Where were the women in Libya’s revolution?
Where were the women? In Egypt, Tunisia and Bahrain we saw them out protesting on the streets, but in Libya’s revolution they were behind closed doors.
I learnt today, that didn’t mean they were cowering behind the curtains doing nothing.
At the end of the Eid prayer in the newly named Martyrs’ Square in Tripoli this morning, I got chatting to a group of young women using their mobile phones to take pictures of the anti-Gaddafi cartoons stuck to the pillars.
Dressed in traditional headscarves over tunics and trousers, they were keen that the world should know that they are part of this momentous change in Libya.
“I want to tell you what the Tripoli girls did in the revolution!” said one.
Amira Tarhuni, a medical intern, told me how she and other doctors ran a secret hospital for the rebels in Hey Damash, a pro-Gaddafi part of town.
“There were a lot of snipers in our neighbourhood,” she said. “I would come to hospital in the car, and then run out fast, with my head down, because we were afraid from the sniper.”
Even worse was the fear of being discovered as they stitched up bullet wounds and other injuries on young men who had been out protesting on the streets of Tripoli.
“Our hospital had to be secret because if they knew, they would kill us. It happened in other secret hospitals,” she said, showing me the emergency first aid pack she carries everywhere in a plain black backpack
Omezzin Abu Srewil cooked and sold food, channelling the proceeds to the fighters.
“It wasn’t very good,” she giggled, “So I bought food which some of the other girls had made and sold it. I collected the money and sent it by friends to Tunisia to take to the fighters in the Nafousa Mountains.”
Other young women made wristbands in the colours of the revolutionary flag.
“If anyone had known, we’d have been arrested,” said Omezzin. “Of course we were afraid but you can’t just sit there and do nothing. There’s more to life than being safe.”
Libya is a more traditional society than Tunisia or Egypt, and women play less of a role in public life. That doesn’t mean they’ve been protected from the cruelty of Gaddafi’s rule.
“Women didn’t go out because in the first few weeks when men got out into the street, they were killed instantly,” said Omezzin. “And when arrest a man, they question all his friends and family. Horrible things happen to women, like rape.”
It’s unlikely that women will immediately play a prominent role in any new Libyan government, but the Tripoli girls will make sure that they are part of the change.
“I feel very proud of what we did,” said Omezzin. “I just pray this revolution works.”
Follow Lindsey Hilsum on Twitter @lindseyhilsum
There are 9 comments on this post
Lindsey,
What “revolution”?
Nothing learned from the “Arab Spring” nonsense?
Drop into Egypt on the way back and get a dose of reality. Then apply it to Libya because that’s the way it will go too.
Incidentally, are you still smiling benignly at all those “souveneir gatherers”?
It sounds as though it might take more than 98 years for Libyan women to get equality.
One thing that perplexes me is that with all the obviously talented women in the world, why when it comes to high office do we get Theresa May, Sarah Palin and Michelle ‘God sent the hurricane to warn Washington’ Bachmann?
We need the brightest and the best to save us from the mess caused by men (and Margaret Thatcher) over the last few hundred years
Because intelligent women are too clever to go into politics?
As an environmental conservationist, when we analyze the health of a jungle we look at the ‘small things’ or aspects less noticeable; as these are usually good indicators of the vitality and longevity of such a jungle.
So too, I tend to use this same approach when looking at developments in Libya. What shocked me was the report that the historic Christian church of St. George which is located in Tripoli was ransacked a week ago.
This Christian place of worship dates back to 1647 & is the oldest Orthodox Christian church in North Africa. The criminals stole the shrine of the patron saint, old Gospel texts, chalices, cherubim & censers. Although the crime was reported to the police, no one seems interested to deal with this matter. Within my circle of friends, the general feeling is that this type of activity does not bode well for a future democratic state…
I would like to know what the Libyan Transitional National Council (and its supporters) is going to do, to correct this crime and maintain the so-called desert “holy rule of hospitality”?
“It is not commonly known, but Libyan women started the revolution when the mothers, sisters and widows of prisoners killed in the 1996 Abu Salim massacre took to the streets in Benghazi on 15 February to protest outside the courthouse after their lawyer was arrested.”
Taken from http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/sep/02/libya-inclusive-women-future