met with strong government resistance, and were broken up with water cannons and batons. Tawakul would send text messages to protesters and journalists to organise protests, urging people to join.

Realising her significant role in the constant protest, the government began harassing Tawakul, spreading rumours about her and saying she was mingling with other male protesters, trying to taint her in the eyes of conservative Yemenis.

On January 23, authorities arrested Tawakul for a few hours.

The move was meant as a warning to her, but it backfired, sending a wave of women protesters into the streets of Sana'a and other cities, a rare sight in Yemen. Tawakul was released early the next day and by the afternoon she was leading another protest. Meanwhile, as protests in Egypt were kicking up, Tawakul helped organise a protest in support.

Days after Mubarak stepped down in February, Yemeni protesters, with Tawakul and other protest organisers at the helm, seized a major intersection in the heart of Sana'a. She has been part of a council grouping the disparate protest groups and an organisation representing the youth of revolution.

Since February 17, the protest camp has remained in place, even as security forces have repeatedly opened fire on it.

In a recent wave of fighting between security forces and dissident military forces in the capital last month, more than 150 people were killed, most of them protesters.

Egypt activists hails Arab Nobel prize winner

CAIRO, Oct 7, 2011 (AFP) - Egyptian cyber dissidents who were touted as Nobel Peace Prize candidates, on Friday congratulated the Yemeni activist who shared the honour with two Liberians for her "well deserved win".

"Congratulations to Tawakkul Karman for her well deserved win," Wael Ghonim posted in a Twitter message, describing himself as "a proud Arab."

"Our real prize is for our countries to be more democratic and more respectful of human rights," Ghonim said.

Ghonim had created a Facebook page entitled "We are all Khaled Said" - named after a man killed by Egyptian police and became a symbol of the fight against police abuse- which helped launch the call for protests that toppled Hosni Mubarak.

Esraa Abdel Fattah, another cyber activist whose Facebook page "April 6" also pushed for nationwide protests in January/February, congratulated Karman for her win.

"Congratulations to Tawakkul - and to Arab women- for her Nobel Peace Prize," said Abdel Fattah, who now runs a NGO to promote democracy and human rights in Egypt.

"I feel full of pride for Egyptian and Arab youth for their (possible) nominations. May God help us achieve for Egypt much more than the prize," she said.

The Nobel peace prize was won by Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberian "peace warrior" Leymah Gbowee, and Yemeni activist Tawakkul Karman.

The three prizewinners share the 2011 award "for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work," Norwegian Nobel Committee president Thorbjoern Jagland said in his announcement.

Ghonim and Abdel Fattah were among three Egyptian cyber activists - including Ahmed Maher- whose names had been floated as possible winners for their contribution to protests that ended the 30-year authoritarian rule of Hosni Mubarak.