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Liberian, Yemeni women win Nobel Peace Prize

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Summary of story from Reuters, October 7, 2011

Three women who have campaigned for women’s rights and an end to violence in Liberia and Yemen, including Liberian president Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, won the Nobel Peace Prize today.

Johnson-Sirleaf will share the prize with two other women – fellow Liberian, Leymah Gbowee, who mobilized fellow women against the country’s civil war and organized a “sex strike,” and Tawakkul Karman, who has worked in Yemen.

“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,” the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Thorbjoern Jagland, told reporters.

Johnson-Sirleaf, 72, is Africa’s first freely elected female president. Gbowee mobilized and organized women across ethnic and religious dividing lines to bring an end to the war in Liberia, and to ensure women’s participation in elections.

The Committee added: “In the most trying circumstances, both before and during the Arab Spring, Tawakkul Karman has played a leading part in the struggle for women’s rights and for democracy and peace in Yemen.”

“It is the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s hope that the prize to Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman will help to bring an end to the suppression of women that still occurs in many countries, and to realize the great potential for democracy and peace that women can represent.”

Johnson-Sirleaf faces re-election for a second term as president on Tuesday.

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