The Nobel Peace Prize 2011 has been awarded jointly to Ellen
Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman "for their
non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full
participation in peace-building work".

Nobel Committee chairman, Thorbjorn Jagland, said: “We cannot achieve democracy and lasting peace in the world
unless women achieve the same opportunities as men to influence developments at
all levels of society". He said the committee hoped
the prize would "help to bring an end to the suppression of women that
still occurs in many countries, and to realise the great potential for
democracy and peace that women can represent".

Upon hearing the announcement, Gbowee said: "What could be better then three women winning the prize? This is the
recognition that we hear you, we see you, we acknowledge you."

Tawakkul Karman:

Tawakkul Karman, from Yemem, is the head of “Women
Journalists without Chains”. WJWC is a non-governmental organization that works
towards promoting civil rights, particularly freedom of opinion and expression. Mrs Karman has been jailed several times over her
campaigns for press freedom and her opposition to the government. At the age of
32, she is one of the youngest winners of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf:

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, 72, is known as the "Iron
Lady" by her supporters. A past director of the UN Development Programme, she became Africa’s first
elected female head of state following the end of Liberia’s
14-year civil war. She won the election in 2005 on her pledged to fight
corruption and bring "motherly sensitivity and emotion to the
presidency" to help Liberia recover from the wounds of war.

Leymah Gbowee:

Gbowee, 39, brought together Christian and Muslim women to pray and demonstrate for
peace in the midst of the violence of the Liberian Civil War. This movement was instrumental in forcing a peace deal between the warring factions when 200 women prevented the negotiators from leaving the peace talks being held in Accra in 2003.

"Nothing happened overnight. In fact it took three years of community
awareness, sit-ins, and non-violent demonstrations staged by ordinary ‘market
women’" – Leymah Gbowee

Gbowee’s new book, Mighty Be Our Powers, was published in September 2011 and
featured in the September Global Voice newsletter.