"The current status of Libyan women does not encourage women to fight and give much. There are women who have embodied the meaning of struggle and stood still in the battlefield since the first moments in "Tahrir Square" in Benghazi, but who are compelled, today, to hide or migrate if they had not already assassinated", according to Judge Jamel Bennour, the former head of the Benghazi Local Council. Mr. Bennour's position is shared by the journalist Ms. Fatma Ghandoor, who says: "If the Elections Act had not allocated a quota to women in the parliament, we would have never found the current proportion of 10% of the seats for women. The Libyan society is still essentially a patriarchal society."
Human Rights Watch stated in its report for the year 2014: "The streets of the city of Benghazi, the cradle of the revolution, can testify how Libyans went out, men and women, on 17 February 2011, to topple the rule of Muammar Gaddafi. The same streets and squares can remember how women were at the forefront of demonstrations, but a few months later, they were forced to retreat. Voices claiming polygamy and preventing women from traveling without a male relative started to rise. They also called for the separation of men and women and eliminating Libyan women from participating in shaping their future and drafting the country's Constitution.
The Mufti of the western part of Libya, Sadok Ghariani commented on these evaluations on the reality of women in Libya by saying: "If we had really been a patriarchal society as we are accused, some we would have eliminated women from political life, but they do exist and are represented in the Libyan parliament. We still welcome any women participation in future to rebuild a new Libya build." As for the separation of boys and girls in schools, Ghariani confirms his rejection of this decision, describing it as a "religious and sexual extremism," which is "against the tolerance of the Libyan society that believes in the complementarity of roles and equality between women and men."
According to Ms. Karima Kallali, a member of the Women's Union and an activist in civil society, Libyan women played a major role during the Seventeenth of February Revolution. Karima says: 'Everyone came out, everyone tried to have a clear and effective role and set out to provide services to the revolution. Women went out to heal the wounded of the revolution and help them in hospitals ,they provided food for them and cleaned streets and roads." Then, she says:" Despite the harm, injustice and persecution they had endured, many of them died as martyrs while many others were raped."
On the specific issue of rape, Ms. Karima Kallala blames the United Nations that did not do anything to assist the victims despite the efforts deployed by the civil society to convince these victims not to be keep silent." The member of the Women's Union confirms that "Libyan women are still exposed to physical and sexual violence" and that "there is an urgent need to focus on this issue in cooperation with civil society organizations."
Thus, people no longer talk about implementing the political participation of women as a luxury or a search of western-style rights, it has become an urgent necessity that Libyan government, media institutions and civil society organizations have to tackle. Women's political participation is still weak, as women still have a long way to walk to reach a real and effective participation in decision-making. This participation is the only way for Libyan women to get their rights.
Despite the voices from inside and outside Libya to demand more freedoms and civil rights, the future of Libyan women still depends on the outcomes of the military and political struggles that are open to all possibilities.
