Nobel winner n call to stop yria violence

By Peter Townson/Saff Reporter

“I believe it is important for women and young people to be involved in politics, especially after the revolution – it will not be allowed for them to not be involved

Nobel Peace laureate Tawakul Karman, who has been called the ‘Mother of the Revolution’ in Yemen, has urged Western powers to “wake up again” and confront the violence in Syria, saying that the Arab people in general will support any decision that the Turkish government makes regarding the current regime.Karman, who spoke at the US Islamic World Forum yesterday, said that she was shocked to see that Syrian diplomats have only been expelled from numerous countries in the past few days, despite the violence having been ongoing for over a year.Speaking on the sidelines of the forum, she said that she had been pleased with the international community’s support throughout the Arab Spring, and praised the US in particular for expressing solidarity with the cause of the people involved.  But she urged governments to stop ignoring the situation in Syria and called for more action to prevent the escalating violence.Although not condoning military intervention, she said that any decision which Turkey makes regarding Syria will be widely supported because of its geopolitical position. She urged that sanctions be imposed as strongly and as soon as possible.Karman has become famous around the world for her activism in Yemen, where she has opposed various social practices and customs on the basis of civil liberties and women’s rights, which led to her being declared joint winner of the Nobel Peace Prize last year.  “I believe it is important for women and young people to be involved in politics, especially after the revolution – it will not be allowed for them to not be involved,” she said.Her belief in political participation and communication led to her choosing to shed her niqab in 2006, a decision which was met with both pride and anger, she said. However, Karman has never shied away from difficult issues and she argued that women must be allowed to choose whether to wear the hijab or niqab, and should never be forced into a decision. She expressed her support for US President Barack Obama’s efforts to support Yemen’s anti-terrorism work, noting that while he has performed a better job than his predecessor, George W Bush, he has failed to live up to the expectations which followed his election.“We were wary of the US coalition with Saleh to fight terrorism as we knew he was supporting Al Qaeda and I warned the US many times,” she said, adding “if he tricked the CIA then you need to ask why that happened.”She also highlighted the importance of the Yemeni people themselves in combating the influence and reach of Al Qaeda, saying that they are the strongest force in the war to eradicate the terrorist organisation.  “We have two ways to fight Al Qaeda, through soldiers and the president’s work, but also through thoughts and changing the way that people think,” she said, suggesting that the previous Yemeni regime bred extremism by creating an environment for terrorist ideologies to flourish.Karman expressed her opposition to the use of drones, but said that the Yemeni people are fully behind the US efforts to remove elements of Al Qaeda from their country. “We are fighting, and we will win – this is a goal of our revolution and we will succeed,” she said, adding “I am so confident and I am so optimistic because this is not a dream anymore – the revolution has happened.”