40 Yemeni women wounded celebrating Nobel win

Monday, 10 October 2011

At least 40 Yemeni women were attacked in the city of Taez as they marched in support of Tawakkul Karman, the first Arab woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. (Photo by Reuters)

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By AFP
SANA'A

Forty women were wounded in Yemen’s second largest city when regime supporters attacked an all-female street celebration of the Nobel Peace prize win of Tawakkul Karman, medical officials said Monday.

The women were attacked on Sunday evening in the city of Taez as they marched in support of Karman, the first Arab woman to win the prestigious award.

“We were attacked by regime thugs with empty bottles and stones,” an organizer told AFP on Monday on condition of anonymity.

Medical officials confirmed the injuries.

The Nobel Prize Committee awarded Karman the 2011 Peace Prize recognizing her role in the months of peaceful protests in Yemen that have called for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down after 33 years in power in Sana’a.

The prize was shared with two Liberian women, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and activist Leymah Gbowee.

In a separate incident early on Monday, three people were wounded in clashes between loyalist security forces and armed tribesmen opposed to Saleh in the central Rawdah neighborhood of Taez, medical officials said.

Taez, some 270 kilometers (170 miles) southwest of the capital Sanaa, has been a focal point of tension since protests against Saleh erupted in January.