Today 3 women, Leymah Gbowee, Ellen Johnson, and Tawakul Karman, were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. According to the New York Times, they were the first women to win the prize since 2004 and three out of only 15 women to ever be awarded the prize during its 110 year history. The decision to award 3 women is not only unprecedented, but sends a clear signal from the international community that women play an integral role in creating peace around the world.

Not only was I overjoyed by the international recognition of women’s roles in the fight to establish peace, but I also feel very honored to have personally met Leymah Gbowee, one of the winners. Leymah is a Liberian activist who successfully organized a women’s peace movement that was integral in bringing an end to a 14 year civil war and electing the first female president in an African country, Ellen Johnson (one of the other award winners). Through her organizing, Leymah broke down religious barriers and brought Muslim women and Christian women together for the common goal of peace. In her new book, “Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War” she writes: "The women of Liberia had been taken to our physical, psychological and spiritual limits. But over the last few months, we had discovered a new source of power and strength: each other. We’d been pushed to the wall and had only two options: give up or join up to fight back. Giving up wasn’t an option. Peace was the only way we could survive. We would fight to bring it." The women demonstrated their power through non-violent tactics including a sex strike and peaceful demonstrations where they demanded in her own words that the “government and rebels had to declare an immediate and unconditional cease-fire; the government and rebels had to talk; and we wanted an intervention force deployed and sent to Liberia.” Ultimately they were successful. The story of the women’s movement for peace in Liberia is captured in the documentary Pray the Devil Back to Hell. See trailer below.



I had the honor of meeting Leymah during a showing of the Pray the Devil Back to Hell at UMass Lowell. Reflecting upon the film, Leymah hoped that women and young people from around the world would see this film and be inspired by the reality that “normal” people have made revolutionary changes in their countries.

This week Gini Reticker, the director (who is also my aunt), of Pray the Devil Back to Hell, held a screening in DC of her new project, a five-part series called: Women War & Peace premiering on PBS Tuesday nights at 10:00pm Oct 11, 18, 25, Nov 1 & 8. Pray the Devil Back to Hell will be included in this series and showing on Oct 18th. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/women-war-and-peace/ When asked what she hoped people would take away from these films, Gini Reticker said she hopes that people will start asking, “Where are the women?” She expanded that she hopes that the public will demand that our news stations cover the stories of women in war torn countries. She suggested that when you follow what women are doing, you often find they are organizing for peace in courageous ways. She emphasized that there are many women like Leymah out there organizing for peace in seemingly impossible conditions, but we almost never hear their stories. It is up to the public to change that and demand that women’s voices are heard. Check out the series this coming Tuesday!