Libya

25 October 2011

WLUML is deeply concerned that the first public act of the Libya's National Transition Committee has been to proclaim on October 23rd, 2011, that a number of laws would be considered annulled and that 'sharia law' was to replace them. Libya’s National Transition Committee is an interim government – what it has responsibility for – and its first action should have been to put into place a mechanism for elections for the new government after the fall of the Gaddafi regime.

Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, the chairman of the National Transitional Council and de fact president, had already declared that Libyan laws in future would have Sharia, the Islamic code, as its "basic source". But that formulation can be interpreted in many ways - it was also the basis of Egypt's largely secular constitution under President Hosni Mubarak, and remains so after his fall.Mr Abdul-Jalil went further, specifically lifting immediately, by decree, one law from Col. Gaddafi's era that he said was in conflict with Sharia - that banning polygamy.

The enormous role of women in the uprisings in the MENA region is undisputed. They faced verbal and physical abuse, violence, arrest and death just as their male counterparts. The transformation of these countries has been groundbreaking, and their participation is as important as ever. After the dust of the battle settles, will Arab societies remember to include women in the rebuilding of their countries?

Les images d'Imane el-Obeidi en pleur dans le hall de l'Hôtel Rixos à Tripoli avaient fait le tour du monde. Au mois de mars, la jeune avocate avait fait irruption dans cet hôtel en affirmant aux journalistes internationaux avoir été violée. Elle serait parvenue à quitter la Libye et aurait trouvé refuge à l'ambassade de France en Tunisie avant de se rendre au Qatar. information à prendre à précaution pour le moment mais tout laisse à croire qu'elle est dans un lieu sûr.