Karman started protests as an advocate for press freedoms in her country. At a time when she was advocating for more press freedom, she responded to the
Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy in 2005 by writing: "We are not to call for tyranny and bans on freedom." She was a senior member of the
Al-Islah party, although she was suspended from the party in 2018 after she accused the Saudi-led coalition of acting as occupiers in the country. She stopped wearing the traditional
niqab in favour of more colourful
hijabs that showed her face. She first appeared without the
niqab at a conference in 2004. She told the
Yemen Times in 2010 that: Advocating for laws that would prevent females younger than 17 from being married, in a statement made to
Human Rights Watch, a human rights research and
advocacy group, she stated that Yemen's revolution "didn't happen just to solve political problems, but also to address societal problems, the most important being child marriage." Despite most members of her party holding a different view on child marriage than her, she claims her party is the most open to women. In clarifying her position, she said: Our party needs the youth but the youth also need the parties to help them organise. Neither will succeed in overthrowing this regime without the other. We don't want the international community to label our revolution an Islamic one. She has also led protests against government corruption. Her stand on the ouster of Saleh became stronger after village lands of families around the city of
Ibb were appropriated by a corrupt local leader. She expressed support for the
Palestinian people in the
Israeli–Palestinian conflict. In May 2024, Karman stated, "The world is silent in front of the
genocide and the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people in
Gaza."
Egyptian conflict As a response to the
2012–13 Egyptian protests and the
2013 Egyptian coup d'état, Karman was supportive of protests demanding Egyptian president
Mohamed Morsi's resignation on 30 June, but was critical of the military's decision to oust Morsi, suspend the
Constitution of Egypt and bar the
Muslim Brotherhood from participating in
Egyptian politics, citing that Morsi was Egypt's first democratically elected leader, the constitution was supported by 60% of people who voted in a
public referendum and that the coup may cause people to lose faith in democracy, allowing extremist groups to thrive. She attempted to enter
Egypt to join protests against the coup but was banned from doing so by the Egyptian military for "security reasons" and was deported back to Sana'a. She later denounced the military's arrests of high-ranking Muslim Brotherhood officials and the military's
use of violence on protesters at sites occupied primarily by Morsi's supporters.
Yemeni conflict Karman routinely speaks out against both the
Houthi insurgency and
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, calling both of them threats to Yemen's national sovereignty. She has condemned the groups for what she says are their efforts to destabilize the country and overthrow the Yemeni government. She has accused the
Houthis of receiving foreign aid from the
Iranian government and objects to what she believes are foreign efforts to leave the Houthis alone since they are also fighting against Al-Qaeda. After the announcement of Houthi integration into the Yemeni military, Karman stated that there shouldn't be integration if the Houthis are unwilling to surrender their weapons. As a response to the January 2015 events of the
2014–15 Yemeni coup d'état, she spoke out on what she believes is collaboration between former president Saleh and the Houthi rebels to undo the 2011 revolution by ending the transition process. Despite the civil war, Karman remains optimistic for her country's future. "It's very sad, all this killing, all this war," Karman said in an interview with the
Journal of Middle Eastern Politics and Policy in 2016. "But at the same time, we don't lose our hope, and we don't lose our vision, and we don't lose our dream." Karman often objects to U.S.
drone policy in Yemen, calling the use of them "unacceptable" and has argued that using them in populated areas violates human rights and international laws. Following an increase in the number of drone strikes in August 2013, she called for an immediate halt of all strikes, proclaiming that the bombings undermine Yemen's sovereignty and contribute to increases in Al-Qaeda recruits in the country. ==2011 protests==