Nobel Peace Prize goes to women's activists

Oslo: Africa's first democratically elected female President, a Liberian campaigner against rape and a woman who stood up to Yemen's autocratic regime won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday in recognition of the importance of women's rights in the spread of global peace.

The 10 million kronor (USD 1.5 million) award was split three ways between Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, women's rights activist Leymah Gbowee from the same African country and democracy activist Tawakkul Karman of Yemen, the first Arab woman to win the prize.

The Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee said that Karman's award should be seen as a signal that both women and Islam have important roles to play in the uprisings known as the Arab Spring, the wave of anti-authoritarian revolts that have challenged rulers across the Arab world.

"The Arab Spring cannot be successful without including the women in it," Thorbjorn Jagland said.

He said Karman, 32, belongs to a Muslim movement with links to the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist group "which in the West is perceived as a threat to democracy." He added that "I don't believe that. There are many signals that that kind of movement can be an important part of the solution."

Yemen is an extremely conservative society but a feature of the revolt there has been a prominent role for women who turned out for protests in large numbers. The uprising has, however, been one of the least successful, failing to unseat President Ali Abdullah Saleh as Yemen descends into failed state status and armed groups take increasingly central roles.

In Libya's and Syria's uprisings, women have been largely absent. And while there were many women protesters in Egypt's revolution, few had key leadership positions.

Karman is a mother of three who heads the human rights group Women Journalists without Chains. She has been a leading figure in organising the protests against Saleh.

"I am very very happy about this prize," Karman said. "I give the prize to the youth of revolution in Yemen and the Yemeni people."

Citing the Arab Spring alone could have been problematic for the committee. Libya descended into civil war that led to NATO military intervention. Egypt and Tunisia are still in turmoil. Hardliners are holding onto power in Yemen and Syria and a Saudi-led force crushed the uprising in Bahrain, leaving an uncertain record for the Arab protest movement.

Jagland said it was difficult to find a leader of the Arab Spring revolts, especially among the many bloggers who played a role in energising the protests, and noted that Kamran's work started before the Arab uprisings.

"It was not easy for us to say to pick one from Egypt or pick one from Tunisia, because there were so many," he said.

"And we did not want to say that one was more important than the others."

Kamran "started her activism long before the revolution took place in Tunisia and Egypt. She has been a very courageous woman in Yemen for quite along time," Jagland said.

No woman had won the prize since 2004, when the committee honoured Wangari Maathai of Kenya, who died last month at 71.

2004 was also the last year the prize went to an African. Liberia was ravaged by civil wars for years until 2003.

The conflict that began in 1989 left about 200,000 people dead and displaced half the country's population of 3 million.

Sirleaf, 72, has master's degree in public administration from Harvard University and has held top regional jobs at the World Bank, the UN and within Liberian government.

In elections in 1997, she ran second to warlord-turned-president Charles Taylor, who many claimed was voted into power by a fearful electorate. Though she lost by a landslide, she rose to national prominence and earned the nickname, "Iron Lady." She went on to become Africa's first democratically elected female leader in 2005.