Three women who fought injustice, dictatorship and sexual violence in Liberia and Yemen received the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize at a ceremony in the Norwegian capital, Oslo, yesterday.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, her compatriot Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman of Yemen collected their Nobel diplomas and medals to applause at Oslo’s City Hall.

Prize committee Chairman Thorbjoern Jagland said the three women represent the struggle for “human rights in general and of women for equality and peace in particular.”

You give concrete meaning to the Chinese proverb which says that ‘women hold up half of the sky’,” Jagland told the laureates.

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