Activist campaigned for peace, women’s rights in Liberia
International activist and 2011 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Leymah Gbowee will discuss her efforts to end violence and advance women’s rights Feb. 15 at the University of Indianapolis.
The free public event will begin at 2:30 p.m. in UIndy’s Ransburg Auditorium, 1400 E. Hanna Ave.
Gbowee helped organize and lead the Liberian Mass Action for Peace, a coalition of Christian and Muslim women who staged public protests credited with ending Liberia’s 14-year civil war in 2003. Accused of war crimes, including the use of child soldiers, President Charles Taylor was forced to resign and later was replaced by current Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first female elected head of state in modern Africa.
Gbowee, Sirleaf and Yemeni activist Tawakkul Karman were awarded last year’s Nobel Peace Prize “for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work,” according to the prize committee. Gbowee now serves as executive director of Women Peace and Security Network Africa, a Ghana-based NGO, and she recently was appointed by Sirleaf to lead a new peace and reconciliation initiative in Liberia.
The Liberian peace campaign is detailed in Gbowee’s 2011 memoir, Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War. Her part in helping to oust Taylor was featured in the award-winning documentary film Pray the Devil Back to Hell.
The Feb. 15 appearance is presented by UIndy’s International Relations program and the Sagamore Institute, with additional support from the International Center of Indiana, IUPUI Law School’s International Center for Law & Human Rights, and Butler, DePauw and Indiana Wesleyan universities.
Public lecture
International activist and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Leymah Gbowee
2:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 15
Ransburg Auditorium, University of Indianapolis, 1400 E. Hanna Ave.
Admission: Free
Information: (317) 788-2196