Video: Secretary Clinton With Yemeni Nobel Prize Winner Tawakkul Karman

Remarks With Yemeni Nobel Prize Winner Tawakkul Karman After Their Meeting

Remarks

Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State

East Hall

Washington, DC

October 28, 2011

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SECRETARY CLINTON: Good morning. Well, I am extremely honored to welcome here to the State Department a woman that I had the privilege of meeting for the first time during my visit to Yemen. Tawakkul Karman has now been recognized by the Nobel Prize Committee, along with two other extraordinary women, for her commitment to democracy and human rights and for a better future for the Yemeni people. And as I just told her and her husband and delegation who are here, the United States supports a democratic transition in Yemen and the rights of the people of Yemen – men and women – to choose their own leaders and futures. And the United States wants to be a good partner for the Yemeni people as they fulfill the aspirations of the revolution of the youth of Yemen, and then to continue to support the creation of a new Yemen with political and economic opportunities for all its citizens.
Welcome.
MS. KARMAN: Thank you very much, Mrs. Clinton. Thank you very much. I want to say thank you for all American people, thank you for American administration. We in the youth revolution came to America to send them our voice, to tell them that we are the future. You have to be – (inaudible) with the future. Ali Saleh and his regime (inaudible) is over.
(Via interpreter) And we pledge to work together to have a democratic Yemen and that is where – with the vibrancy of a society, and we pledge to continue to work together in the future. You will see that the Yemeni youth and the Yemeni people are able to turn Yemen into a strategic (inaudible) for security around the world. And just like we surprised you with our revolution, we will surprise you with a state that we’re going to build.
We will work together a lot, and I think we can build the world together. Thank you very much.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Thank you so much.
MS. KARMAN: Thank you. Thank you.
QUESTION: Could we get your reaction to those groups of Yemeni women that were burning their veils?
MS. KARMAN: (Via interpreter) It’s an expression of rejection of the injustice that the Saleh regime has imposed on them. And this is a new stage for the Yemeni women, because they will not hide behind veils or behind walls or anything else.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Thank you all.