Rawassei Abd Al Jalil, Journalist
As the latest crimes have happened in Libya, women were the main victims of these crimes, with a very low response from the Competent authorities, civil society, and the Community.
Libya, after 2011, started to struggle with a very fragile political situation, which was reflected in civil life and the lack of law enforcement made the situation more complicated on the level of women’s rights.
This year, the UNWA in June announced in an official statement about Libya that the situation for women is becoming worse than before, struggling with the reality of having a very fragile country and a high level of violence against women.
Mrs. Fatima Shineeb, a lawyer in the Benghazi Public Prosecution Department and a member of the draft law on violence against women, has talked with me about the draft law on violence against women in Libya:
“We’ve been working on the draft of the law on violence against women for a very long time. We started as lawyers and activists to meet with the support of the international community in Libya, to take the first steps toward establishing the law, after we felt that the Libyan law was not keeping up with the latest violent cases we were seeing and the uniqueness of these cases. Our meetings produced a first draft, which was officially delivered to the HoR to begin the evaluation for the recognition. Still, the committee was not satisfied with the outcomes, so we went back with a deep review and a clear vision to support the draft. We used the Libyan law package as a source for the draft, but with many detailed subjects, with an understanding of the cases that Libyan women are facing in the Courtrooms. In the meantime, and after long sessions and reviews, the draft has been officially completed and is in the HoR’s hands for official recognition.”
The Violence against women in Libya has become a corner of multiple phases with the blessing of the community. You can see on the social media platforms how the murder of a woman by one of her male relatives is justified and made up by a story about honour and the family’s respect. It’s not just from the males, you will find that most of the supporting comments are from women, and this takes us to my fruitful discussion with Ms Dina Alzarouq, the Researcher and the Activist:
“We are facing a real challenge when it comes to community awareness and the stereotyping of violence against women. The civil society organizations are trying their best, but it’s more than what we can do. The amount of murders and physical violence is more than what they can face, and with the lack of data, governmental support, it’s a challenge we still hope for a better change in the upcoming years”.
This year, Libya has faced more than one tragic murder for women, one of the famous ones was the murder of Dr. Amany the newly mother who desebered after she gave birth to her child, with the accusation of her family that she went to the sea in her home town Musrata and committed suicide her body where found a few days after in her family house murdered and dropped into the drainage system, a murder of a young mother and a doctor with an amount of manipulation from her family took the violence against women in Libya to a sever level of Lack of fear of accountability.
The Government in the East of Libya has decided to establish a new entity called the Women and Child Protection as a step towards the violation against women. This step may not be the first from the authorities in Libya, but the willingness and the possibility of applying the law, despite all the real challenges on the ground.
As for now, the hopes are pinned on the Draft of the law of violence against women to bring peace and strength to all Libyan women.
