And the Nobel goes to...

Since the past couple of posts have been a bit heavy I'd like to discuss the Nobel Peace Prize winners. A little delayed since the winners were announced in early October. 


Ellen Johnson Sirleaf the president of Liberia, Leymah Gbowee of Liberia and native Yemeni Tawakkul Karman are this years winners of the Nobel Peace Prize. According to the Nobel Prize website, the three women were awarded with this years prize "for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace building work." 

I never knew how the selections are done so here is a graphic to explain:

Only 'qualified nominators' are allowed to submit the names of people worthy of the prize. Qualified meaning members of international courts, national assemblies, governments of states, university rectors, professors (of social sciences, history, philosophy, law and theology, sorry Gaylord professors), persons who have been awarded prizes and so on. 

Back to the 2011 winners.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

Sirleaf studied at the University of Colorado and received her masters degree in public administration at Harvard. When she returned to Liberia she served as Minister of Finance. After a violent military coup led by Samuel Kayon Doe that ended up with the President of Liberia and several other members being executed. Sirleaf chose exile in Kenya. In 1985, Sirleaf began to campaign against Doe during the elections and was forced into house arrest. She was then sentenced to prison but only spent a short time serving and then left as an exile again.From 1992-97 she worked as assistant administrator and director of the United Nations Development Program Regional Bureau for Africa. She returned in 1997 to run for presidency but was charged with treason. It wasn't until 2005 that she was inaugurated as President of Liberia. She is the first elected female president of Liberia and the first elected female leader on the continent. She is up for reelection this year. 

Leymah Gbowee

Gbowee is the executive director of the Women Peace and Security Network Africa and is also a founding member of the Women in Peacebuilding Program/West African Network for Peacebuilding.  In her work she gather several hundred women from 9 of 15 counties in Liberia for creating peace in the nation. Previous international honors include the Blue Ribbon Peace Award given to her by the Women's Leadership Board at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. Gbowee,along with other Liberian women were given Profiles in Courage Award by the Kennedy Library Foundation.The Peace Prize highlights her major break in in mobilizing women across many divides to end civil wars in Liberia. She is also the central character in the 2008 documentary "Pray the Devil Back to Hell."

Tawakkul Karman

"We want to show the world that women can do everything." -Tawakkul Karman

Tawakkul Karman is a journalist and activist from Yemen. Karman is both the founder and chairwoman of Women Journalists without Chains and has worked to secure journalistic freedom for Yemen. Threats of violence have reached not only Karman but her family as well. Women Journalists without Chains have continued to be denied a newspaper license as another sign of opposition from the Yemeni government. Karman has also produced the "Semi-Annual Press Freedom Report" which shows increased violence against Yemeni Journalists. She continuously leads journalists to protest bans on news alerts and other protests against government policies. 
      

Out of 101 Nobel Peace Prize awards, 15 have gone to women.