Oct 7, 2011

News

NED Congratulates Tawakkul Karman on Nobel Peace Prize

Leader of Yemen’s Women Journalists Without Chains is NED Grantee

Contact: Jane Riley Jacobsen, jane@ned.org, 202-378-9604 or 202-446-8615

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is proud to congratulate Tawakkul Karman, leader of NED Grantee Women Journalists Without Chains, on winning the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize. Karman was honored along with Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee "for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work."

“Tawakkul Karman and her colleagues at Women Journalists Without Chains (WJWC) are truly extraordinary, and I could not be happier that the Nobel Committee has recognized their immense courage and moral stature with this year’s Peace Prize,” said NED president Carl Gershman. “Tawakkul represents so many brave individuals, especially women, who have risked literally everything to gain political rights. Democratic activists in Yemen today are in grave danger – we sincerely hope that through the efforts of groups like WJWC, Yemen will experience a peaceful democratic transition,” said Gershman.

Amid the upheaval and confusion of Yemen’s political crisis since the beginning of the Arab Spring, Karman has been a consistent voice for principled, democratic solutions to the country’s problems. A prominent freedom-of-expression and women’s rights advocate for many years, she took the lead in the formation of the pro-democracy Supreme Council for the Youth Revolution and was nominated as a member of the National Council for Peaceful Revolution Forces. NED has been supporting Karman’s organization, Women Journalists Without Chains, since February 2008.

“Grounded in spiritual beliefs, Tawakkul’s selfless activism resonates with a popular youth movement that continues to challenge the moral legitimacy of the arbitrary security state,” said Rahman Aljebouri, NED’s senior program officer for the Middle East and North Africa. “She also represents women activists across the region who are the vanguard of a generation forging a new vision of citizenship for Arab and Middle East countries based on rights and responsibilities.”

This is the second year in a row that the prize honors a NED grantee. Liu Xiaobo, leader of the Independent Chinese PEN Centre and winner of the 2010 Prize remains in prison in China. Kenyan activist Wangari Maathai, who in 2004 was the last woman to win the prize and who died last month, was also a past grantee of NED.