Libyan women, a force of nature

As we huddled in front of the television set waiting excitedly for Dr Alkeib’s cabinet announcement, a historic event really for Libyans a dress rehearsal of sorts for the democratic experience we expect to have soon. Our new PM did not disappoint because his government was inclusive in every sense of the word, later on, in a press conference, when asked about the role of women in his government he said that never before have women been so well represented in a Libyan government but he said he hopes that even more women will be included in new Libya’s political scene.

The female population in Libya far surpasses that of their male counterparts due to many reasons most of them are connected to Gaddafi.

Gaddafi was a the modern day pharaoh who has waged war on the male population just because he felt threatened by their presence, he knew that they posed a challenge to his grip on power and so he sought to keep their count as low as he can manage and so an imbalanced Libyan society was created.

Contradictory to Pro Gaddafi sympathizers beliefs that, the Gaddafi regime gave Libya women rights and liberties they never had before, in fact women in the Gaddafi era government were poorly represented, and less than 2% of the government positions were occupied by women. Women’s education was revolutionized pre-Gaddafi, by the time Gaddafi arrived Libyan women were already graduating from universities and working in the different government institutes and had formed many civil society organizations which promoted women’s rights and campaigned to improve their work environment and pay conditions.

So much emphasis has lately been put on the importance of the participation of women in the politics of new Libya. Some have criticized that, two women ministers in a twenty four ministry cabinet are not enough representation for a society where women make up more than sixty percent of the population. I can argue back that and though Libya has a more than adequate supply of well educated ladies to fill political positions but Libya is a very conservative society, and though women are encouraged to seek an education and an employment , seeking attention politically or in the media is still very much frowned upon partly because of the Gaddafi stigma of the past four decades as it is well known in Libyan society that he has a reputation as a womanizer and to be a female in politics or the media instantly earned you a bad reputation because it meant you were either a murderess or a Gaddafi associate.

 Women must be better represented in the halls of power in free Libya and their interests need to be protected and the issues that have a direct impact on their lives must be addressed by women who can identify with them.

So if we want better representation of women in Libyan governments we must educate Libyan society and correct its misconceptions that a career in politics is not associated with shame as before but with pride and accomplishments.

We also must educate women to be able to participate in the political scene; we must cultivate empowerment and leadership qualities in girls from an early age.

Libya is in desperate need for this whole army of educated women who can help build their country in this time of destruction but this work force is paralyzed because there is no support from the government to unlock this great potential and lure these women into the work place.

Women are traditionally the home makers not just in Libya but all over the world so their daily absence from the lives of their children will destroy their families unless they have government support.

Only as an adult, have I come to appreciate the amount of sheer hard work a Libyan woman is required to put into family life and if you have a career too then that instantly doubles your work load. There are the endless social commitments because in Libya you are expected to reach out to all your extended family. There is the housekeeping and then there is the cooking. Libyan families rarely dine out and of course there are no microwaves dinners in the frozen food section in fact not even frozen vegetables, No conveniently packaged food stuffs that can be defrosted or reheated. No short cuts just fantastic healthy flavorsome food made from fresh ingredients. Except for bread, every single food item a Libyan family eats is made from scratch by a woman, be it a mother, a wife, a daughter or a sister.

 If women with families are provided with adequate support such as nurseries and day care for their older children by their employers, in fact employers can even go out of their way and give women employees with young families shorter work time or even a work from home option via internet when the children are on school holidays, many simple inexpensive  gestures can be made to Libyan women to make them feel welcome in the work place they would be able to serve their country,  pursue their careers and support their families and not sacrifice one for the other. 

Celebratory Gunfire

As the Libyan people emerge victorious from their eight month ordeal, they look back with sadness at the death toll; the freedom Libyans thrive in today came at a steep price. No Libyan will ever be the same, every one lost some one or has a missing friend or relative, though no formal figure has been released the death toll is estimated to be over fifty thousand and what is more shocking is that most of the dead, injured and missing are below the age of thirty. It seems that Gaddafi was not content with ruining the past he wanted to his destruction to reach out into the future too by killing our youth.

