Tawakel Karman

Tawakel Karman was one of the 2011 recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize. A Yemeni activist and journalist, she gained widespread recognition when she was imprisoned during the early stages of the Yemeni protests to depose Ali Abdullah Saleh.  In 2005, she co-founded Women Journalists without Chains, a Yemeni group that since 2007 has led weekly protests to campaign for press freedom.  When the Arab Spring spread to Yemen, Karman emerged as an obvious leader of the protesters.  

The daughter of a former official in Saleh's government, her father valued education and insisted his daughter be able to pursue a university degree; she has a master's in political science.  In addition to her activism, she is a member of the Islamist reform party Al-Islah, the main opposition to President Saleh.  The party has many factions that tend to disagree with each other, and some have alleged sympathies for Al-Qaeda.

For more information, see http://tgr.ph/qTq7sy.