Tribute to Tawakkol Karman

    From the opulent fanfare in Oslo, Nobel Peace Prize recipient Tawakkol Karman returns home to her tent in Yemen, to continue her protests of the Yemeni autocracy.
     The image of three women of color sharing the conventionally masculine accolade is itself an incredible morale boost, but of course, the women in question are many universes removed from mere symbolic gratification: President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, Africa's first democratically elected female head of state, who helped resuscitate her country from a devastating war; her Liberian compatriot Leymah Gbowee, head of the Women for Peace movement, who succeeded, among many accomplishments, to unite Christian and Muslim women against her country's warlords; and Karman, politician, mother of three, head of Women Journalists Without Chains, and chief architect of the Yemeni Revolution, who gets the starring role in this post  in part because she embodies so much of what Abida - hero of my novel - strives to become.
      Karman's reinvention of the public imagination is as storied as her own identity.
      First and foremost, her unwavering commitment to peace and democracy, and the vast ensemble of voices who cheer her on, challenge the construction of Yemen as a splintered, terrorist-breeding basket case. "After the revolution," Karman told Reuters, "you will see the real Yemen, which is peace, dreams and achievement."
      Second, she breathes life into what for many (however unduly) is the fading promise of the Arab Spring.  "The Arab world is today witnessing the birth of a new world, which tyrants and unjust rulers strive to oppose," Karman said in her acceptance speech. "But in the end, this new world will inevitably emerge.  The people have decided to break free and walk in the footsteps of civilized free people of the world."
       Third, at a point where Islamist electoral victories in Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco have sent the world cascading into a fresh orgy of Islamophobia, Karman staunchly opposes the idea that Islam and democracy are inherently incompatible: "All the religions, they respect democracy. They respect human rights, they respect all the values that all of us carry . . . The only problem is the misunderstanding from the people who act -- Islam, Christian, Jewish or any other religion -- (as if to say) 'this is the religion'."
     Finally, at the end of the day, Karman is an Arab woman in a headscarf leading a nation out of bondage. As I've stated in past posts, I can think of no blow more lethal to the notion that Muslim women are inherently oppressed, or that the women of the Middle East are in need of rescue by the West.
     Adept at the destruction both of stereotypes and despots, Karman declares "I am not afraid of the future. If we did we would not make this revolution. We should not marginalize anyone. Participation in the political life is the only way that will drive extremism (away), so I am not afraid."