Yemen’s Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and human rights activist Tawakkol Karman has received today the Freedom Award the US National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis presets annually to women and men whose works in civil and human rights have made global and national impact.  

In her acceptance speech on Thursday, Karman expressed her gratitude to being honoured, saying that such honor inspires her more determination and confidence to continue the fight for freedom and dignity shoulder to shoulder with comrades in struggle.  

She emphasized that free people around the world have the same values and beliefs in common with each other and share the aspirations of those who struggle for two of the most important values: freedom and dignity.

Tawakkol Karman, well known as “the mother of revolution”, mentioned that the Arab Spring’s youth have been fed up with autocracy and regimes of tyranny and corruption, and that they are going ahead to achieve their goals.   

Speaking on the fight for the noble values, she paid tribute to Martin Luther King who, as she said, was killed because he was struggled for freedom and dignity, and because he was inspiring people how they defend themselves from humiliation and submission and get rid of racism and hatred.  

Regarding the Arab Spring and the subsequent counter-revolutions, she pointed out to the regressive practices authoritarian regimes resorted to in order to put down popular uprisings taken place in many countries in the region, paying tribute to the youth across the Arab area for adherence to non-violent option.  

The founder president of Women Journalists Without Chains (WJWC) shed also light on obstacles and challenges preventing the peoples of the region from achieving hopes and aspirations, emphasizing that on one could break the will of people. 

With respect to the tragic situation in Syria, Yemeni Nobel Laureate affirmed that crimes committed by al-Assad regime are serious crimes against humanity whose perpetrators will never go unpunished, pointing out that there is no statute of limitations.   

She called for closing ranks and working together in order to combat despotism, injustice and human rights violations, warning what she called “democratic states” of any failure in the fight against despotism whose “consequences represented by terror have already spilled over into their countries.