Young and female protesters in Yemen fear they may lose recent social gains
Campaigners for women's and human rights want Ms Karman (photo), the first Arab woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, to come out more vigorously in their defence
Sana'a, June 9.─ On a scorching afternoon a dozen young men with broken bones sit on the main stage in Change Square in Sana'a, Yemen's capital. They grumble about the "unfinished revolution"—and the lack of medical help they have got for injuries sustained during last year's demonstrations, which eventually forced out President Ali Abdullah Saleh after 33 years in office. Among other things, they express disappointment in Tawakul Karman, co-founder of the Yemeni movement "Women Journalists Without Chains", who was a joint winner of last year's Nobel prize for peace. Her tent in the square was a hub of the protests.
Nowadays Ms Karman, aged 33, is much less visible at home. She is a popular globe-trotting speaker who is said to be moving her family abroad. But she says she is still based in the square—and will badger the government relentlessly until it meets all the protesters' demands, including the removal of Mr Saleh's family from the army's upper ranks.
Ms Karman also says she has been abroad expressly to persuade foreign governments to press the new president, Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi, to have Mr Saleh and his family put on trial and their assets frozen. And she has been asking people and governments in France, Qatar and Turkey to help finance the building of hospitals for women, children and the injured protesters in Yemen. She also voices support for Syria's opposition.
In any event, fears are growing that the social gains of Yemen's revolution, especially for women, may be reversed in the course of a heralded national dialogue that is supposed to prepare for a new constitution. Ms Karman belongs to the moderate wing of al-Islah, an Islamist party that includes Muslim Brothers, prominent businessmen, tribal leaders and Salafist purists who hark back to the days of the Prophet Muhammad ...
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