Mason Hosts Nobel Prize Winner Karman for Arab Spring and Leadership Talk

by Rashad Mulla

Mason Hosts Nobel Prize Winner Karman for Arab Spring and Leadership Talk
Tawakkul Karman.

Yemen has played a huge role in the Arab Spring revolutions, and many women in the Middle East have taken the reins of leadership, powerfully voicing human and civil rights issues.

One of the most qualified revolutionary leaders in Yemen, Tawakkul Karman, Nobel Peace Prize winner and civil, human and women’s rights activist, will speak to the George Mason University on Wednesday, Oct. 26, at 6 p.m. in Mason Hall, room D3. A small reception will follow.

Karman, the first Arab woman and second Muslim woman to win the Nobel Prize, will discuss the current and past spring’s Middle Eastern events from a Yemeni perspective, citing her own experience as a revolutionary leader and activist. She will discuss the role of the female leaders who played important parts in and helped shape the outcome of the events of the spring. One of the youngest Nobel Prize winners ever, Karman will present first, and then take questions from the audience. 

She founded the group “Women Journalists Without Chains” in 2005, and has served as a consistent, powerful voice for women’s rights and equality, democracy, peace and freedom of expression in Yemen.

She will speak in Arabic, and a translator will be on hand to relay her words to the audience.

The event is free and open to the public, and will feature halal (Islamically permissible) snacks and refreshments. The evening is sponsored by the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.