The Chronicle Herald - by: FRANCIS CAMPBELL: Tawakkol Karman is well aware of her rights. She just can’t exercise them in her home country of Yemen.“We pay the price,” said Karman,

who was awarded the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize for her work in the non-violent struggle for the safety of women and women’s rights in Yemen.“We are now in exile, we are now in prison,” Karman said Friday as she and husband Mohammed stopped for an interview during the opening day of the weekend Halifax International Security Forum.

“We die, we get injured. We are the people who are sacrificing and struggling for freedom. If we didn’t choose this way, if we stopped our struggle, our kids, the next generation will suffer like we do from injustice, from dictators, from poverty, from ignorance, from disease. … We will arrive. Yemeni people will arrive. This is what history teaches us. This is what you did in Europe, in America. How could you reach to the moment of freedom and democracy without the sacrifices of the older generation, your fathers, your mothers, your grandfathers. That is the battle of freedom.”

The struggle for freedom in Yemen kicked into high gear as part of the Arab Spring revolutions about seven years ago. Street protests erupted against poverty, unemployment, corruption, and then president Ali Abdullah Saleh’s plan to amend the constitution to eliminate the presidential term limit, in effect making him president for life. Saleh was eventually forced to step down and Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi was formally elected president in February 2012. But a 2014 coup staged by Saleh and the Houthis had that group declaring itself in control.

The result was a civil war that has been raging since 2014, with Saleh controlling many of the main cities and the Saudi Arabian-led military coalition controlling the other 80 per cent of the Western Asian country that is home to 28 million people. By the time of the coup, Karman had already made a name for herself as a journalist with a strong voice advocating for freedom and human rights.

Voice of Yemen

In 2005, she founded the organization Women Journalists Without Chains, which reported on human rights abuses in Yemen, documenting more than 50 cases of attacks and unfair sentences against newspapers and writers. In 2007, Karman began organizing protests in Yemen’s capital, targeting government repression and calling for inquiries into corruption and other forms of social and legal injustice.

Karman’s activities did not ingratiate her with Saleh.

“The first thing that they did was occupy my house,” she said of the aftermath of the coup. “They were looking for me. They spread orders to the airports to not let me leave Yemen. They thought I was inside Yemen.”

But Karman was pushing her rights’ message in Japan and South Korea at the time of coup.

“I made a statement that I was outside Yemen and you will not be able to put me in house arrest. I am outside and I will be the voice of Yemen. After that, they made a court order that they will put me on trial when I go back.”

Karman can’t return to the coup-occupied territory and going back to the Saudi-controlled areas could leave her blocked from leaving again.

“It’s very difficult that I cannot return home,” said Karman who splits time between Dohar and Istanbul. “But this difficulty is not just for me, it’s for the Yemeni people.”

The battle has left the people of Yemen destitute.

“It’s caused a very huge humanitarian crisis. People are now suffering from famine, from disease, from cholera, from lack of access to water. It is a huge humanitarian crisis and now the Saudi coalition. They block Yemen from air, from sea, from land. If this blockade continues, millions of Yemeni will die.”

Suffering double

The crisis hits women even harder, she said.

“People are suffering but women suffer double. Women and children are the most vulnerable. Women in Yemen — while she led the peaceful revolution against the dictator, while she carries the dream for freedom and democracy, dignity and the rule of law, she is suffering from this ugly war.

“The situation is very bad from every side, from human rights, from the economic side and the security side.”

Known as the Mother of the Revolution, Karman is also the mother of two daughters, aged 19 and 14, and a 13-year-old son.

“I look after them every day, even when I’m not with them I am with them. calling, speaking, Skype, Facebook. I’m following their studies and their problems. I am so proud of them and they are so proud of me. I think I am a good mom and they are good children. We work with each other and we dream the same dream and we help each other.”

The Yemeni population was proud of Karman when she won the Nobel Prize.

“It wasn’t one of my priorities to work for a Nobel Prize or to dream of a Nobel Prize. I was totally busy with the people. I was in my tent in the Change Square and suddenly I heard people dancing around me, singing that we won Nobel Peace Prize. It was a big surprise and it was a big victory for me and for women and for Yemeni people and for the peaceful revolution in Yemen. It was a very important moment in my life and also in the path of the peaceful revolution.”

In Halifax and around the world, Karman promotes peaceful change for her home country.

She hopes to have the hundreds of political prisoners freed, for a referendum on a constitution that was drafted before the coup, and for a democratic election.

“It will happen, if there is a real decision to make it happen, if there is a real decision to create peace in Yemen from the international community. I am calling on the international community (the United Nations and Western countries) to push for this solution.

“It will happen. Not tomorrow, but not decades.”

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