Three women share Nobel Peace Prize

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, her compatriot and “peace warrior” Leymah Gbowee and Yemen’s Arab Spring activist Tawakkul Karman won the Nobel Peace Prize Friday.

The three women will share the 2011 award “for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work,” Norwegian Nobel Committee president Thorbjoern Jagland said in his announcement.

Sirleaf, 72, made history when she became Africa’s first elected woman president in 2005. She took over a nation traumatised by 14 years of brutal civil war that left 250,000 dead and economic devastation, with no electricity, running water or infrastructure.

Liberia’s “Iron Lady” won her Nobel just four days before she is set to face elections in her bid for a new term.

Tawakkul Karman is a 32-year-old Yemeni journalist and activist who has braved several stints in prison in her struggle for women’s rights, press freedoms and the release of political prisoners in her country. AFP