After being exposed to the six months long NATO bombing campaign and so much violence you’d think that this nation has taken all it can take of guns, instead a dangerous reckless phenomena emerged, it is that of celebratory gun fire, people celebrating the collapse of Gaddafi’s regime by shooting deadly guns in the air, sometimes causing  death and injury.

Another source of huge concern is that the majority of those who are armed are civilians who have had no or little training. They do not know how to use or handle these arms properly and therefore are a danger to themselves and others.

It’s vital that these weapons are collected to as soon as possible for the stability of the country and for the safety and wellbeing of the Libyan people.

Repeatedly both the current Libyan leadership, Mr. Moustafa Abdul Jaleel, and the media have tried to put an end to this phenomenon, but neither has been successful thus far.

In my opinion this macabre obsession with guns is due partly to the helplessness experienced by the Libyans, in the last few months indeed through Gaddafi’s reign of terror during the last four decades, so this random gun shooting in the air is a form of expression. A display of empowerment and it is also a misguided way of expressing their absolute freedom after being stifled for so long it’s a sort of pinch me just to check I am not in a dream. The bullets exploding in the air is the sound which confirms to these youths that they are not dreaming. They really are free.

Now that we have identified the problem we need to cure it because after losing so many lives we cannot afford to lose one more soul needlessly, Libyan lives have become very valuable after being worthless for so long.

Moustafa Abdul Jaleel could put his foot down I suppose, but he is such a wise and compassionate man and is deliberately being patient because he knows that these youths have been through hell and their traumatic experiences are the cause of this problem MAJ ,as often called in twitter, will not be patient forever and frankly the Libyan citizens are getting fed up of it too.

Creative solutions are required for the disarmament of the Libyan streets so that only the law enforcement agencies whether they are the police or the Army are the only armed people on the streets. That being said, only the formation of a National Armed forces will reassure people of their safety and most will be happy to turn in their weapon voluntarily once that is apparent to them.

Those who won’t part with their weapons so easily maybe encouraged to do so by offering gift vouchers, it could be something as trivial as a 200 dinars worth of mobile phone credit or even a six months worth of gas vouchers, youths will be queuing up to give up their guns.

 Of course it won’t hurt the cause if the government issued a zero tolerance policy to deal with any one still carrying firearms after all these incentives are offered.

Celebratory gunfire is a serious issue that needs to be given the immediate attention of the authoroties, what good is freedom if you are not safe to enjoy it!

Embakbka

Embakbka

Embakbka is the name of a popular Libyan pasta dish not unlike the Italian penne al arrabiata in taste and spiciness though different in the preparation method. It is a stable for most Libyans. In fact some Libyans are so fond of it that they affectionately call it Bakbouky. The dish’s attraction is that it’s an easily prepared, tasty, one pot dish. The ingredients are available in Libyan pantries, rich or poor alike which brings us to the Embakabka’s other attraction and that is its versatility, it can be made with or without vegetables, with any meat or fish or even vegetarian if either your pocket or your health put constrictions on what  you eat.

Libyan ladies will make it for lunch when short of time, men will make it if out on a picnic or just to as a meal to end a lively long game of cards. 

Embakbka is my metaphor for Libyan society it’s a society that is diverse in so many ways, mainly due to its vast area, but homogenous in so many aspects. The borders of Libya are the one pot that contains and unifies it.

 One of God’s many blessings that Libyans are all Sunni Muslims, so Libya never had sectarian issues only Gaddafi issues.

How would we otherwise explain the response of the western mountains Arabs and Tamazight, Elzawya and Tripoli at the far west of Libya to the cries of pain coming from Benghazi in the East at the beginning of the Libyan uprising though most of the youth who bravely stormed the streets in protest, like myself, have never set foot in Benghazi. The only explanation is that a bond so strong binds this country, a brotherhood that cannot be undone.

Libyan society in spite of all Gaddafi’s efforts to divide it and cause anonymity between its people to isolate them from each other proved that they are all one and that they will only be satisfied with unity.

