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Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, her compatriot and “peace warrior” Leymah Gbowee and Yemen’s Arab Spring activist Tawakkul Karman won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday in a nod to women’s empowerment.
The three women will share the 2011 award “for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work,” Norwegian Nobel Committee president Thorbjoern Jagland said.
Sirleaf, 72, made history when she became Africa’s first elected woman President in 2005, taking over a nation traumatised by 14 years of civil war that left 2,50,000 dead.
Sirleaf dedicated her Nobel to “all Liberian people,” but her rival in next Presidential elections called the timing of the award provocative and unacceptable because of her involvement with violence in the past.
Her rise to power may never have happened without the efforts of activist Gbowee, 39. She led Liberia’s women to defy feared warlords, and pushed men toward peace by inspiring a large group of both Christian and Muslim women to wage a sex strike in 2002 during one of Africa’s bloodiest wars.
“This is a Nobel for African women — that’s how I would call it,” she told AFP by phone from New York. “It’s for women in general, but specifically for African women.”
Gbowee said she turned to the person sitting next to her and said “I just won the Nobel.” “African women in this world, women in general, there is this recognition now that we have our say,” she said. “There is no way that anyone can minimise our role anymore.”
Tawakkul Karman, a 32-year-old Yemeni journalist and activist with three children, has braved several stints in prison in her struggle for women’s rights, press freedoms and the release of political prisoners in her country.
Karman, the first-ever Arab woman to receive the honour, dedicated her prize to “all the activists of the Arab Spring” — a reference to the protesters who took to the streets across the Arab world demanding democracy.
She told AFP her prize was “a victory for the Yemeni revolution and the peaceful character of this revolution.” Karman has not left Sanaa’s Change Square, the focal point of protests against President Ali Abdullah Saleh, for four months for fear of being hunted by gunmen loyal to him.
The journalist who in 2005 established a group called “Women Journalists without Chains,” has become a leading figure in the uprising against the veteran leader.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said the award was “a recognition of women all over the world who are fighting for women’s rights ... And a recognition of the vital work women do in peace and reconciliation work.”
The three women will share the 2011 award “for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work,” Norwegian Nobel Committee president Thorbjoern Jagland said.
Sirleaf, 72, made history when she became Africa’s first elected woman President in 2005, taking over a nation traumatised by 14 years of civil war that left 2,50,000 dead.
Sirleaf dedicated her Nobel to “all Liberian people,” but her rival in next Presidential elections called the timing of the award provocative and unacceptable because of her involvement with violence in the past.
Her rise to power may never have happened without the efforts of activist Gbowee, 39. She led Liberia’s women to defy feared warlords, and pushed men toward peace by inspiring a large group of both Christian and Muslim women to wage a sex strike in 2002 during one of Africa’s bloodiest wars.
“This is a Nobel for African women — that’s how I would call it,” she told AFP by phone from New York. “It’s for women in general, but specifically for African women.”
Gbowee said she turned to the person sitting next to her and said “I just won the Nobel.” “African women in this world, women in general, there is this recognition now that we have our say,” she said. “There is no way that anyone can minimise our role anymore.”
Tawakkul Karman, a 32-year-old Yemeni journalist and activist with three children, has braved several stints in prison in her struggle for women’s rights, press freedoms and the release of political prisoners in her country.
Karman, the first-ever Arab woman to receive the honour, dedicated her prize to “all the activists of the Arab Spring” — a reference to the protesters who took to the streets across the Arab world demanding democracy.
She told AFP her prize was “a victory for the Yemeni revolution and the peaceful character of this revolution.” Karman has not left Sanaa’s Change Square, the focal point of protests against President Ali Abdullah Saleh, for four months for fear of being hunted by gunmen loyal to him.
The journalist who in 2005 established a group called “Women Journalists without Chains,” has become a leading figure in the uprising against the veteran leader.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said the award was “a recognition of women all over the world who are fighting for women’s rights ... And a recognition of the vital work women do in peace and reconciliation work.”
