Source: The Guardian
Aside from occasional volleys of gunfire, the centre of the western city of Zawiya is eerily silent as a group of medical students and their close friends gather. Not knowing what else they can do, they decide to make a film having little idea of what the outcome of it would be. 'In the video, we simply stated that we, the women of Zawiya, are here and will not be quiet. It seems like so little, but to us at the time, it was so much,' said one.

Recaptured by pro-Gaddafi forces, the city, just 23 miles from the capital Tripoli, was the stage for much of the fiercest fighting of the revolution. At her mother's insistence, Alaa Murabit's brothers had gone to the front to fight. Her father Mohammed, or 'Dr M' as he is better known, was co-ordinating the medical treatment for the wounded thwar, the revolutionary fighters. Watching helplessly at the news and praying for their safety, she decided it was time to act.

After filming their video, Alaa and her friend became more actively involved in the fighting by helping to secure medical supplies and other necessities as they were required. 'One day, when I was driving home from the hospital, I got a frantic phone call from a friend who told me to get home as soon as possible.'

'My name, along with hers, was on a list of women wanted in Zawiya.' She did not take the warning seriously until one of her classmates was taken from her home to be questioned, beaten and tortured. Under the Gaddafi regime, it is illegal to establish women's rights groups independent of the state with dissenters routinely subjected to physical cruelty.

In the wake of the war, 22-year old Alaa co-founded The Voice of Libyan Women (VLW) to avoid further injustices and help shape the new Libya. The NGO focuses its energy on strengthening the advances made by women during the conflict.

It also aims to ensure their political participation during Libya's transition to democracy through education and support. The greatest challenge presenting itself so far is not so much getting women to vote or get elected as shifting the attitudes of men and women alike.

According to a 2009 index published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Libya ranks 91st out of 102 countries for gender equality. It is furthermore a country of nearly 6.5 million, of whom 97 per cent are Sunni Muslim. Despite the civil and social upheaval caused by the war, the country still retains deeply traditional values within an entrenched patriarchal society.

At present, there is only one woman on the National Transitional Council and so far, only 10 percent of seats in the parliament have been allocated to women in June's upcoming general election. In Benghazi, women account for 22 candidates in the May city council elections out of a total of 455. In Misrata, a highly conservative city which witnessed the worst and most horrific cases of rape and torture of women during the conflict, just four women are counted among the 216 candidates.

Despite this, women recently attending voter registration centres often vastly outnumbered men noted journalist Salah Ben Ali in The Libyan Herald. 'I would hope many will be elected,' he added, 'in recognition of the role of Libyan women in the Revolution in all its various stages.'

In neighbouring Tunisia, the epicentre of the Arab Spring, the transition to a new democracy has become increasingly fraught as the initial euphoria wears thin. As Tunisian blogger Lina Ben Mhenni tells me, the fight for women's rights has become ever more laboured in the vacuum left by the previous regime.

While Tunisian women played a huge part in the 'Jasmine Revolution', their relatively high representation of more than 20 per cent in their assembly – the highest in any Arab state – is diminished by their own lack of political awareness which, in turn, is hampering the progress of women.

'If we observe the positions taken by the majority of those women on the issues of freedoms, we realize that they systematically defend the positions of their party without regard to their status as women,' says Lina. 'Indeed, many among them only repeat the views expressed by their male comrades.'

During one of its first projects, VLW volunteers went out into the bazaars and supermarkets to ask congregated women what they rights they felt women deserved in the new Libya. 'Many saw it as a western belief system aimed at sexualising young women and creating vice within society, while others saw the insinuation that women weren't realising their potential as offensive,' says Alaa's sister, Issraa, also a medical student and the vice-president of VLW. Even men who were asked the same question were oblivious to what women's rights might actually entail.

Adopting an approach that promotes understanding within society maybe key to achieving greater female participation, believes Issraa, but getting it across to a weary population whose rights were collectively restricted under 42 years of dictatorship will be difficult.

'It was basic human rights and the dignity of all who were abused,' she says. 'Many went on to say that that was one way in which you could even consider Gaddafi a feminist; however sick his treatment of Libyan citizens was, it was at least always equal.'

 

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