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Reflections of a leader
A motivator for millions, Nobel Peace Prize winner Tawakul Karman has been a campaigner for freedom and equality worldwide
She's known by people throughout Yemen as The Iron Woman – and now journalist and activist Tawakul Karman has become the first Arab woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Her resolve should be an inspiration to us all – wherever we are, and whatever we believe in.
Ms Karman became the international public face of the 2011 Yemen uprising that formed part of the Arab Spring that blazed across northern Africa and the Middle East.
The 32-year-old mother of three children shares her Peace Prize with two other women – Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee – for what the Nobel Committee called "their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work".
The committee added: "In the most trying of circumstances, both before and during the Arab Spring, Tawakul Karman has played a leading part in the struggle for women's rights and for peace and democracy in Yemen."
Ms Karman has been a prominent activist and advocate of human rights and freedom of expression for more than five years. Founding Women Journalists Without Chains in 2005, she took a stand against what she saw as state repression of a free press and of women journalists in particular. She has since championed a range of causes in Yemen, including the raising of the marriage age for women and gender equality.
Predictably though, her principles quickly put her on a collision course with the Yemeni Government and, in particular, President Ali Abdullah Saleh, against whose rule she has publicly protested every Tuesday since 2007.
As well as being jailed several times, Ms Karman has been pilloried in the media, survived an attempt on her life in 2010 and, in January 2011, reportedly received a death threat from "a senior Yemeni official".
Already a well-known figure, Ms Karman cemented her presence on the world stage during 2011's Arab Spring, or the "Jasmine Revolution" as she prefers to call it. Organising and energising the younger activists, Karman emerged as a leader and inspirational figurehead for the movement.
In April 2011, in Change Square in Sana'a – the heart of the popular demonstrations against Mr Saleh – Ms Karman told a BBC reporter: "I could never imagine this. In Yemen, women are not allowed out of the house after 7pm – now they are sleeping here. This goes beyond the wildest dream I have ever dreamt. I am so proud of our women."
Around one week into the protests, she was arrested and detained by the security forces. This was to prove a tipping point in the burgeoning uprising, as media reports of her arrest sparked a new wave of public protests right across Yemeni society. She was released just 36 hours later.
The news that Ms Karman had won the Nobel Peace Prize came at a tense time in the uprising, amid increasing violence between Government forces and defecting soldiers. It gave a boost to both the activists and to hopes that a peaceful transition of power could be quickly achieved.
Ultimately though, Saleh's Government has held onto power and the protest continues; a fact which clearly frustrates Ms Karman. In an article written for the New York Times in June 2011, she accused the United States and Saudi Arabia of intervening to ensure the status quo was maintained, because of fears that the fall of Saleh would destabilise the region.
She has also fought against international diplomatic concessions to Mr Salah, including an offer of immunity from prosecution in exchange for his resignation.
After receiving her Nobel Peace Prize she described the protests as "a new stage for the Yemeni women, because they will not hide behind veils or behind walls or anything else".
Ms Karman is also a member of Yemen's leading Islamist opposition party, the Islah – a conservative, religious movement that calls for reform in accordance with Islamic principles. Nonetheless, many see her as a moderate, for her stance on the marriage age and her decision to swap her full-face niqab for a simple hijab on national television (to make the point that the garment is a cultural choice, rather than a religious requirement).
She argues that Yemen is no different from any other country. "The future is unknown – but what is known is that Yemen is part of a community of nations that is finally starting to shake off a plague of dictators.
"Now there's a race between Yemen and Algeria to see who will be next. And if we succeed here – and I believe we will – revolutionary movements in every Arab country will grow stronger."
Yemen's President Saleh has promised not to seek a new term in office in 2013, but protestors want him to quit office now.
If he does, few people in the Middle East will doubt that the main reason for his decision to go is a 32-year-old mother who wears a headscarf rather than a full-face veil.