In Libya violence against women is a problem that is shushed up, many women don’t dare to openly express their experience with violence at home, streets or work because they are afraid of being stigmatized and blamed. In many cases when there is an open debate about violence against women especially sexual harassment, women are often blamed for that as people start to justify the violence behavior on what women wear or how they walk or behave.
Even Though violence against women in Libya is a daily reality of many Libyan women and it’s not only restricted in public. Wherever they go, women are confronted with vulgar verbal sexual harassment. Yet, and what we found Even worse is that many women accept violence against them as something Normal, some women go to the extent to think that it’s a woman’s duty to protect herself by avoiding situations where she might be subjected to violence, for example; trying to look as less desirable as possible, or not working in places dominated by men, or not arguing with the men in the family to avoid their anger. it is also associated with the social problems of adolescent boys, in particular frustration and a belief that sexual violence expresses “virility”.
The real problem about violence against women is that some people consider it perfectly normal and it’s a natural result from the imbalance of the power dynamics between women and men, even the victims of violence themselves don’t understand that violence against women is a result of the imbalance in the power dynamics between women and men in the Libyan society, which by no means justify any violence against women. Another problem with violence against women in Libya that there are no social barriers that condemn such behavior, nor are there appropriate laws that would allow women to protect themselves from wide range of attacks to which they are exposed. In other words, there is a lack of social awareness opposing such behavior.
Together We Build it organization took the initiative with our “Super Nasaween” campaign to fight back against violence targeted on women. The Super Nasaween is a three comic- characters which will portray and represent Libyan women. Super Nasaween is comic characters of Three super Libyan women; Naeama a woman in her 50s, Manal in her 20s and Maram who is 15 years old. The Three characters illustrates ordinary Libyan women as superwomen heroes who fight violence against women in the Libyan society by addressing the issue and speaking up about not only how immoral and faulty such action is but also a criminal act. They listen to the stories of women and decide to speak openly about them, the women’s stories are related in a series of comics, which illustrate the kind of violence that confront women on the street, home, university and workplace.
The Super Nasaween campaign took place during the 16 days of activism to encourage women and men in Libya to address the issue of violence against women in the Libyan society. The Super Nasaween characters will encourage women to follow them as an example to speak up about what they have experienced. Moreover, the campaign employed all available media-newspapers and social networks such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to foster social awareness of the existence of violence against women. The campaign has successfully recorded an out reach of 100K+ on all social media outlets as the idea was to spark debates and discussions among the public on the undermined types of violence taking place against women and young girls.
