Tawakkol Karman

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Tawakkol Karman (2019)

Tawakkol Karman ( Arabic توكل كرمان, DMG Tawakkul Karmān ; *  February 7, 1979 in Taizz , Yemeni Arab Republic ) is a Yemeni journalist , politician , human rights activist and member of the opposition party al-Islah , the Yemeni branch of the Muslim Brotherhood . She is considered one of the most famous figures in the protest movement in Yemen. In 2011 she received the Nobel Peace Prize .

Life

Tawakkol Karman is the daughter of the politician Abd as-Salam Karman . Her father was Minister of Justice under President Ali Abdullah Salih . He resigned from office in 1994 after Salih used military force to suppress protests in the south of the country. He publicly criticized the Salih government and discussed a lot with his daughter at home about justice and undesirable developments in Yemen. Both Abd al-Salam Karman and her uncle are prominent figures in the opposition party al-Islah . Karman's own membership earned her criticism. Her brother Tariq is a poet.

Karman graduated from the University of Sanaa with a degree in public administration (according to other sources, political science ). There she also learned English and read the autobiographies of Nelson Mandela ( The Long Road to Freedom ) and Mahatma Gandhi . As a reporter, she took action against child marriage . As an employee of the newspaper Al-Thawrah she founded in 2005 together with other women and with the help of foreign governments and aid agencies, the Association Women Journalists Without Chains (Engl. Women Journalists Without Chains , WJWC), which works mainly for human rights. From then on she also took over the management of WJWC.

From 2006 she opposed President Ali Abdullah Salih with mass text messages . The text messaging service initiated by Karman with political news and messages to several thousand people was discontinued in 2007 by the Yemeni regime. From the same year onwards, it organized weekly small rallies in front of the government headquarters demanding an end to corruption and tyranny, the release of political prisoners, and freedom of expression, assembly and freedom of the press. At the same time, she demanded quotas for women in the public service, criticized the information minister, who wanted to ban journalists without chains , and advocated removing the traditional face veil .

In connection with the “ Arab Spring ”, which led to the overthrow of the Tunisian ruler Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in early 2011, protests also broke out in Yemen . During this time Tawakkol Karman organized student demonstrations in Sanaa against Salih and his government. Karman was arrested, imprisoned and released. Their arrest sparked mass demonstrations. On January 29, 2011, Karman led further protests and declared February 3 a "Day of Anger." Karman was arrested again on March 17.

Karman with Leymah Gbowee and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf at the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize

In early October 2011, Karman was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 2011 together with Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee . The award was given to “her non-violent struggle for the security of women and for the right of women to fully participate in peace-building work”. Karman dedicated the award to Arab Spring activists. Karman is the first woman from the Arab region to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. At the age of 32 at the time of the award, she was also the youngest recipient of a Nobel Peace Prize. In an interview with Spiegel on the occasion of the award ceremony in October 2011, Karman said about her vision for the future of Yemen: “We want a modern civil society, open to the world and future-oriented.” Regarding the role of Islam, she said: “We envision a system like the one in Turkey . "

Tawakkol Karman lives in Sanaa. She is married and has three children. Her husband, the math teacher Mahammed al-Nahmi, supported Karman in her protests. Along with Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela, she counts Martin Luther King and Hillary Clinton among her political role models .

In 2011 she supported the initiative A Logo for Human Rights .

Web links

Commons : Tawakkul Karman  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cf. Honor for an Islamist. In: Der Tagesspiegel . October 8, 2011
  2. ↑ a b The Nobel Peace Prize 2011. (English)
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g Dexter Filkins: After the Uprising . In: The New Yorker . Volume 87, 2011, No. 8, p. 39.
  4. ↑ a b c The champion from the "tent of dignity" . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . October 8, 2011, No. 234, p. 6.
  5. ↑ a b Tawakkol Karman . In: The Standard . October 7, 2011, issue 1 BL, p. 4.
  6. ↑ a b c Tawakkol Karman . In: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 45/2011 from November 8, 2011 (accessed via Munzinger Online ).
  7. ↑ a b c Tomas Avenarius : Rebel in the macho country . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . October 8, 2011, p. 2.
  8. ↑ Article on womenpress.org ( Memento of the original from January 30, 2011 on WebCite ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / womenpress.org
  9. ↑ Tom Finn: Yemen arrests anti-government activist. In: The Guardian . January 23, 2011
  10. ↑ New protests erupt in Yemen. english.aljazeera.net , January 29, 2011 (English)
  11. ↑ SDA (Basic Service German): Nobel Prize Committee honors three women from Liberia and Yemen . October 7, 2011, 5:36 PM CET (accessed via LexisNexis Wirtschaft ).
  12. ↑ Der Spiegel No. 41/2011 v. October 10, 2011, p. 96
  13. ↑ Julia Gerlach: Yemen: The mother of the revolution . In: Berliner Zeitung . March 30, 2011, No. 75, p. 1.
  14. ↑ www.humanrightslogo.net
personal data
SURNAME Karman, Tawakkol
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Karman, Tawakkul; Karman, Tawakul; Karman, Tawakel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Yemeni politician and Nobel Peace Prize winner
DATE OF BIRTH 7th February 1979
PLACE OF BIRTH Taizz , Yemen