Nobel Peace Prize: African women in the spotlight

Three African women were awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace this year. This is the Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, her compatriot Leymah Gbowee and Yemeni journalist Tawekoul Karman.

Three African women were awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace this year. This is the Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, her compatriot Leymah Gbowee and Yemeni journalist Tawekoul Karman.

The three women winners were rewarded for their nonviolent struggle for women’s safety and their rights to participate in works of peace », said Thorbjoern Jagland, president of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

Ms. Sireaf, 72, is the first African woman democratically elected in 2005 to lead her country. She has worked to rebuild a country ravaged by more than a decade of civil war.

Tawekkol Karman, a Yemeni journalist, 32, is an emblematic figure of the popular uprising in Yemen. She is also the first Arab woman to receive this prestigious award she has dedicated to the Yemeni people who fight against the regime of President Abdallah Salah.

Founding member of “Journalists Women without chains”, Tawekoul is mother of three children. She led the student demonstrations in January that sparked the popular uprising against the regime of Salah Abdallah.