Three women share 2011 Nobel Peace Prize

The 2011 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to three women – Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberian activist Leymah Gbowee and Yemeni journalist and activist Tawakul Karman.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Reuters

Oppression of women is a vital question, jury members told the press when announcing the shared prize.

Gbowee was named because of her campaigning for peace during Liberia’s bloody civil war. The jury said that her efforts led to the election of Sirleaf as Africa’s first elected head of state.

Gbowee is now the executive director of the Women Peace and Security Network Africa, based in Accra, Ghana.

Karman set up the group Women Journalists Without Chains (WJWC) in 2005 and campaigned for human rights. She joined protests against the regime of President Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2011, being arrested twice, in one case on the grounds that her husband did not know here whereabouts.

Responding to the anouncement, Karman declared that the prize is for her country's "revolution".