Tawakkol Karman

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Lore & Background

Tawakkol Karman was born on 7 February 1979 in Shara'b As Salam, Taiz Governorate, then North Yemen. She grew up near Taiz, the country's second largest city, known for its educational institutions. Her father, Abdel Salam Karman, is a lawyer and politician who served as the Legal Affairs Minister in Ali Abdullah Saleh's government before resigning. She holds a master's degree in international security from the University of Massachusetts Lowell, an undergraduate degree in commerce from the University of Science and Technology, and a graduate degree in political science from the University of Sana'a. In 2012, she received an Honorary Doctorate in International Law from the University of Alberta in Canada. She is married to Mohammed al-Nahmi and has three children. Karman co-founded Women Journalists Without Chains in 2005 with seven other female journalists to promote human rights, particularly freedom of opinion and expression. She gained prominence after leading protests following the denial of a license for a mobile phone news service in 2007. From May 2007, she organized weekly protests advocating for broader reforms. In early 2011, she shifted the protests to align with the broader Arab Spring movement, inspired by the Tunisian revolution. She was a vocal opponent who called for the end of President Ali Abdullah Saleh's government. During a protest in 2010, a woman attempted to stab her with a jambiya, but her supporters intervened. According to her brother Tariq Karman, she received a death threat from 'a senior Yemeni official' on 26 January 2011, later identified as President Ali Abdullah Saleh by journalist Dexter Filkins in The New Yorker. The Turkish government offered her Turkish citizenship, which she received from the Turkish foreign minister on 11 October 2012, tracing her family origin to Karaman Province in Central Anatolia.

Reader's Guide

Tawakkol Karman's significance lies in her role as a leading figure in the 2011 Yemeni uprising and her advocacy for press freedom and women's rights. As the first Yemeni, first Arab woman, and second Muslim woman to win a Nobel Prize, she brought international attention to Yemen's struggles. Her organization, Women Journalists Without Chains, challenged government restrictions on media, including advocating for freedom for SMS news services. She stopped wearing the traditional niqab in favour of more colourful hijabs that showed her face, first appearing without the niqab at a conference in 2004, to make the point that the full covering is cultural and not dictated by Islam. She has alleged that many Yemeni girls suffer from malnutrition so that boys could be fed and called attention to high illiteracy rates: two-thirds of Yemeni women are unable to read. She advocated for laws preventing females younger than 17 from being married. Forced to leave Yemen after the Houthi takeover of Sana'a, she continued her activism from Istanbul, speaking against the war waged by the Saudi-UAE-led coalition and U.S. drone attacks. On 17 December 2020, she reported that Houthi rebels raided her home and office, taking control of both locations after looting them.

Did You Know?

• She is the first Yemeni, first Arab woman, and second Muslim woman to win a Nobel Prize.
• During a protest in 2010, a woman attempted to stab her with a jambiya, but supporters intervened.
• She received a death threat from a senior Yemeni official on 26 January 2011, later identified as President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
• The Turkish government offered her Turkish citizenship, which she received on 11 October 2012, tracing her family origin to Karaman Province.
• On 17 December 2020, Houthi rebels raided her home and office, looting both locations.