Most years, the Nobel Committee is very good at reading the room and giving the Nobel Peace Prize to make a politically strategic point at the moment. They can ride the wave of the political hot-button topic, and I feel like that’s what they’re doing this year. We’re at the one-year anniversary of Harvey Weinstein’s outing as a serial sexual predator and the surge of #MeToo. Women are coming forward to tell their stories of being victimized, of being abused, assaulted, harassed, and raped, and they are being believed. So now is the moment for the Nobel committee to recognize the work done to stop sexual violence. That’s what they’ve done:
BREAKING NEWS:
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2018 to Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict. #NobelPrize #NobelPeacePrize pic.twitter.com/LaICSbQXWM— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 5, 2018
2018 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Denis Mukwege is the helper who has devoted his life to defending victims of war-time sexual violence. Fellow laureate Nadia Murad is the witness who tells of the abuses perpetrated against herself and others. #NobelPrize pic.twitter.com/MY6IdYWN1e
— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 5, 2018
Many gossip-followers will likely know Nadia Murad’s name because Amal Clooney is her lawyer and friend. Amal and Nadia have gone to the United Nations and made speeches about ending wartime rape, sexual violence and all of that. Nadia was also part of Amal’s Vogue profile – Nadia was there, staying at the Clooneys’ British home, and it’s clear that Amal and Nadia are very close. Nadia is Yazidi, and she was kidnapped and held for three months by ISIS, where she was gang-raped repeatedly. Denis Mukwege is a Congolese gynecologist who works with women like Nadia, women who have been raped and gang-raped in war.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
Bravo for getting this award and well done to the committee for awarding it.
Let their voices be heard! It’s only a dream the day sexual violence won’t be used as a weapon of war and the day women will be free to live without the fear of being abused, but they work gives us all hope.
This morning the guardian told me Drumf was the bookies favourite to be given the peace prize. Thank Jesus they were wrong.
If the Nobel committee promised something to US senators wavering on Kavanaugh, would that get their attention about violence against women? Will this have any impact on all the Republicans who did not re-authorize the federal law to reduce violence against women? I doubt it.
Wonderful & timely…take note, President Blow Hard.
I was hoping the guy was from the Congo. One of the eastern regions of the Congo used to be known as the rape capital of the world. Absolutely tragic. Interestingly, Ben Affleck spoke about the issue a few years ago (to Congress, I think.)
Dr. Mukwege has been nominated for years. So glad he is finally getting this well-deserved accolade. His clinic has helped thousands of woman recover physically and emotionally from sexual violence.
Loving this choice!
I suspect Time Magazine will echo this sentiment with their Person of the Year award.
Congratulations to Nadia Murad and Denis Mukwebe. Such important courageous work. Nadia has been repeatedly been threatened with murder for her work. Echoes everywhere today and for as long as humans have existed.
When the press reported in the 1990s the Bosnian Serb targeted rapes it made me weep it was so horrible.
I have been following Dr. Mukwebe’s career for a long time and he absolutely deserves this. The stories he has told about the women and children he has helped is horrific and heartbreaking. I’m glad to see his work being recognized.
Oh the irony. Nobel Peace Prize.
The US cannot wait to put a sexual predator into the ultimate position of power. November. Take note.
Best news I’ve heard in a long while! An important award, given to amazing people.
A film about Nadia is coming out this month, called “On Her Shoulders” I saw it a few months ago, and it was really amazing, it showed just how hard it is to retell your trauma over and over again. Catch it if you can.
Both such well deserved awards. I agree that it’s about time the world declared sexual assault during war as a “red line”, like chemical attacks. Some of the stories just break your hurt and they happen over and over again.
YES! Finally some sanity and humanity. Thank you, Nobel Prize Winners and thank you, Nobel Prize Committee. You rock!!!!!