OSLO (Reuters) – Declaring women’s rights vital for world peace, the Nobel Committee awarded its annual Peace Prize Friday to three indomitable female campaigners against war and oppression — a Yemeni and two Liberians, including that country’s president.
Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the first woman freely elected as a head of state in Africa, shared the award worth $1.5 million with compatriot Leymah Gbowee, who promoted a “sex strike” among efforts to end Liberia’s civil war, and Yemen’s Tawakul Karman, who called her honor “a victory for the Arab Spring.”
“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,” Norwegian Nobel Committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland told reporters.
“This is to highlight an incredibly important issue all over the world but especially in Africa and in the Arab world.”
Karman, 32, an Islamist journalist dubbed the “Mother of the Revolution,” has been a key figure in protests in the capital Sanaa this year. “This is a victory for the Arab Spring in Tunis, Egypt, Libya, Syria and Yemen,” she told Reuters. “This is a message that the era of Arab dictatorships is over.”
Typically, the mother-of-three was out demonstrating in a
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