Hazem Saghiyeh

For “their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work,” the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded jointly to three women--Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who is Africa’s first female elected head of state, Liberian activist Leymah Gbowee and Yemeni activist Tawakul Karman.

Karman is a key figure in the civil right movement in Yemen. Her kidnapping and arrest stoked the fuel of the uprising in her country. When she was awarded the prize, she got the news while at Sanaa’s Change Square where she has been living for months in a camp that will remain, as she has bet, until Ali Abdullah Saleh stands down.

Karman, who was born in 1979, is the head of the Yemeni organization Women Journalists without Chains. She has written articles and directed movies at the service of her cause, in addition to being imprisoned several times.

Razan Zeitouna, a Syrian lawyer and human rights activist since 2011, was awarded the Anna Politkovskaya prize, which was named after the Russian journalist who was assassinated over her reports about human rights abuses in Chechnya and the Caucasus in general.

Born in 1977, Razan Zeitouna established a website in 2005 to follow up on human rights violations in her own country. Her name started ever since to break the heavy Syrian barriers and to acquire world fame.

The two events honor Arab women, and particularly Arab women activists involved in humanitarian and public issues. They also honor a whole generation and language.

The generation in question is one that came to the world at a time of increasing world interest in freedoms and human rights, but also at a time of widespread and globalized means of communication, including the internet, Facebook, Twitter and mobile phones.

For “their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work,” the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded jointly to three women—Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who is Africa’s first female elected head of state, Liberian activist Leymah Gbowee and Yemeni activist Tawakul Karman.

Karman is a key figure in the civil right movement in Yemen. Her kidnapping and arrest stoked the fuel of the uprising in her country. When she was awarded the prize, she got the news while in Sanaa’s Change Square, where she has been living for months in a camp that will remain, as she has bet, until Ali Abdullah Saleh stands down.

Karman, who was born in 1979, is the head of the Yemeni organization Women Journalists without Chains. She has written articles and directed movies in the service of her cause, in addition to being imprisoned several times.
Razan Zeitouna, a Syrian lawyer and human rights activist since 2011, was awarded the Anna Politkovskaya prize, which was named after the Russian journalist who was assassinated over her reports about human rights abuses in Chechnya and the Caucasus in general.

Born in 1977, Razan Zeitouna established a website in 2005 to follow up on human rights violations in her own country. Her name started ever since to break the heavy Syrian barriers and to acquire world fame.
The two events honor Arab women, and particularly Arab women activists involved in humanitarian and public issues. They also honor a whole generation and language.

The generation in question is one that came to the world at a time of increasing world interest in freedoms and human rights, but also at a time of widespread and globalized means of communication, including the internet, Facebook, Twitter and mobile phones.

The language in question is one that has become universal, i.e. democracy, human rights, human dignity, civil state, etc. These terms/concepts are the basis of the dictionary invoked by Tawakul Karman, Razan Zeitouna and others who walk in their footsteps.
There will certainly be some pedants and complicated people who will cry out against submission to the standards of “white men” and against being graded by “white men,” and who will protest and demand the “liberation of our women”!

However, men who have the power to exert influence in our societies—including primarily Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad—merely promised Tawakul and Razan imprisonment and perhaps even death. So thank you, “white men,” for rewarding the brightest among us.

This article is a translation of the original, which appeared on the NOW Arabic site on Monday October 10, 2011