Penn State will welcome 2011 Nobel Peace Prize winner Tawakkol Karman to campus on April 9 as part of Women’s Empowerment Week. Karman will speak at 8 p.m. in Alumni Hall.

“The Panhellenic Council is honored to host Ms.Tawakkol Karman this year as our keynote speaker for our 2014 Women’s Empowerment Week because she is not only a powerful and motivating woman, but an outstanding role model for all,” said former Panhellenic Council Executive Vice President Alexa Melucci. “Her dedication and passion to exposing and protesting social and legal injustice is inspiring. It is reassuring to know when harnessed women have the power truly make a difference in the world. ”

Karman is a Yemeni activist who co-founded “Women Journalists Without Chains” in 2005 and was a leader in the 2011 Yemeni uprising against President Ali Abdullah Saleh. She is the first Arab woman and second Muslim woman to win a Nobel Prize. At age 32, she is the youngest Nobel Peace Laureate to date.

The keynote speech is part of a series of weeklong events for Women’s Empowerment Week, led by the Panhellenic Council. That schedule will be released in the coming days and will include a Distinguished Women of Penn State panel discussion.