The Guardian - By: Tracy McVeigh-  Revolutions are rarely successful. But although they are often thwarted by those they seek to overthrow, the energy created even by unsuccessful revolutionary protest can spark a process that builds momentum over weeks, months – and even years, as two women who led very different uprisings explain.

Tawakkol Karman became known as “the lady of the Arab spring” in recognition of her role in the 2011 pro-democracy youth uprising in Yemen for which she won a Nobel peace prize. Now living in exile with her husband and baby son, she is an activist against corruption and authoritarianism and still works for the revolution that rolled across the Arab region but left Yemen behind – a country now gripped by war and hunger.

“The revolution is a continuous act. It doesn’t stop, especially when it faces challenges and obstacles. The age of the revolution is still here; it’s just 11 years, and in that time we have overthrown about seven dictators in the Arab spring, so that’s a big, big achievement. We will not lose our hope. We are so proud of what we did and the problem is now with the counter-revolution leaders and those who support authoritarian regimes.

“We will not give up and we will continue and we will achieve our goals of freedom and democracy.”

“The current ceasefire is very important and the food security situation is very important, but Yemen is bigger than that,” she says. “Stopping the war means stopping the Saudis and the influence of Iran … If the Saudis stop their missiles, that will stop the current situation. They have total hegemony; they forced the legitimate president to resign and gave the authority to a presidential council. Stopping the war means Yemen has to decide its own path, to sever from the Emirates; from Iran as well.

“The reason that Saudi waged the war was that they want to stop the wheel of change in Yemen. They want to stop a peaceful-transition revolution.

“Dictators think they will be allowed to control whatever they want to. The more a dictator is appeased and the more western governments make alliances with dictators, the stronger they are and the more their people suffer.

“Yemen and all the countries who chose to face the dictators, they will not stop their dream. Every great revolution is followed by the counter-revolution, but the future belongs to us and we are optimistic because we started this battle and knew we would face such obstacles.

“The thing that we didn’t expect during our struggle? It is that we didn’t expect western governments to let us down as they did. They make alliances with dictators and they encourage dictators to wage all kinds of wars against us – Mohammed bin Salman in Saudi, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi in Egypt. They support these people by not putting pressure on them to stop. They are selling weapons to them.

“So that has really frustrated us,” she says. “And one of the results of that is we see now how Putin was encouraged in going into Ukraine. In Syria, his actions going without censure encouraged him.”

Russia has supported the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, in the ongoing conflict in Syria since the start of the uprising in 2011 and directly intervened militarily in 2015. Its bombing of civilian targets, hospitals and schools is widely recognised as causing hundreds of deaths and it holds a naval base in Syrian territory. The lack of censure of Russia’s actions, Karman believes, gave a green light to Putin’s warmongering ambitions.

“The situation in Syria encouraged Putin to invade Crimea and then Ukraine, so now all of our freedom is under threat.

“Our enemies should be one. It is one battle all around the world. It is so clear. Don’t trust these dictators; don’t think your alliance will help you – they are ruthless and united together. Authoritarian regimes are not friends to democratic regimes. Putin and those like him are the enemies of humanity.

“I feel deep sympathy for Ukraine, but I really expected this war.”

However, Karman insists she is an optimist. She believes the place of women at the forefront of politics in her region is too strong to ever be reversed.

“We change a lot. Women led the Arab spring; we led the revolution. The deep root of leading the political process and decision-making has changed things for women in society.

“Chaos and wars cause woman and children double the issues, but women are sacrificing, leading the struggle against coups in Libya, in Syria, in Sudan, in Yemen, and inside Saudi Arabia too. Women are paying the price for just daring to be an activist.

“Some people will say that women’s rights have gone backwards; some people lose hope, but this is the battle for freedom and democracy and we should remember that the people are there, underground, still sacrificing. The majority continue the struggle, dreaming to make change. They don’t give up but are willing and happy to sacrifice anything for their kids to have a future.

“When we raised the revolution, we knew the dictators and the kingdoms around us would do all they could do to stop this wheel of change. OK, we did not expect the western governments who claim to support democracy to let us down, but we believe in ourselves and we know that sooner or later we will win this battle. We are both so sad and so mad.

“I am optimistic. I know the west will wake up and correct their policies, because now they are under fire. Make alliances with freedom fighters and activists around the world.

“For Yemen, there needs to be a real will to stop the war. The Yemeni authorities need to have their political independence and make real alliances – not through the gate of Saudi Arabia.

“People are so scared of Saudi Arabia. The world takes no kind of action because of this dark, dark oil money.

“For politicians who still follow this strategy of believing dictators somehow guarantee stability, this will not work. Dictators pose the greatest risk to global peace. They are the ones who directly and indirectly support terrorism, poverty, corruption. We need peace, democracy and rule of law.”

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