Leymah Gbowee: An Interview With the 2011 Nobel Prize Winner

Leymah Roberta Gbowee was awarded the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, Oct. 7. She is an African peace activist responsible for organizing a women's movement that brought an end to the Second Liberian Civil War in 2003. This led to the election of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in Liberia, the first African nation with a female president.

In 2001, Gbowee began organizing the women of Liberia and by 2002, the women joined together in an effort to stop the civil war which was tearing Liberia apart. Under Gbowee's leadership, they stood up to the violence and to the government.

She just released a new book called "Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer and Sex Changed a Nation at War."

Thanks to Odyssey Networks for this fine video.

Women's right activists win Nobel Peace Prize

The 2011 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Friday to Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman of Yemen for their work on women's rights.

The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to three champions of women's rights in Africa and the Middle East on Friday in an attempt to bolster the role of women in struggles to bring democracy to nations suffering from autocratic rule and civil strife.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee split the prize between Tawakkul Karman, a leader of anti-government protests in Yemen; Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first woman to win a free presidential election in Africa; and Leymah Gbowee of Liberia, who campaigned against the use of rape as a weapon in her country's brutal civil war.



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Women's rights activists win Nobel Peace Prize