Tawakkol Karman: Trending quotes

“We were against oppression, and then we elevated our struggle to demand our rights. We will go against all the dictators, and not only Saleh in Yemen, so we can spread peace.”

Tawakkol Karman

2010s, Democracy Now! interview (2011)

Peace

“If you go to the protests now, you will see something you never saw before: hundreds of women. They shout and sing, they even sleep there in tents. This is not just a political revolution, it's a social revolution”

Tawakkol Karman

2010s, Tawakul Karman, Yemeni activist, and thorn in the side of Saleh (2011)

Women , Sleep , Singing

“I myself am part of the youth movement. However, after a long discussion, it appears that many of the youth demands and needs, like access to education, jobs, and equitable growth, have been addressed under different goals and targets and youth enjoy the benefits of everything else in the report.”

Tawakkol Karman

2000s, Youth Q&A on the U.N. High-Level Panel on the Post-2015 Agenda Report (2009)

Youth , Education , Appearance , Parting

“Requiring governments to make all publicly held information and data available to people — thus giving citizens a powerful tool to expose corruption — is just one aspect of the accountability revolution that can be unleashed if the report’s recommendations are implemented in full.”

Tawakkol Karman

2000s, Youth Q&A on the U.N. High-Level Panel on the Post-2015 Agenda Report (2009)

People

“I am not blind to the shortcomings of the previous government: Before the coup, I supported the June 30 rallies against Morsy…. The military takeover aims to uproot the Muslim Brotherhood and its partners, replacing them through brute force with the losers of a democratic ballot”

Tawakkol Karman

2010s, Morsy is the Arab World's Mandela (2013)

Support

“…The result of burning embassies and treading on flags is the self-same objective these drawings wanted to highlight. It was their intention to say that Muslims are terrorists and their religion is a peril to Western civilization.”

Tawakkol Karman

2000s, Burning embassies is not the way (2008)

Religion , Drawing

“My beliefs were that men and women alike have to be in this struggle together, and we cannot safeguard our country just with one wing. … Now our women are the leaders, not only political leaders, but also leaders that lead in every single front, and they are part of the main leaders of the revolution. And therefore, you can see that the rulers are afraid from women.”

Tawakkol Karman

2010s, Democracy Now! interview (2011)

Women , Men , Parting , Country

“it has now become obvious that most of the state institutions, including the judiciary, the army, the security apparatus and most of the government departments, stood against him [Morsi]. They acted in a co-ordinated manner to foment a crisis aimed at impeding the president and forcing failure on him.”

Tawakkol Karman

2010s, Egypt's coup has crushed all the freedoms won in the revolution (2013)

Failure

“For the first time people in the south stopped calling for separation, raised the national flag and demanded an end to the regime. It's been truly historic. The country is united in its aim to rid itself of the regime through public vigils and rallies, civil disobedience and slogans instead of tear gas and bullets.”

Tawakkol Karman

2010s, Our revolution's doing what Saleh can't – uniting Yemen (2011)

People , Tear , Time , Country

“Over the next three years, governments will have to choose whether or not to adopt this new people-centric framework for development. The temptation for political leaders to retreat to a safer, more conventional approach will mean a strong global grassroots campaign will thus be necessary to build pressure for adoption of these groundbreaking and transformative elements recommended in the report.”

Tawakkol Karman

2000s, Youth Q&A on the U.N. High-Level Panel on the Post-2015 Agenda Report (2009)

People , Strong

“The repercussions of the coup on nascent democracies in the Arab world will be destructive. People may soon lose faith in the democratic process, paving the way for the revival of extremist groups…The coup serves to strengthen the radicals, interrupting the course of peaceful change.”

Tawakkol Karman

2010s, Egypt's coup has crushed all the freedoms won in the revolution (2013)

People , World , Peace , Faith

“…on youth unemployment — governments should ensure that one out of three of jobs in the public sector are opened up to the youth and that at least one person in every household should have access to a job.”

Tawakkol Karman

2000s, Youth Q&A on the U.N. High-Level Panel on the Post-2015 Agenda Report (2009)

Youth , Personality

“There have been violations in the protest squares, especially in Sana'a. This is natural when hundreds of thousands of people [protest] for extended periods of time. However, these violations are marginal, and do not tarnish the beauty of the revolution. We see rival tribes meeting and debating in their tents, and men and women struggling [together] in the square to oust the regime.”

Tawakkol Karman

2010s, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Tawakkul Karman – A Profile (2011)

Women , Men , People , Beauty

“The Egyptian officers informed me that I would be denied entry, and I was soon deported back to Yemen on the same plane on which I had arrived. The authorities gave me no clear answer why: They said that I knew the reason for my deportation better than them, and that my name had been blacklisted based on the request of a security body.”

Tawakkol Karman

2010s, Morsy is the Arab World's Mandela (2013)

“…We are in one world. We are one nation. And therefore, what’s common in between us, what should be common among us, is love and peace.”

Tawakkol Karman

2010s, Democracy Now! interview (2011)

Love , World , Peace

“Morsy was not only Egypt's democratically elected president, he is now emerging as the Arab world's Nelson Mandela…during Morsy's one-year reign, Egypt enjoyed freedom of expression and the right to demonstrate peacefully, and not a single one of his political opponents were jailed.”

Tawakkol Karman

2010s, Morsy is the Arab World's Mandela (2013)

World , Freedom

“Today we need a concerted international effort that would result in freezing the assets of the ruling family, which are estimated at $10bn.”

Tawakkol Karman

2010s, The world must not forsake Yemen's struggle for freedom (2011)

Family , Effort

“Perhaps one of the few positive aspects of the coup is that it has discredited the claim that that that the state had been taken over by the Brotherhood under Morsi.”

Tawakkol Karman

2010s, Egypt's coup has crushed all the freedoms won in the revolution (2013)

“Democracy can't thrive under military rule — history is quite clear on this point … The police state is back, and it is even worse than Hosni Mubarak's. What is happening in Egypt today is very scary: The coup could lead society to lose its faith in democracy, which will give terrorist groups a chance to breathe again…By blocking peaceful change and weakening the Islamist groups that participate in the political process, the coup leaders support this stance and do the terrorists a favor.”

Tawakkol Karman

2010s, Morsy is the Arab World's Mandela (2013)

Peace , Faith , Democracy , History

“Since the start of this revolution, we were able to get rid of a lot of the issues and the problems that this regime created. … We have the dream, and we have the ability. And we started to achieve a lot of our goals. And we will not stop here. We will build our country. And we’re not only talking about Yemen here. I’m talking about every nation or every people that are looking toward freedom.”

Tawakkol Karman

2010s, Democracy Now! interview (2011)

People , Dreams , Problem , Freedom