Yemeni journalist and activist, Tawakul Karman Oslo – Reema Alrakhawi/Agencies Tawakul Karman, a Yemeni journalist and activist, is one of three women awarded the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize. She becomes the first Arab woman to win the prize. This year's Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded jointly to three women - Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberian Leymah Gbowee and Tawakul Karman of Yemen.
They were recognised for their "non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work".
Mrs Sirleaf is Africa's first female elected head of state, Ms Gbowee is a Liberian peace activist and Ms Karman is a leading figure in Yemen's pro-democracy movement.
Announcing the prize in Oslo, Nobel Committee chairman Thorbjorn Jagland said: "We cannot achieve democracy and lasting peace in the world unless women achieve the same opportunities as men to influence developments at all levels of society."
"It is the Norwegian Nobel Committee's hope that the prize... will help to bring an end to the suppression of women that still occurs in many countries, and to realise the great potential for democracy and peace that women can represent,”
The decision by the Nobel Peace Prize committee to recognize the work of activists to defend the rights of women around the world was commended by Amnesty International today.
“This Nobel Peace Prize recognizes what human rights activists have known for decades: that the promotion of equality is essential to building just and peaceful societies worldwide,” said Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International.
“The tireless work of these and countless other activists brings us closer to a world where women will see their rights protected and enjoy  growing influence at all levels of government.”    
“Today it is not just these three leading women who are being  celebrated, but everyone who have fought for human rights and equality their societies,” said Salil Shetty.    
“The Nobel Committee’s choice this year will encourage women everywhere to continue fighting for their rights.”
The Nobel Committee divided the 2011 award in three parts between  Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberian activist Leymah  Gbowee and Yemeni activist Tawakkul Karman.
Johnson Sirleaf is the first woman to be democratically elected as  President of an African country. Amnesty International in the past considered her to be a prisoner of conscience, jailed for her opposition to the ruling government in 1985.
Gbowee mobilized women across ethnic and religious lines to help end war in Liberia and ensure women’s participation in elections there.
Karman is a Yemeni human rights activist who has been a leading figure  in mass protests against the government in 2011.
The Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded at a ceremony in Oslo on 10  December.
Tawakkul Kaarman, 32, from Yemen has been active in the ongoing uprising in her homeland.
She is a politician who is a senior member of Al-Islah and a human rights activist who heads the group ‘Women Journalists without Chains’ that she created in 2005.
She's played a very important part in the uprising in Yemen which is now entering its eighth month. She was one of the first people to take to the streets of Sana'a back in January when protests were just breaking out and was on the stage calling for marches right when the protests were still small and vulnerable she was essentially at the head of those small protests which then built into this huge movement which we're seeing now.
The Egyptian well-known activist, Wael Ghonaim, who was also nominated to win the Nobel Prize, has expressed his pride and happiness through the internet where he congratulated Tawakkul Kaarman.
Ghonaim said on his Twitter page “Congratulations to Tawakkul, As an Arab, I am so proud of her victory and we all wish to have democratic countries that more respect their nations.”
Wael Ghonaim and the activist, Israa Abdelfatah were also nominated to win Nobel Prize for their major role in the Egyptian revolution.