Nobel Peace Prize recognises women rights activists
The women had led the non-violent struggle for women's political rights, said the committee This year's Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded jointly to three women - Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberian Leymah Gbowee and Tawakul Karman of Yemen.
They were recognised for their "non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work".
Mrs Sirleaf is Africa's first female elected head of state, Ms Gbowee is a Liberian peace activist and Ms Karman is a leading figure in Yemen's pro-democracy movement.
"We cannot achieve democracy and lasting peace in the world unless women achieve the same opportunities as men to influence developments at all levels of society," said Nobel Committee chairman Thorbjorn Jagland in Oslo.
Reading from the prize citation, he said the committee hoped the prize would "help to bring an end to the suppression of women that still occurs in many countries, and to realise the great potential for democracy and peace that women can represent".
Arab SpringMrs Karman heard of her win from Change Square in the capital Sanaa, where she has been living for several months in a protest camp calling for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to stand down.
She was recognised for playing a leading part in the struggle for women's rights in Yemen's pro-democracy protests "in the most trying circumstances" and is the first Arab women to win the prize.
The mother-of-three told BBC Arabic she was dedicating it to "all the martyrs and wounded of the Arab Spring" - the wave of unrest which has swept the Middle East and North Africa in the past year - and to "all the free people who are fighting for their rights".
As the head of Yemeni organisation Women Journalists without Chains, Mrs Karman has been jailed several times over her campaigns for press freedom and her opposition to the government.
"Start Quote
End Quote Leymah Gbowee Nobel Peace Prize winnerThis is the recognition that we hear you, we see you, we acknowledge you"
Mr Jagland said the oppression of women was "the most important issue" in the Arab world and that awarding the prize to Ms Karman was "giving the signal that if it [the Arab Spring] is to succeed with efforts to make democracy, it has to include women".
'Iron Lady'Ms Sirleaf, 72, who had been widely tipped as a winner, said the award was "for all Liberian people" and a recognition of "many years of struggle for justice".
She was elected in 2005, following the end of Liberia's 14-year civil war which left 250,000 people dead, caused thousands to flee abroad and financially ruined the country.
Upon coming to office, the US-educated economist and former finance minister - known as Liberia's "Iron Lady" - pledged to fight corruption and bring "motherly sensitivity and emotion to the presidency" as a way of healing the wounds of war.
She is popular among women and the country's small elite, but disliked by more traditional male-dominated sections of society.
2011 Peace Prize laureates
Ellen Johnson - President of Liberia
- first democratically elected female African head of state
- seen as a reformer and peacemaker after Liberia's civil war
Tawakul Karman - Yemeni pro-democracy activist
- journalist and key leader of protests against President Ali Abdullah Saleh
- first Arab woman to be awarded the peace prize
Leymah Gbowee - Liberian peace activist
- mobilised female opposition to Liberia's civil war
- encouraged women to participate in political process
Mrs Sirleaf is standing for re-election next week, having previously said she would only hold the presidency for one term.
Her compatriot Ms Gbowee was a leading critic of the violence during the Liberian civil war, mobilising women across ethnic and religious lines in peace activism - in part through implementing a "sex strike" - and encouraging them to participate in elections.
In 2003 she led a march through the capital, Monrovia, demanding an end to the rape of women by soldiers, which had continued despite a peace deal being signed three months earlier.
The Nobel Committee said she had "worked to enhance the influence of women in West Africa during and after war".
Ms Gbowee told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme: "I am confused. I am humbled. This is the first time in the 39 years of my life that I am out of words.
"This is a victory for women rights everywhere in the world. What could be better then three women winning the prize?
"This is the recognition that we hear you, we see you, we acknowledge you."
The women will share the $1.5m (£1m) prize money.
Recent Nobel Peace Prize winners
2010 - Liu Xiaobo - Chinese dissident lawyer
2009 - US President Barack Obama
2008 - Martti Ahtisaari, former Finnish president
2007 - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) , Former US vice-president and environmental campaigner Al Gore
2006 - Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank
2005 - International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and its president, Mohamed El Baradei
The BBC's world affairs correspondent Mike Wooldridge says that the Nobel Peace Prize originally recognised those who had already achieved peace, but that its scope has broadened in recent years to encourage those working towards peace and acknowledge work in progress.
The Nobel committee received a record 241 nominations for this year's prize - among the individuals and groups believed to have been put forward were the European Union, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and key cyber dissidents in the Arab Spring movement.
Egyptian blogger and Google executive Wael Ghonim, who was jailed for his part in protests that led to the ousting of President Hosni Mubarak, congratulated Ms Karman for her "well deserved win".
