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Peace, Gender and Human Rights: Three Nobel Peace Laureates

Last night I got the pleasure of listening to three Noble Peace Prize laureates as they discussed gender issues, human rights, and the idea of peace. The first speaker I got the opportunity to listen to was Leymah Gbowee, the founder and president of the Gbowee Peace Foundation. As a Liberian peace activist, social worker and women’s rights advocate she was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2011. While she talked, she told her story of growing up under her grandmother’s watch. She spoke about how one day her and her sister came home and told their grandmother about the gossip they heard about the old lady who was said to be a witch. And the minute they spoke of this, their grandmother said if they ever came back with information as such she would whoop their behinds and for this ruckus they were sent everyday to visit this old woman to gain the powers of an open-mind. Gbowee explained how her grandmother’s persistence of an open mind allowed her to become a survivor of the war that turned her community upside down. “We as individuals can be the change we wish to see as long as we open up our minds,” she said. “We can not move from point A to point B unless we open our minds.”

Her talk reminded me of Byron Hurt’s story Feminist Men. Even this story was told in the eyes of a man, he talked about the journey he took in overcoming stereotypes – which was what I got out of Gbowee’s talk. Hurt explain that, “Although my mother attempted to teach me better, I, like a lot of boys and men, felt entitled to mistreat the female gender when it benefited me to do so,” (p. 715). The male gender as a whole believes they need to live up to the dominance that stereotypes have given them however as Gbowee explains “For every time you as an individual act on a stereotype you build a wall between you and that person,” and that was what Hurt was doing. However as he continued to grow he changed his come to the realization that “when we hurt women in our lives, we hurt ourselves, and we hurt our community, too,” (p. 716). As he aged Hurt took down the wall he built and stepped over to Gbowee’s side where an open mind will bring us to a world of togetherness.

I was also able to listen to Tawakkol Karman, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 in recognition of her work in nonviolent struggle for the safety of women, and Shirin Ebadi, a former judge and human rights activist and founder of the Defenders of Human Rights Center in Iran who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003. As a women in a society where we are still struggling to feel as equal as the opposite gender, it was really inspiring to see how far they have gotten in societies were equality is very less then ours. Being able to listen to 3 out of the 16 women Noble Peace Prize receivers (out of a total of 103 – 87 which have been men) made me only want to speak out more about my beliefs and continue my journey in looking within women studies. Like Ebadi ended her talk, I will end my thoughts, “I’m a short woman but I talk with great, great power.”Welcome to your blog post. Use this space to connect with your readers and potential customers in a way that’s current and interesting. Think of it as an ongoing conversation where you can share updates about business, trends, news, and more.