| Submit your comments on this article |
| Africa Subsaharan |
| Leymah Gbowee, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf share Nobel |
| 2011-10-07 |
| Another poster mentioned only the Yemeni activist, so here is the rest of the story about the Liberian recipients of the Nobel Prize. See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pray_the_Devil_Back_to_Hell. I have seen this film, and I suggest that Rantburgundians see it also. -- Africa's first democratically elected female president, a Liberian campaigner against rape and a woman who stood up to Yemen's autocratic regime won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday in recognition of the importance of women's rights in the spread of global peace. The 10 million kronor ($1.5 million) award was split three ways between Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, women's rights activist Leymah Gbowee from the same African country and democracy activist Tawakkul Karman of Yemen -- the first Arab woman to win the prize.... ...Liberia was ravaged by civil wars for years until 2003. The drawn-out conflict that began in 1989 left about 200,000 people dead and displaced half the country's population of 3 million. The country -- created to settle freed American slaves in 1847 -- is still struggling to maintain a fragile peace with the help of U.N. peacekeepers. Sirleaf, 72, has a master's degree in public administration from Harvard University and has held top regional jobs at the World Bank, the United Nations and within the Liberian government. In elections in 1997, she ran second to warlord-turned-president Charles Taylor, who many claimed was voted into power by a fearful electorate. Though she lost by a landslide, she rose to national prominence and earned the nickname, "Iron Lady." She went on to became Africa's first democratically elected female leader in 2005. Sirleaf was seen as a reformer and peacemaker in Liberia when she took office. She is running for re-election this month and opponents in the presidential campaign have accused her of buying votes and using government funds to campaign. Her camp denies the charges. The election is Tuesday. "This gives me a stronger commitment to work for reconciliation," Sirleaf said Friday from her home in Monrovia. "Liberians should be proud." Buttons from her presidential campaign say it all: "Ellen -- She's Our Man." Gbowee, who organized a group of Christian and Muslim women to challenge Liberia's warlords, was honored for mobilizing women "across ethnic and religious dividing lines to bring an end to the long war in Liberia, and to ensure women's participation in elections." Gbowee has long campaigned for the rights of women and against rape. In 2003, she led hundreds of female protesters through Monrovia to demand swift disarmament of fighters who preyed on women throughout Liberia during 14 years of near-constant civil war. Gbowee works in Ghana's capital as the director of Women Peace and Security Network Africa. The group's website says she is a mother of five. |
| Posted by:mom |