 Gaddafi has always known deep in his heart that he is despised and hated by the Libyan people and if ever push came to shove, Libyans will not take his side or fight  for him that’s why he’s had mercenary armies scattered all over Libya because Libyan loyalty could not be bought so he made do with rentasoldiers criminals from all over the world. These mercenaries and the absence of the Libyan army (which he semi dismantled years ago because he found its presence threatening) tipped the scales in Gaddafi’s favor at the beginning of the February 17 revolt but as Libyans defiantly stood their ground and showed to the world that they are willing to die for their freedom the world came to the rescue led by France, USA and UK.

Back to the Embakbka pot again, Libyan society is on the verge of starting the democratic process a new exciting  never  before experienced phenomena  in Libya  and as hopeful as we all are for  what the future holds, the excitement is coupled with many worries of corrupt people somehow taking advantage of the situation and installing themselves in the huge political void that Gaddafi’s toppling has created.

But as Libyans protesting in the streets have said our martyr’s blood shall not be in vain. Opportunists be warned the Libyan people are watching you like hawks, those who have political ambitions be ware, you need to be ready to take criticism, you will have Libyans reminding you 24/7 that you are there to serve them nothing more, this popular uprising shall not be hijacked by lunatic power seekers or we might as well  have cut our losses and kept our old crazy.

These fears are causing the Embakbka pot to rumble but we all know that the boiling is most furious when the dish is almost done .It’s been a long ride, eight months of blood and tears literary and we are ready to reap the rewards we deserve. God knows we have paid a high price for them. We are Hungary for Democracy, freedom, equality and it’s about time some delicious Embakbka was served.

Mass graves

Mass graves

Soon after our  Freedom fighters liberated Libya city by city  we started to hear of  the shocking discoveries of mass graves  being discovered all over the country. Libyans all over the country watched in horror as mass grave sites were exhumed one grave after another. All that was left of once cherished persons was a pitiful stack of bones and partially decayed clothing.

It seems that during Gaddfai’s reign of terror he has littered the whole country with these mass graves and what is so sad that Libya does not have the DNA testing technology needed to identify these remains and also the absence of a data base of missing persons, though some Libyan youth groups have started to build a missing persons data base,  but it’s a daunting task ,knowing how brutal the regime was this list will stretch out to include hundreds of thousands.

This tragedy unfolding before us should outline the plight of the families of the missing especially the mothers and wives who may be still hoping against the odds that their loved ones will walk through the door or they may have given up hope long ago and are grieving for the son that was snatched away from them to never come back not even for his funeral it is the absence of closure that makes every day in the lives of these people a challenge.

Losing a son or a sibling in normal circumstances such as an illness or an accident is a traumatic experience that will haunt the bereaved for a long time if not forever. So to just disappear without a trace and to only leave silence where there was life is an inconsolable loss that many have not been able to cope with. Countless parents have died of a broken heart as a result.

As unbelievable as it may seem it is the ones who received a body are the lucky ones, the uncertainty of the fate of the missing people is a form of torture of Gaddafi has chosen to torment these people’s relatives with.

When the time came for “The dawn of the Mermaid” the military operation conducted to liberate Tripoli from Gaddafi’s grasp(Tripoli is also known as the mermaid in Arabic), the first thing on the Freedom fighters list  was to free the prisoners of Abu Saleem and other infamous Gaddafi hell holes in Tripoli as soon as they moved from within and from the outside of the city in case of reprisal killing of prisoners by Gaddafi’s forces.

Some of the prisoners released have spent the last thirty years in prison and stared in wonder at never seen before cell phones and the white mushroom like satellite dishes that adorned the Tripoli sky line .

Unfortunately it was too late to save some of the prisoners such as those found in a smoldering hanger near the Yoromok military barracks, what a horrific site it was as people followed by reports from global networks transmitted the Gaddafi cruelty for millions to see and witness only the skeletons and the ashes spread about them where flames have eaten away all the flesh from the bodies.

It’s the legacy Gaddafi has chosen to be remembered by. A disgraceful criminal who extracted his sick hatred and vengeance on his own people.

