Here are three new names to learn: Tawakkol Karman, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee.
Ms. Karman, 32, is a leading member of Yemen’s Islamist party, Islah, the largest political party in the country. She also leads women’s groups that oppose Ali Abdubblah Saleh, the nation’s dictator recently returned from self-exile, who clings to power behind a brutal army.
She now lives in a tent in a protest camp. She has been jailed for her political activism and her life has been threatened many times.
Mrs. Sirleaf is president of Liberia, the first African woman to be elected head of a nation. Mrs. Gbowee, also a Nigerian, has been an effective advocate for women’s rights, freedom and democracy.
Karman, Sirleaf and Gbowee are names to remember because they received the Nobel Peace Prize last week for their effective struggles for women’s rights and for reforms that will give all of their fellow citizens, male and female, power to change the way their governments work.
The three women are believable harbingers of a true Arab Spring.
Nadia Mostafa, a professor of international relations at Cairo University said it well:
“Giving it to a woman (Karman) and an Islamist? That means a sort of re-evaluation. It means Islam is not against peace, it’s not against women and Islamists can be women activists, and they can fight for human rights, freedom and democracy.”
While much of the Arab world today is a lethal mess, this may be the darkness before an exciting dawn. These three tough ladies are doing their best to make it so.
— Emerson Lynn, jr.
