Liberian Women Divided Over Nobel Prize

From the Liberian Daily Observer:

Leaders of three of Liberia’s foremost women’s peace advocacy groups – the Liberia Women’s Initiative (LWI), the Mano River Women Peace Network (MARWOPNET) and the Women In Peace-building Network (WIPNET) – are at loggerheads apparently over who might have been more deserving of the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize, won in part by two daughters of Liberia.

The 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, according to the Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Thorbjørn Jagland, was awarded to two Liberian women, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee, and a Yemeni co-winner, for “their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work.”

The two Liberian peace and human rights campaigners shared the Prize with Yemeni activist Tawwakol Karman.

But eminent personalities of the women’s movement in Liberia, including Mother Mary Brownell and Madam Theresa Leigh-Sherman, have described the awarding of the Prize to Leymah Gbowee as a misplaced decision by the Nobel Committee because, according to them, Gbowee “should have been there when the bullets were flying.”

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf - Obstacles in Liberia

From Voice of America:

Liberian voters made history five years ago by electing Africa's first female president. But as Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf runs for re-election, voters will find few female candidates on ballots for other posts.

Liberia's Elections Commission is encouraging more women to run for elected office in a country where they make up less than 15 percent of the legislature.

Elections Commission trainers have met with women across Liberia about standing as party candidates for local and national office. Elections Commission chairman James Fromayan says the first obstacle is often political parties themselves.

“We try the best we can to appeal to political parties to begin with at the regular meetings with those parties to encourage women participation in the party at the executive committee level," he said. "You can't have an executive committee of sometimes 30 persons and just about two women. That is just not proper.”

Liberia: Rally Supporting Education of Girls

From AllAfrica:

A women group under the banner “the United Women for Peace and Reconciliation” has held a mass rally to raise funds to support Girl’s education in Monrovia and its environs.

Mrs. Wilson [President of the United Women for Peace and Reconciliation] said funds generated [from the United Women Empowerment Fund Drive] would be used for the girl’s children to go to school while they will also use some of it to buy them copybooks, pencils and do other things for people who are living in the Banjor Community. “Because we are spreading all over now to reach out to other women in Monrovia, even-though we are from Banjor, our dreams are not only limited to Banjor, we are carrying this initiative around” She said.

Giving a brief history of the United Women for Peace and Reconciliation at the fund raising rally, Mrs. Wilson said when they first started the organization, they were women who virtually gathered from nowhere, but today they can say that they have reach somewhere.

Liberia: Sex Scandal Boys Flee

From All Africa:

Nine juvenile, all below 18, are reportedly on the run after linking 15 women to a big sex scandal that has left several homes broken in Harper City, the capital of Maryland County.

The boys have been charged with "Defamation of Character", and authorities say they are running after the juveniles to face the law.

According to report reaching this paper from Harper the recent claim of the boys raised serious eyebrows in the Kru Township of Tobeville.

The boys reportedly went on the rampage and published the names of 15 married women and girls that they were engaged in illicit and other forms of ugly sexual lives.

The boys posted the names of the females on light poles, market tables and other public places in the city.

The township commissioner of Toberville T. T. Nagbe Sonpon told the Informer the boys were charged for "Defamation of Character" by the township authority since last year, when the names of 15 female were posted around town linking them to sex scandal.

The anonymous lady said many of the accused women have been thrown out by their husbands because their names were published by those disgruntle boys in town.

The women have however decided to register the case with the Liberia national Police, but some high profile citizens in the area are persuading them otherwise.

Liberia: Tackling Violance Against Women

From Radio Nederland Wereldomroep:

The Liberian Minister for Gender and Development, Vabah Gayflor, visited a safe house for abused women in The Netherlands earlier this week. She wanted to learn how Dutch authorities deal with domestic violence. In Africa, Liberia is ahead in the fight against domestic violence. However, after many years of civil war, the issue continues to be a problem.

Liberia also has shelters for women who get frequently beaten by their partners, said Vabah Gayflor. But they are less well equipped and the staff is less professional compared to those in the Netherlands. The principle is the same: women enjoy special protection, they recover from their difficulties and get support in finding a solution to their problems.

Liberia experienced a bloody civil war for 14 years which ended in 2003. During the war, violence against women bacame an epidemic. Violence against women is less but has not disappeared.

The level of violence remains high. Many teenagers continue to be violated, as in any country emerging from war. The perpetrators tend to be former soldiers and rebels and some of them now occupy important positions.

The big difference between Liberia and the Netherlands represents the type of violence against women. In the Netherlands, it is mostly domestic violence, while in Liberia the sexual violence against women is a major problem. Especially on the street and at work. Furthermore rape is the crime most frequently reported in Monrovia, the counrty's capital.

But Liberia is also the first African country to be headed by a democratically elected woman. The Liberian Minister for Gender and Development is clearly proud that during the presidential election the votes of women made the difference.

Olubanke King-Akerele

From Forbes:

Foreign Minister Olubanke King-Akerele believes that women in Africa have something special to bring to the table: peace and prosperity.

Minister King-Akerele was born in 1946 with a commitment to Liberian politics and higher learning in her blood. Her grandfather was Charles D. B. King, Liberia's 16th president, who started the renowned Booker T. Washington Institute, a Liberian college modeled on the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. She holds degrees from the University of Ibadan in Nigeria and Brandeis and Columbia universities in the U.S.

With previous stints at the United Nations, where she was deputy director for the United Nations Development Program for Women, and as Minister of Commerce and Industry in Liberia, King-Akerele is part of a growing stable of female political leaders in Africa, from South Africa to Rwanda.

She is tasked with both helping to formulate and implement Liberia's foreign policy, no small challenge for a country that has been ripped apart by 14 years of civil war.

King-Akerele believes that international investment, if not the sole solution, plays a tremendous role in Liberia's success. She is taking her cause on the road internationally, speaking to a wide variety of public and private sector leaders about opening up trade with Liberia.