Three women will share the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize. According to the Mike Wooldridge, reporting for the BBC, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberian Leymah Gbowee and Tawakul Karman of Yemenare are being recognized for the “non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work."
Mrs Sirleaf is Africa's first female elected head of state, Ms Gbowee is a Liberian peace activist and Ms Karman is a leading figure in Yemen's pro-democracy movement.
Nobel Committee chairman, Thorbjorn Jagland, speaking in Oslo made it clear, "We cannot achieve democracy and lasting peace in the world unless women achieve the same opportunities as men to influence developments at all levels of society."
The Nobel Peace Committee said that Mrs. Sirleaf had "worked to enhance the influence of women in West Africa during and after war." Mrs. Sirleaf, who is 72, is running for reelection in Liberia after initially planning to serve only one term. She set as her goal to fight corruption and bring "motherly sensitivity and emotion to the presidency.”
Mrs. Gbowee, a Liberian peace activist, said the award is “ a victory for women rights everywhere in the world. What could be better then three women winning the prize?”
Mrs. Karman is the head of the Yemeni organization, Women Journalists without Chains. She has been jailed several times and is dedicating her prize to “"all the martyrs and wounded of the Arab Spring" - the wave of unrest which has swept the Middle East and North Africa in the past year - and to "all the free people who are fighting for their rights." She is the first Arab woman to earn the prize.
For the complete story please visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/.
