Libyan women: liberated but not yet free

 

There is no doubt that Libyan women played an important role in the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, from participating in the Benghazi protests at the onset of the revolution to selling jewelry to fund rebel fighters and providing medical support to those injured during the eight month conflict.

However, some activists are worried about the retreating role of women in society, especially with the coming elections of the Constituent Assembly commissioned to draft the new constitution.

As this “Committee of 60” will be elected rather than appointed, there is currently a debate about whether there should be a minimum number of female committee members.

As there is still no provision for gender quotas, there are significant concerns that female candidates will have to overcome insurmountable social prejudice to get the votes required to participate in the committee that will be drafting Libya’s first constitution since Gaddafi took power in 1969.

But there are women in decision-making positions in Libyan politics.

A total of 33 women were elected to the 200-member General National Congress (GNC) during the July 2012 parliamentary election, which was Libya’s first free election since 1965.

Although this marked a significant advancement in the political participation of women, the fear is that if women miss the opportunity to be involved in drafting of the new constitution, it could lead to serious violations against their own rights – even those obtained during Gaddafi’s regime.

 

Signs of regression

Gaddafi was known around the world for his glamorous female bodyguards – something that is often viewed as an expression of his belief in gender equality.

Although Libya’s Gaddafi-era legal framework consisted of laws and key international declarations to ensure equality between women and men, this wasn’t something routinely practiced amongst his retinue.

Members of Gaddafi’s entourage would routinely pick women to become their concubines – occasionally they would marry them, but the women never had any choice in the matter.

“If they choose you, you were done. No one could help you,” said a young woman who had friends that were forced to join one such harem.

Libyan women may no longer have to worry about suffering such a fate, but for women such as the Libyan writer Nahla Karam, the uprising of 2011 is incomplete.

She believes there now needs to be a revolution in the minds of Libyan men.

Libyan society still rejects the idea of gender equality – even women themselves tend to hold conservative views about why they can and cannot do.

Karam is also critical of some Libyan feminists who she sees as detached from the everyday problems of Libyan women, such as unemployment, poverty and lack of political participation.

“They must go to streets, mingle with the local women, feel their hardships and help them to overcome their issues,” she says.

But no-one can deny the revival of women’s NGOs. Completely absent during the Gaddafi era, they are now doing the groundwork to build their capacities and understand the principles of the civil society work, particularly with regards to the forthcoming Constituent Assembly elections.

Libyan women are facing other battles. Last February, for example, Libyan courts gave men the full right to marry more than one woman – something that was strictly forbidden during the Gaddafi regime.

In addition, in March, the Ministry of Social Affairs considered freezing the licenses given to Libyan women who want to marry foreign men because of complaints by Libya’s Grand Mufti, Sheikh Sadeq al-Ghariani, claiming that Shi’ite and Druze men from Iran and Syria were “taking advantage of the loose security grip in Libya and the chaotic situation in the public administration” by marrying Libyan women to gain temporary residence in Libya.

 

Violations of the female body 

The laws surrounding violence against women in Libya are also extremely problematic.

For example, the law classifies sexual violence against women as being “a crime against a woman’s honour and family” – but not the woman as an individual.

And perhaps most unbelievable of all is the law surrounding rape; most women are not brave enough to report such attacks due to the stigma attached to rape, but if they do, they are faced with that fact that a rapist can be set free if he proposes to his victim and she accepts.

Women who speak out also face violence. A 25-year-old gender activist from Benghazi (who wishes to remain nameless) was forced to seek asylum in the UK after she was abducted by a local militia.

After taking part in the fall of Tripoli, she was looking forward to a new era of greater gender equality in Libya. But she became increasingly concerned about the growing influence of Islamic hardliners.

“It was a shock to all of us,” she told Equal Times. “This is not what we wanted from the revolution.”

Last year, she was accused of supporting the Gaddafi regime. As a result, she says she was abducted by militiamen and detained, before being freed, rearrested and then taken to prison.

“Someone entered my cell and kicked me, and then started to hit me with his gun. He told me ‘I’ll kill and will bury you here and no one can rescue you’”.

She was finally released after two months in detention and though she still bears the physical scars of her terrible ordeal. In September, she managed to escape to Britain as she is terrified of being abducted again. “If they arrest me again, I’m pretty sure that they will never release me.”

 

Back in business

The economic participation of women was also affected by the revolution. Working women in Libya tend to occupy very traditional and conservative roles in teaching or healthcare.

But post-February 2011, a number of Libyan women started their own home businesses as many women who had become widows during the civil war were forced to support their families.

Traditionally, working women have had to deal with the stigma of being considered either too poor or without a man to support them. However, this is slowly beginning to change.

Shahrazad Kasem, a 32-year-old Benghazi-born teacher, thinks the revolution actually changed people’s perceptions:

“Women took on their role in the state. They were feeding people, they were taking people to the hospitals, they were nurses, doctors, they were financiers, they sold their gold, they transported weapons, they made weapons at home, and they financed the freedom fighters.”

But now the war is over, the battle is just beginning – from economic participation to political participation, there are many challenges currently facing Libyan woman.

“The revolution was an earthquake to the cultural status of women in Libya,” says Iman Burgas, a human rights activist from Benghazi. “We can’t afford to lose what we’ve gained as Libyan women.”