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Nobel Laureate Met With Cheers in Ann Arbor
Nobel Peace Prize winner and Yemeni human rights activist Tawakkul Karman called on the 1,000 University of Michigan students, faculty and Arab-Americans who packed into a University of Michigan auditorium Monday to support peacemaking efforts in her country.
Amid applause and cheers from many Yemeni-Americans in the standing-room only crowd at Rackham Auditorium, Tawakkul Karman, who last month became the first Arab woman to win the prize, said in Arabic that sacrifices of students and women were key to the rise of the Arab Spring.
“Death is once but raising the banner of honor and freedom is much greater,” she said through an interpreter.
Karman, a prominent critic of Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh, has organized protests to push for greater rights for women and freedom of the press.
Monday’s event was Karman’s second in two days in Michigan. On Sunday, Karman talked to a crowd of Michiganians at the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center in Dearborn.
Matthew Stiffler, 32, who teaches an introduction to Arab American studies, let his class out early Monday so students could listen to Karman speak.
“It’s amazing to hear the things she’s been through, to hear her speak with such assertiveness even as she talked about her friends who were killed,” he said.
Rabia Shafie, 65, a retired elementary school teacher who lives in Ann Arbor, said the lecture brought tears to her eyes.
“She’s an unbelievable woman,” said Shafie, who is originally from Palestine. “I’m very proud to see an Arab woman leader.”
Serena Maria Daniels
The Detroit News