3 Women’s Rights Leaders Accept Nobel Peace Prize

Left, Leymah Gbowee in September; 

center; Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the Liberian president, on Friday; 

right: Tawakkol Karman in Sana, Yemen, on Friday.   

In a ceremony in Oslo that repeatedly invoked gender equality and the democratic strivings of the Arab Spring, the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize was presented to three female activists and political leaders on Saturday for “their nonviolent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights” as peacemakers.

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2011 was awarded on Friday to three women from Africa and the Arab world in acknowledgment of their nonviolent role in promoting peace, democracy and gender equality. The winners were President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia — the first woman to be elected president in modern Africa — her compatriot, the peace activist Leymah Gbowee, and Tawakkol Karman of Yemen, a pro-democracy campaigner.  

 Wangari Maathai

They were the first women to win the prize since Wangari Maathai of Kenya, who died last month, was named as the laureate in 2004. 

Most of the recipients in the award’s 110-year history have been men, and Friday’s decision seemed designed to give impetus to the fight for women’s rights around the world.

 

Tawakkol Karman of Yemen, one of three joint winners of the Nobel Peace Prize,

gave her speech to the audience during the award ceremony in Oslo. 

Source: The New York Times 

Photo credit: Trio photo: Left: Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times; center: Jane Hahn for The New York Times; right: Yahya Arhab/EPA; Wangari Maathai - sustain.appstate.edu; Nigel Waldron/Getty Images