Written by : Abdulkarim Sallam 

Despite official coldness the winning of Yemeni activist Tawakkol Karman of the Nobel Peace Prize received, Karman was received with mass cheering by the public an attitude, which convinced a lot of local civil, rights and political circles how important the struggle against tyranny and dictatorship is today. And all walks of life, most Yemeni people forgot outlets about the Nobel Prize and consensually agreed a Yemeni national deserved the prize and that the winning was as reward of Karman's long struggle.  

 

Struggling and preaching human rights activist

Actually, Karman did not become a star because of winning the prize or the Arab Spring when she emerged as one of the youthful revolution symbols in Yemen, but rather as a result of her devotion to defending rights in addition to civil, media and political issues. Such issues have represented key part of the political landscape and struggle in the country in the past five years. 

In 2006, she founded the women journalists without chains organization, which was later hacked and cloned within the trend of hatching civil society organizations. In this context, the authorities are usually accused of supporting and sponsoring parties loyal to them so that they clone rights, political and media organizations. 

That affected her organization from a legal aspect forcing her to change the name into women journalists without chains "without organization". It managed to impose its presence through training programs it was organizing for male and female journalists as well as through supporting women's rights issues and demands of the Southern Movement. Nonetheless, her fame inside and outside Yemen was established by her defense of the rights of the families displaced by tribal sheikh in the district of Ja'ashin, Ibb province 240 km to South of the capital Sana'a. 

The influential sheikh, Mohammed Ahmed Mansour, displaced 1200 people including children, elderlies and women and then took over their houses and farms gradually since 2007. Mansour is a member in the Shura council and a member in the ruling party. He displaced these families after they had rejected to pay illegal taxes "royalties" the sheikh used to impose on the population. They were forced out of properties where they and their fathers and grandfathers lived and came to Sanaa to search for justice. The displaced families have been seeking justice at public services but no one responded to their complaints. 

They found no supporters during their journey to seek justice but Tawakkol Karman and some human rights organisations. Karman took the initiative and started working on their cause and demands including equal citizenship that are rarely guaranteed for people oppressed by the sheikh of Ja'ashin. Karman faced the sheikh tirelessly at all circles. Luminous flame in a dark society About the role which presented Karman as the most prominent rights defender, Ali Mohammed Al-Khawlani, one of the forcibly people: "Karman was a luminous flame in this dark society. She was the best supporter of us. She hosted, backed and sponsored our cause before the official, media and local international rights organizations". 

"She stood by us to the extent our case was her first concern over the past four years. She organized more than 30 sit-ins in support of our cause before that headquarters of the cabinet and at squares. She walked in Sanaa seeking justice for us," he said. "She did not only do that for us but also she provided tent shelters, food, clothes and medications off the displaced families. She hosted women and children in apartments. Her voice was loud speaking off our pains at a time when men kept silent or hid". 

Although the authorities were procrastinating and not serious, Karman succeeded in convincing the authorities to form three committees that visited and got acquainted with that conditions of the displaced families, Al-Khawlani continued.

 

The prize was recognition of courage of Yemeni women

Young activist Ali Al-Sharabi, who struggled with her since her early protests in the past three years, told swissinfo.ch that the prize was in recognition of the effective role of a Yemeni pioneer woman who contributed to framing the revolution and guiding it since the youthful revolution began. "And besides, the prize was as recognition of legitimacy of rights, civil and political rights demands at a time when the regime was still powerful. Thus, the prize in recognition of her rare courage in a country whose women still suffer from inferior treatment," Al-Sharaby said. 

Though Karman was a member in the Shura Board of the Islamist Islah Party, she took many attitudes that were not in line with her party's policies. In the party, there was a bloc with extremist views toward women's issues such as woman nomination for the elected councils, leadership posts and marriage age. 

Karman withdrew from some organizational bodies for which she was named or elected such as the national dialog committee and the national council if the revolution leadership. Her withdrawal was in protest against traditional and tribal dominance and non-democratic way these bodies were formed. When the Arab Spring swept across Yemen, Karman emerged as one of the young leaders in the protests against attempts to take the revolution to negotiation table, referring to political responses to the Gulf Initiative. She rejected the response of the Joint Meeting Parties to the revolution after the opposition coalition accepted efforts of power transition. 

She accused the JMP of contributing to turning the revolution into a political crisis. During the revolution's age, she led the protests of young revolutionaries and was a key caller for peaceful revolutionary decisiveness. 

 

Winning features...but

In a comment on the winning, Mohammed Saif Hider, a Yemeni researcher, said to swissinfo.ch: "from now on, this event will make others treat her as a fair sex symbol of growing democracy in Yemen. And it may contribute to creating an internal consensus about Karman, the young activist and leader within the organizational and political frameworks of the peaceful revolution". 

"That may qualify her to be atop the pecking order of the opposition in Yemen, at least during this sensitive turning point of the age of the uprising against the regime of president Saleh". Second, Hider continued: "her activities in supporting democracy, human rights and resisting authoritative rule inside and outside Yemen will gain increasing international support". "And though her political affiliation did not prevent her from being a moderate politician open to all Yemeni currents, she could practically be listed within the traditional and conservative opposition elite. 

This is an important thing for the future in the country". According to Hider's views, as much as this winning has privileges, it will have consequences relative to the performance or role expected from the person who wins the prestigious world prize. First, this role will be theoretically judged by the principle of what this prize has been awarded for. 

Secondly, the behavior of the winner expected by its givers and those welcoming it. Thirdly, what skeptics might say about all of it. Accordingly, it is likely that Mrs Karman, who accepted the prize without conservations, will be chained in her future performance in one way or another. She will be controlled by her new job as peace maker and relative velvety behavior which is supposed to be overwhelmed by wisdom and care reflecting responsibility of a person who accepts to be a star and international figure pointed to wherever they go. 

 

Dubious official positions 

Though this event drew the attention of the public, academic, rights and political circles and gave them a morale incentive, official positions toward it were dubious. On one hand, many officials and leaders of the ruling party congratulated Karman for her winning. However, their congratulations were based on their belief the winning happened as a result of the democratic atmosphere created by president Ali Abdullah Saleh for Yemen and the Yemeni women. 

Such positions exposed bitterness of officials due to defamation caused by this rights activist and politician who has been resisting tyranny, defending rights and freedoms and exposing all kinds of corruption. Therefore, observers noticed coldness in official media over Karman's winning, which highlighted the nine-months peaceful popular revolution and raised the hope of the youths at squares, according to activist Al-Sharaby. 

 

Internally and externally motivated joy

 The conclusion is that the winning of the Yemeni activist of the Nobel Peace Prize was only a natural result of long struggle and defense of rights and freedoms as well as insistence on equal citizenship. And a result of long struggle, she was subjected to hunt, harassment and detention. She faced that while calling for a modern civil state, which respects local peculiarities and believes in diversity and difference without central or regional dominance as she said in the national salvation document a year ago. 

She was brave while addressing the preparatory committee for the dialog: "concern about the national unity shall be among jurisdictions given to federal regions and taken that jurisdictions from the central ruler whether it was a person or a ministerial council is a wrong solution to incorrect assumption. The central ruler must be wiser, loyaler and fairer toward the rights of citizens than citizens themselves". This speech was plausible by the southern movement, the Houthi group in Saada province and all sons of Yemen who celebrated the winning of their national. The celebration might extend to neighboring countries and motivate the woman in the GCC to take her rights in conservative societies that deprive her of the least rights.