Young Libyan Woman Speaks Out About Security Challenges

By Tahani Alamri

After five years passing on the revolution, I come to ask myself, are there any developments regarding the women and their role in Libya? What was the fate of the raped victims, abused and battered from all the events of the conflict areas?

Resentment of the situation has increased and the security situation has recently become not encouraging. Many women have a difficult time to reveal the physical and psychological damage that is subjected on them. “Lately the security situation has become not encouraging at all to reveal any kind of physical and psychological damage that is practiced on women” , Says (Nisreen).

A girl working in the health sector, she had recently become afraid to go walking to her workplace for two particular reasons: multitude kidnappings, which has rapidly increased and the frequent harassment of Nisreen on the streets.

In another interview with young girl who refused to give her name for security reasons, she has been exposed to sexual harassment numerous times, and on different occasions, but she did not complain out of fear of her family and of defamation in a society, that does not have mercy on the victim and forgives the guilty only because they are of the other sex.

The reality of the current situation for women is increasingly painful, especially when you compare it to the situation in the previous Libya before the uprising; Libyan women in their current state are exposed to racial discrimination on regular basis; it has become clear to target activists such as Salwa Bughaghis, Entsar Alhsaira and other women who attempted to highlight this case.

In the Universal Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against women and signed by the United Nations in 1993 was identified as (any act of violent or gender-based that results in any kind of harm or suffering physical or on psychological level on women including threats of committing such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether this occurred in public or in private life).

It is no secret all for us that we live in a patriarchal society, in which the male is preferably on females at all levels . Professor Leila member of the judiciary Court in Tripoli Comments on the Influence of the current security situation on the women and says “ that The security situation has a significant influence in a very negative way even on a personal level”  she says that in her own words “it reduces me leaving for work”.

Another lawyer in light of this non-stable situation cannot exercise her legal profession as she fears of being abducted by the murders/accused families. As a few of my fellow judges who have experienced such threats of kidnapping and murder, if there is no release of the accused in the meeting halls.

In another question to professor Leila as what is her opinion about practiced violence against women and what are its types ?  she answers “Yes violence against women is practiced publicly and is divided to direct and indirect violence, by either beating or by verbal abuse and obscene words, and to the point from preventing her from going out and expressing an opinion in various protest marches against the current situation, they are trying to silence her voice as if it she is not half this society , and I also see this violence is practiced on women in different cases I received of severe battering, which sometimes leads to breaking and fraction bones and even loss of sight and so on”

In another talk I had with Dr. Nadia a faculty member at the university of EL zawya she says: “from my personal view on the subject I find that the cultural heritage in the Libyan society is the main reason and cause of the spread of domestic violence, which is an old case, which requires men by traditions the leadership of his family through violence, and the show of force because he believes that it is masculine and a man in the eyes of society and if he doesn’t do so he will be considered a queer.”