Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman of Yemen are the recipients of the honoured 2011 Nobel Peace prize for their work on women’s rights.
Three women in Africa and the Middle East were named winners of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, an award that recognized the Arab Spring with a pointed emphasis on women’s rights in the region torn with civil wars, men hegemony, Islamic laws and coups enliven bt the western forces.
The prize was given to Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberian activist Leymah Gbowee and Yemeni human rights campaigner Tawakkul Karman. The Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo recognized them for their “nonviolent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work.”
The committee described Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a Harvard-educated economist who has worked as a vice president of Citibank, as “Africa’s first democratically elected female president,” who has “contributed to securing peace in Liberia, to promoting economic and social development, and to strengthening the position of women.”
Leymah Gbowee “mobilized and organized women across ethnic and religious dividing lines to bring an end to the long war in Liberia,” the committee said, while Ms. Tawakkul (submission in eng.) Karman, “both before and during the ‘Arab Spring’ … has played a leading part in the struggle for women’s rights and for democracy and peace in Yemen.” She also started a”sex strike” in order to achieve her faithful aims.
Nobel Prize 2011 : Year of the Women
Announcing the award in Oslo, Norway, the head of the Norwegian committee, Thorbjørn Jagland, said the committee has “included the Arab Spring in this prize but we have put it in a particular context. If one fails to include the women in the new democracies there will be no democracy.”
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