2013 Speaker Announcement: Tawakkol Karman
Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Journalist, Human Rights Activist
"Peace does not mean just to stop wars, but also to stop oppression and injustice." - Tawakkol Karman, 2011 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
We are honored and thrilled to announce that Tawakkol Karman, Nobel Peace Prize Winner, will participate in and speak at the 25th Annual Nobel Peace Prize Forum in Minneapolis March 8-10, 2013. Mrs. Karman won the 2011 Peace Prize with two other women (Leymah Gbowee and Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf), all of whom have fought valiantly for women's rights in their home countries and abroad. As a journalist, politician, human rights activist, mother, and devout Muslim, Mrs. Karman will bring a unique, vibrant, and contemporary voice to the Forum. We hope you can attend!
From her official biography:
In 2011 Tawakkol Karman was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her humanitarian work for the rights and safety of women and children in Yemen. She is the first Arab woman and the second Muslim woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize, as well as the youngest Nobel Peace Laureate to date, at the age of 32. Karman is a mother of three as well as a human rights activist, journalist, politician, president of Women Journalists without Chains organization, and senior member of the Al-Islah political party. She also is a member of the advisory board for the Transparency International organisation and for several international human rights NGOs.
Bold and outspoken, Karman has been imprisoned on a number of occasions for her pro-democracy, pro-human rights protests. Amongst Yemen's Youth movement, she is known as "Mother of the Revolution", "The Iron Woman", and more recently, "The Lady of the Arab Spring."
[Read her Nobel Peace Prize address (2011)]
[Wikipedia Entry]
If you've attended the Nobel Peace Prize Forum, you know that this annual event brings together a dynamic group of speakers, including leading peacemakers in journalism, politics, business, economics, health/science, and the arts, among other topics. The full list of speakers will be announced in coming months, so keep track of us via Facebook and Twitter, and make sure your friends, family, and colleagues are on our email list so they can receive the latest updates as well.
Maureen K. Reed, M.D., Executive Director, Nobel Peace Prize Forum
