Tawakkol Karman lives in a tent in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen. Every day and every night, she sleeps on the ground, eats on the ground, and works on the ground. Her husband and three children visit on the weekends.Set up by anti-government protesters, it's known as Change Square.
And Karman is known as the woman behind the revolution.
Of all the Arab countries that have erupted in protest this year, Yemen has been at it the longest. The country is now in its seventh month of turmoil, with no end in sight. For Karman, the need for change became clear years ago. She first worked as a journalist, then began organizing protests. Back then, each protest was about a single issue: the jailing of a journalist, a land grab, a corrupt official.
Everything changed with the uprising in Tunisia and the fall of the first Arab dictator in January. Karman later called a meeting to plan the next protest. "We must not lose this moment," she told the students. "This is the only solution to save our country."
Then, on March 18, security forces fired into Sanaa's Change Square, killing dozens and wounding hundreds more. Karman saw friends lying on the ground, shot in the head. Survivors were too dazed to move. "I couldn't cry. It isn't good for me to cry in front of them," Karman says.
Instead, after helping get people to the hospital, Karman climbed onto the square's main stage and gave a speech.
"All your bullets, all your violence will not stop us. Kill everybody that you want. We will not stop our struggle," she said.
Karman and her supporters have set up their own transitional government, ready to take the place of the president and the Parliament. It's a bold move that so far has not been formally recognized by the international community.
"Yes, I want to go home. But I will not go home immediately after we finish everything. We will not repeat the mistakes that people in Egypt they did, when they leave the squares," she says. Karman says she will stay in Change Square until democracy is guaranteed for Yemen
Read more for more background on the current leader's actions and for her comments about the lack of support by the international community so far - do you agree with her that we should be stepping in, or not and leave it to them? I'm torn, personally. The determination, commitment, and perseverance that she's shown, and the goals that she has are all worthy of support, but I also don't think that we should be the world's police. Where do we draw the line of whom to support and who not to? It's gotten us into many messes in the past, and we're still dealing with the repercussions of some of those, but if a people want democracy, and ask for assistance, is it right to turn a blind eye?
"Now, more than ever, the illusions of division threaten our very existence. We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another as if we were one single tribe.” -King T'Challa, Black Panther
The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it. ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is. ~Winston Churchill
