This year’s Nobel Peace Prize is divided between three women, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee of Liberia and Tawakkul Karman of Yemen, the Nobel committee in the Norwegian capital, Oslo, announced Friday.
The women were awarded the prize “for their nonviolent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work,” the committee said. “We cannot achieve democracy and lasting peace in the world unless women obtain the same opportunities as men to influence developments at all levels of society.”
Johnson Sirleaf, Liberia’s president, is Africa’s first elected female head of state. Her political resilience and tough reputation have earned her the nickname “Iron Lady.”
Gbowee “mobilized and organized women across ethnic and religious dividing lines to bring an end to the long war in Liberia,” the Nobel committee said.
And in Yemen, Karman has played a leading role in the struggle for women’s rights for democracy and peace, the committee said.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee said it hoped that the prize will help end suppression of women in many countries and to “realize the great potential for democracy and peace that women can represent.”
article courtesy of CNN.com
