>> this week on talk to al jazeera - the president of liberia ellen johnson sirleaf. >> my life story of fighting and getting up and being beaten and rising again and fighting for the things i believe in. >> the first woman elected to lead an african country has spent almost a decade rebuilding post-conflict liberia. >> people were tired of war. war was seen as something that had been initiated and carried on largely by men. so women were ready for change. >> she survived a violently abusive husband - and advocating for women's rights and full gender quality have been among the president's main priorities. >> i'm optimistic that if we continue on the progress we have already made, that we can get to - that is a battle that i'm going to fight. >> under sirleaf's leadership the small country on africa's western coast saw strong advances in economic growth - but the ebola crisis dealt a devastating blow. >> ebola was an unknown enemy, i didn't know what to do. nobody knew what to do, nobody could tell us what we were faced with you know. >> sirleaf is a noble peace prize winner, while he

. >> i spoke to president ellen johnson sirleaf when she was in new york attending the united nations general assembly. >> madam president you have now been in office for almost a decade. was the presidency as you look back on the last 10 years everything you hoped it would be? >> it comes close to everything i hoped it would be. we've had some shocks that were unexpected, things to do with global commodity prices, the disease that we faced one year ago - that has in a way stalled some of the goals that we had set. but in terms of being able to renew my nation, to be able to be able to bring back a devastated country, to restore hope to our people, to enlift women and to give them a new horizon, a new ambition, and new dreams, in respect of all of that i think we've accomplished it and i feel very good about that. >> even from day one of your inauguration you talked about women's rights. specifically, what do you want to accomplish in that arena before your term expires? >> i would like to make sure first of all that women in the informal sector... i mean these are the farmers and the

. >> this week on talk to al jazeera - the president of liberia ellen johnson sirleaf. >> my life story fighting and getting up and being beaten and rising again and fighting for the things i believe in. >> the first woman elected to lead an african country has spent almost a decade rebuilding post-conflict liberia. >> people were tired of war. war was seen as something that had been initiated and carried on largely by men. so womene

that's our >> this week on talk to al jazeera - the president of liberia ellen johnson sirleaf. >> my life story of fighting and getting up and being beaten and rising again and fighting for the things i believe in. >> the first woman elected to lead an african country has spent almost a decade rebuilding post-conflict liberia. >> people were tired of war. war was seen as something that had been initiated and carried on largely by men. so women were ready for change. >> she survived a violently abusive husband - and advocating for women's rights and full gender quality have been among

. >> this week on talk to al jazeera - the president of liberia ellen johnson sirleaf. >> my life storyting and getting up and being beaten and rising again and fighting for the things i believe in. >> the first woman elected to lead an african country has spent almost a decade rebuilding post-conflict liberia. >> people were tired of war. war was seen as something that had been initiated and carried on largely by men. so women were ready for change.

out of the chaos came a peace movement, and then 2005, ellen johnson sirleaf, a harvard educated economistpresident. in 2011, she was awarded the nobel peace prize. >> this award belongs to the people whose aspirations we have the privilege to represent and whose rights we have the obligation to defend. >> has the movement toward democracies, the democratization of africa made a lot of progress, let's put it that way? you've certainly done that in liberia. are we seeing that enough around the continent that still has had dictatorships and monarchies? >> absolutely, al. i tell you, if you look at the record of africa, you would not have believed it possible to have the democracy that we have today. the strong arm is over in africa. there are places where it's going to be difficult to get that, but for the majority of countries, peaceful transition of power, people's choice through free and fair elections. >> in the years after her election, liberia seemed on a path to recovery, then disaster. >> the ebola crisis this morning getting a clearer picture how devastating the situation in west af