In the past week Tawakkul Karman of Yemen was one of the three women who had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her activism and non-violent mobilization during the continual unrest in the Middle East throughout the year. The other two celebrated voices were President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Leyma Gbowee both from Liberia. Highlighting these women to global awareness will strengthen the strides these women have made individually for women’s rights and human rights. Tawakkul Karman is known for her organization Women Journalists Without Chains. Many people are curious to know who Tawakkul Karman is, how can people separate the often slanted politics of the Nobel Committee with the individual’s life commitment, and how she falls in line within the historic nonviolent tradition?
Throughout the year in numerous Arab nations thousands upon thousands of individuals have gathered together to standup for their human dignity and fight off totalitarianism, secularism, capitalism, fundamentalism, and feudalism. When individuals are being exploited via their own government and outside forces, eventually there is a tipping point to how much suppression they can take. How is it that one particular person can be pointed out as prize worthy, when so many people are involved in such movements?
As a journalist, Tawakkul Karman refused to remain silent and has written about human rights issues continually in the public eye since 2005. In a February 22, 2006 article in The Times of India, entitled 'Controversy Pits Muslim Against Muslim,' Karman is quoted in saying "This has become a game between two sides, the extremists and the government,” and that too often most reactions from either group leaves the bulk of the masses left to violence from both sides: terrorism or state-terrorism.
The Women Journalists Without Chains organization heads the way for women to get involved in the often one-sided masculine monologue of how society should be directed. Having women’s voices in democracy and society building is a necessity in the 21st Century, and some of the key crisis in the modern world come from limiting the voices of the many to only the voices of an elite few, who far often tend to only be men. As part of the 2011 protests inspired throughout Egypt and Tunisia, the voice of journalists and those on the streets fueled the global attention with reports across the social on-line network community. On the ground level she lead in the organization of spontaneous sit-ins and planned protests.
Though her actions are of the highest courage and nobility, one still can wonder why did this particular activist win the award. The Nobel Peace Prize has throughout its tradition shadowed political motivations for many of the awards granted. Over the years, certain winners of the prize represented an oppositional view to a government that Western nations wanted to reform for multiple reasons. In 2010, the award was given to Liu Xiaobo from China, and the Chinese government was displeased with the committee’s nomination. Shirin Ebadi from Iran was awarded the prize in 2003, Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma in 1991, and Wangari Maathai in 2004. These amazing human rights activists who have courage, never committed their life work for any prize but for the greater goal of human dignity. The Nobel Committee, potentially on the negative reflection, uses the lives of great people for an underlining political purpose. Other times, the prize is awarded to individuals who have not yet proven their credibility or have invested heavily in encouraging war and not peace, such as President Obama and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
In a recent Guardian article entitled, “All-Female Nobel Peace Prize Risks Being Seen As A Political Move”, Nesrine Malik makes the point that “the very fact that it was awarded to three women, as opposed to one, suggests that there was a theme established at the outset, that of women's rights and activism, with a nod to the Arab spring, which then dictated the nature and number of recipients” (Malik).
Though the Nobel Peace Prize has political motives, many key activists have utilized the publicity of the award regardless of its politics, to promote their causes and strengthen their dedication to human rights. Shirin Ebadi, Jody Williams, and Rigoberta Menchu have pushed human rights initiatives to end oppression continually.
In the spirit of Non-violent civil disobedience, Tawakkul Karman may follow in the tradition of Alice Paul, Mahatma Gandhi, Ghaffar Khan, Mridula Sarabhai, Cesar Chavez, Leo Tolstoy and Martin Luther King; or will she be led in time to a similar disbelief like Kwame Nkrumah? Kwame Nkrumah led the people of Ghana to overcome British Imperialism. During his leadership, like that of Salvador Allende of Chile, he sought an alternative policy of economic and social development from that of the dominant Western trade system. Because he sought to create a more inclusive system and an independent approach, he was ousted through a military coup that was CIA backed. Unlike Allende who lost his life during the coup, Nkrumah spent the rest of his life in exile. During his exile, he moved from being a supporter of nonviolence, to understanding that the capitalist elite would stop at nothing to control national and international trade and that their greed would not be phased with humility and compassion. Near the end of his life, Kwame Nkrumah felt that the only way to make African nations unite against oppression would be through conflict. He was bitter and disappointed.
Tawakkul Karman, unlike Kwame Nkrumah, has not reflected any political-seat of ambition. She is seeking to stand equal and in solidarity with her fellow protestors in Yemen and throughout the Muslim world.
“Let us be clear,” she states, “the Yemeni revolution has already brought internal stability to a state riddled with war and conflict. I call on the global community to support the peaceful revolution as it did in Tunisia and Egypt. I call on the United States and the European Union to tell Saleh that he must leave now, in response to the demands of his people. They should end all support for his regime, especially that which is used to crush peaceful opposition – tear gas canisters have ‘Made in America’ on them. They should freeze the Saleh family's assets and those of Saleh's henchmen and return them to the people. If the US and Europe genuinely support the people, as they say, they must not betray our peaceful revolution” (Guardian, ‘Our revolution's doing what Saleh can't – uniting Yemen’, April 8, 2011)
Tawakkul Karman, now the youngest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, at 32, has the lifetime ahead of her to continue her message and prove to her people and the globe, whether or not she will remain a voice for human dignity. Regardless of the Nobel Committee’s underlining political motives, the tradition of human rights activists of the nonviolent ambition strengthens the overall definition of humanity and quality of leadership.
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