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“Libyans are in the midst of dramatic change, trying to
build a new political system after 42 years of dictatorship. The
challenges to build a more rights-respecting state based on the rule of
law are significant. “ A report published by the Human Rights Watch, an
organization that strives to defend the rights of people worldwide by
investigating abuses, exposing facts, and pressuring those with power to
respect rights and secure justice strives to do just this for the women
of Libya. The report “A Revolution for All: Women’s Rights in the New
Libya” presents the key issues that Libya should address to help secure
women’s rights.
For Libyan women, the stakes today are high. Many women
played important roles in the uprising that led to the overthrow of
Muammar Gaddafi and have contributed to the political transition as
members of the new parliament. While the radical political change in
Libya has already provided opportunity to reshape the legal and social
status of women, the new Libya needs concrete steps to ensure that
women’s rights are respected. It is critical that discrimination based
on gender is firmly rejected by the law. Failure to secure these rights
and deal with the issues properly will reverse the gains that women
have made over the recent years.
One of the key issues of discrimination that must be
focused on is violence against women. Inadequate laws and services leave
female victims of violence without an effective remedy to deter them
from reporting rape and domestic violence. On top of that is Libya’s
still very traditional culture, which discourages victims of sexual
abuse from speaking out. Currently, the only law in place involving
domestic violence is Law No. 10 of 1984. This states that a woman “has
the right to expect her husband to…refrain from causing her physical or
psychological harm.” It provides no enforcement mechanisms and is not
effective at combating the problems.
For the crimes that are reported, consequences and
penalties follow too infrequently. Sexual violence is classified as “a
crime against a woman’s honor, rather than against the woman as
individual victim or as a violation of her bodily integrity.” Women who
have to see themselves as dishonored by assault are much less likely to
feel entitled to justice, and many crimes of this sort go unreported.
Another law states that a man whose honor-motivated violence results in
serious injury to his wife or female relative may be imprisoned for no
more than two years, while the same act could result in a 7.5 year
sentence if the attack was not deemed to have been motivated by honor.
The penalties for these “honor crimes” violate the basic requirements of
international human rights laws that “individuals are entitled to
equality before the law and should not suffer discrimination on grounds
of their sex.” The problems continue when the women who attempt to press
charges for these crimes end up in prison themselves because the court
may view them as admitting to having engaged in unlawful sex.
Clearly there is still work to be done, and it’s important
to identify the necessary moves to address the issues. The report
suggests that the key steps include preventive measures such as public
information and education programs as well as protective resources
including shelters, counseling, and support services.
So what do you think? One very important issue here seems
to be the idea of honor. As an abstract thing, it’s something everyone
arguably is entitled to. But in Libya and elsewhere, the rules for honor
pretty clearly put women at a profound disadvantage. What seem to be
the particular conceptions about honor that are operating around sexual
violence toward women in Libya? Is it possible to imagine more
egalitarian conceptions of honor that Libyans themselves would
recognize? Or is the idea of honor here fundamentally inseparable from
men’s control of women? The bigger question here is how Libyan women
(and other similar disempowered groups) can secure adequate protections
where there is such deep cultural resistance to them? A related question
is how we ought to view such a situation from the West, where our
cultural framework is so different?
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