The European Council on Foreign Relations

Women in the Nobel spotlight

Date: 7th October 2011  |  Author: Susi Dennison ,

Categories: Rule of law, democracy and human rights,
Tags: ellen johnson sirleaf, leymah gbowee, tawakkul karman, women, nobel peace prize

The Nobel Prize Committee announced this morning that this year’s Prize for Peace has been awarded jointly to three prominent women:   Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman.  After the angry reaction from the Chinese government surrounding last year’s award to Liu Xiaobo, it seems a relatively safe choice to honour the contribution that these three women have made to the causes of participation, democracy and peace building in their countries.

The choice of journalist and activist Tawakkul Karman from Yemen highlights one of the major challenges in the worldwide struggle for realisation of women’s political rights – and particularly for the prominent female figures in the protest movements seen this year across the Arab world. Her activities and her prominence are twice as impressive because as a female democracy activist, the road to political representation is far longer than that of her male counterparts. While women’s voices and their convening power has been strong in bringing people out onto the streets across the Arab world, in the aftermath of revolution in Tunisia and Egypt, concerns are now being raised that women are being left out of the process of building democracy. No women were included in the committee to draft the new constitution in Egypt and there are real concerns that if the Freedom and Justice Party gains a strong hold in a new elected assembly, there is strong potential for women’s rights in areas such as divorce and family law to be reversed.

The challenges for women activists in the Arab world in making the transition from political activism to political representation is an issue that ECFR plans to look further into in a policy brief in the coming months. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia, and one of the other winners of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, provides an important symbol for women in sub-Saharan Africa – another region where politics remains very patriarchal and male-dominated. The fact of her being female should not of course place her beyond critique: succeeding in Liberian politics has meant playing the same game as her male counterparts, but her acknowledgement today is a recognition of the causes she has championed in building peace and reconciliation in Liberia as much as the hope she offers as the first elected female head of state in her region.

Once all the congratulation has died down, what message should Europe take away from today’s awards? After all, their importance lies in drawing attention to the causes for which the winners strive as well as in honouring the individuals’ work. In her writing in international media Tawakkul Karman points us towards a response. She has exhorted the West to pay more attention to the struggle for democracy in Yemen – providing stronger and more consistent support for the message of the protestors. Amid concerns at an escalation in violence since President Saleh’s return to the country at the end of September this reminder of the small but critical ways in which countries outside the region can support the noble efforts of activists who risk their lives daily for values that we take for granted seems a fitting tribute to the Nobel award winners.

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