In a male-dominated world, where women are often maligned, abused, exploited and devalued, women like Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee, and Tawakkol Karman continue to persevere under the most difficult of circumstances. They are not only extraordinary women, but also are exceptional human beings, unwilling to let human rights violations go unheard.
Although these three women received the Nobel Peace Prize, let us not forget the nameless numbers of women who will never be acknowledged for their effort — those women for whom the Nobel Peace Prize committee has no political or other motivation to acknowledge them.
“Women are using their broken bodies from hunger, poverty, desperation and destitution to stare down the barrel of the gun,” she said, noting that “ordinary mothers are no longer begging for peace, but demanding peace, justice, equality and inclusion in political decision-making.”
At the lavish ceremony in a colourfully flower-decked Oslo city hall, and with Norway’s royal family and other dignitaries in attendance, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, her compatriot and “peace warrior” Leymah Gbowee and Yemeni “Arab Spring” activist Tawakkol Karman received their gold medal and diploma.
“The leaders in Yemen and Syria who murder their people to retain their own power should take note of the following: mankind’s quest for freedom and human rights can never stop,” Jagland said.
Gbowee, a 39-year-old social worker who led Liberia’s women to defy feared warlords and bring an end to her country’s bloody 1989-2003 civil war, hailed the Nobel Committee for shining the spotlight on women’s struggle for peace and human rights, insisting “this prize could not have come at a better time than this.”
“It has come at a time when in many societies where women used to be the silent victims and objects of men’s powers, women are throwing down the walls of repressive traditions with the invincible power of non-violence,” Gbowee, wearing a colourful headdress, said in her acceptance speech.
“The number of our sisters and daughters of all ages brutally defiled over the past two decades staggers the imagination, and the number of lives devastated by such evil defies comprehension,” she said.
But in the face of such adversity, women still dare to stand up and fight for peace, said the 73-year-old grandmother, wearing a majestic purple dress and headdress.
“The promising Arab Spring will become a new winter if women are again left out,” he cautioned.
Jagland meanwhile stressed the importance of women in the uprisings.
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