A halting and sometimes violent transfer of governing power is
under way in Yemen and if the transition goes smoothly, one of
the biggest beneficiaries could be the nation’s women. When
protests rocked the capital Sana’a last year, part of uprisings
across the Arab world, tens of thousands of women were prominent
among the demonstrators, many taking a leading role. Yemen’s
president at the time, Ali Abdullah Saleh, responded by
appealing to religious sensitivities, accusing the women of “un-
Islamic” behavior. Saleh is out of office now, forced to turn
over power to Vice President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi this past
February. But Yemen’s women are still demonstrating, still
pressing for their rights and arguing that their cause is fully
compatible with Islam. Yemen Uprising Photo Gallery In the
forefront of that struggle is Tawakul Karman, a charismatic
journalist, politician and women’s rights activist who led many
of the anti-government demonstrations last year and became the
first Arab woman to win the Nobel P