Nobel Peace Prize winner Leymah Roberta Gbowee

Leymah Roberta Gbowee has been awarded the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize. She is a Peace Activist in Liberia responsible for leading a women's peace movement that brought an end to the Second Liberian Civil War in 2003.

She began organizing Christian and Muslim women to demonstrate together, founding Liberian Mass Action for Peace and launching protests and a sex strike.

They staged protests that included the threat of a curse and a sex strike: "The [sex] strike lasted, on and off, for a few months. It had little or no practical effect, but it was extremely valuable in getting us media attention."In a highly risky move, the women finally occupied a field that had been used for soccer; it was beside Tubman Boulevard, the route Charles Taylor traveled twice a day, to and from Capitol Hill.To make themselves more recognizable as a group, all of the women wore T-shirts that were white, signifying peace, with the WIPNET logo and white hair ties.Taylor finally granted a hearing for the women on April 23, 2003. With more than 2,000 women massed outside his executive mansion, Gbowee was the person designated to make their case to him.Gbowee positioned her face to be seen by Taylor but directed her words to Grace Minor, the president of the senate and the only female government official present. [1]

She is a wonderfully gentle woman with a warm heart and a generous spirit.Her dry sense of humour was evident on Jon Stewart's Daily Show. She should be an inspiration to all of us...

Duffy Hero Assembly...anyone??

Useful Links:

 [1] Wikipedia article: Leymah Roberta Gbowee
Wikipedia article : Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace
Leymah Roberta Gbowee website
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