Editorial: Brave women fighting for freedom
Leymah Gbowee of Liberia, who shared the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, speaks at the Interchurch Center in New York (Oct. 7, 2011). Credit: AP
In awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to three extraordinary women last week, the organization turned its global spotlight on the struggle for women's rights in the Middle East and Africa. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee of Liberia and Tawakkul Karman of Yemen confronted daunting odds and considerable personal risk to resist brutal autocratic regimes and their oppression of women -- which may be the most stubborn obstacle to true democracy in those regions of the world. Sirleaf braved a cruel civil war to become the first woman to win a free presidential election in Africa. Gbowee led women challenging the use of rape as a weapon of war. Karman is an indomitable champion of human rights and free expression, and the first Arab woman to win the prize. They are heroines of an urgent cause. hN
