October 7, 2011

Leymah Gbowee, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Tawakel Karman,

MPAC congratulates Tawakel Karman, a Yemeni journalist and human rights activist; Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa’s first women to be elected as president in a free election; and Leymah Gbowee, a peace and women’s activist, for receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, the first time women have been honored in seven years.

SEE: “Nobel Peace Prize Awarded to Three Activist Women” (NY Times)

In recognizing Karman’s achievements, the Norwegian Nobel Committee also recognized the Arab Spring and the thousands of activists from Tunisia to Syria who have sacrificed for this cause. Prize committee chairman Thorbjorn Jagland said the committee chose Karman to make a statement that “if one fails to include the women in the revolution and the new democracies, there will be no democracy."

“MPAC congratulates all three women in receiving the prestigious honor, and we stand with the Nobel committee in thanking them for their continued bravery, perseverance and courage to bring a voice to the voiceless,” said MPAC President Salam Al-Marayati. “Africa has undergone so much strife, and these women’s activism is an inspiration to the world that one person can create a movement and be the catalyst for change.”

Karman, who rose to prominence through her leadership during this year’s uprisings in Yemen, is the first Arab woman to win the peace prize. Known as the "Iron Woman, "The Mother of Revolution" and "The Spirit of the Yemeni Revolution" by fellow protesters, she is an activist on women’s rights and democracy and founded the Women Journalists Without Chains in 2005.

As a member of Islah, one of Yemen’s prominent opposition groups, Karman has led protests, sit-ins and other peaceful means of political expression leading to imprisonment, receiving death threats and a recent attempt on her life.