5FREEDOM: Tawakkol Karman
ONCE UPON A TIME, in what is today known as Yemen, lived a queen. Her name was Bilqis, and she was the Queen of Sheba.
The Bible, the Aramaic Targum Sheni, the Quran, the Ethiopian Kebra Negast—all narrate her story. The Queen of Sheba, also known as the “Queen of the South”, ruled her land in peace and prosperity, worshipping the Sun. One day though, she learned about King Solomon, of his boundless wisdom and close bond with God. As a seeker of truth, she decided to travel from Arabia to Jerusalem on a camel, to meet this wise King. She carried caravans of spices, precious stones, and gold as a gift for Solomon. Upon meeting him, the Queen tested his wisdom and connection with God through a series of riddles. Convinced by the King's knowledge, Bilqis, the Queen of Sheba, decided to convert to Solomon's God—bringing her people into a new era, the era of monotheism.
Her legend occupies thousands of pages, hundreds of movies, millions of evening stories—sitting around the fireplace or the dinner table. Truth is, though, that this Queen has done much more than inspire mythological tales. She inspires, still today, Yemeni women to lead. To demand respect and to fearlessly play their role in society. “If the Queen of Sheba did it thousands of years ago, why shouldn't a Yemeni woman, like me, be able to do so today?”, says Tawakkol in an authoritative ...
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