Recycling, The Libyan way.

Recycling, The Libyan way.

As the rest of the world struggled in their attempts to adopt the recycling life style, we Libyans as a nation have been recycling without knowing it for centuries. For instance only very recently have Libyans had the convenience of plastic bags, Since forever Libyan household have had a Guffa or Alaga depending on what your family calls it. It’s a flexible basket woven from the leaves of the date palms that grow in abundance all over Libya. These have been, and still are, the carrier bag of choice for most Libyans especially for food stuffs. Unfortunately in the very short time that plastic bags have been in use they have done extensive damage as you see them strewn all over the country and they are the very worst of waste because they are impossible to recycle and once in the earth they will take a thousand years to decay.

In other countries you would see pieces of furniture or carpets left on the street for the Garbage collection not in Libya a piece of furniture is kept forever its repaired when broken,upholstered if flattened with use and given a face lift every few years as it fades, as for carpets they also are kept until they are worn out from use ,they are washed regularly in gardens or on roof tops(an extremely laborious back breaking ritual only practiced by Libyan women) hung on walls and beaten with sticks if dusty . Even as the carpets wear out, they are not let go but cut into bits and pieces to be used as doormats or taken to sit on when sitting out in the garden or if going out on a picnic.

That is how Libyans treat their furnishings ,so you can imagine the rarity of electrical appliances being thrown out .Electrical goods are repaired repeatedly, until all hope is lost of it ever working again and then it’s either retained for spare parts if the same make is to be purchased again or donated to a relative with a dodgy appliance.

So it came as no great surprise to the Libyans to see the freedom fighters recycling old rifles and airplane mounted weapons into weapons to use to push Gaddafi forces out of their towns, when the world refused to sell them weapons to defend themselves.

We saw Misrata warriors reinforce their old pickup trucks with sheets of steel (which they were very handy with due the presence of the steel factory in their city) and mount them with guns salvaged from old airplanes to make armored vehicles.

That’s the spirit of Libya, which the whole worlds admired making something out of nothing, though Libyans dislike the color green due to it being shoved in their faces for so long as a symbol of Gaddafi’s dominance I can truly say that Libyans have been green from a recycling point of view even before the recycling concept was ever invented.

The People of the revolution

I have had the urge to write about this revolution from the very first day it started, it had started with the odds stacked high against it and survived in spite of all the hardships it faced because of God’s guidance and because of the determination of the millions of Libyans who have decided that they will not be oppressed and abused any longer. The Libyan revolt is a tale of bravery and patience, of sacrifice and defiance.

I am sure that many will write about the harrowing battles the freedom fighters fought and the stories of thousands of political prisoners and the extraordinary hardships they endured, in fact the whole world was in turns horrified by the brutality of the regime and fascinated by the heroic resistance of the youths who fearlessly faced Gaddafi war machine , but the story I want to write is that of an ordinary unarmed citizen who could not fight Gaddafi with fire power, but found other ways to irritate, unnerve the tyrant and make him too afraid to show his face in public, to make him address the people through phone calls.

I want to write the story of the pretty nail varnished hands we all saw on the YouTube videos tirelessly stitching away at the independence flags which then brave youth would hang to flutter in Tripoli’s gentle breeze or the story of the guy who wanted to show NATO pilots that their destruction of the Gaddafi arsenal was very much appreciated so he painted a Thank you NATO on his roof top.

There were also amazing acts of selflessness from the Libyans who were living abroad, they left their comfort able danger free lives that they have made for their selves and rushed home to help their people face the tyrant. Each contributed what they could, some donated money to buy medical supplies some donated their time to organize charity events to collect funds for the cause others decided that they wanted to offer their selves to the cause and we heard many stories of the martyrdom of Libyan expats and students who came back home from all corners of the globe to make the ultimate sacrifice for the freedom of their country.

There was the Swedish Libyan who decided that he had to leave his Pizza place and help in the war effort in Misurata in the only way he knew how, by setting up a pizzeria to feed the doctors and the freedom fighters at the front lines no doubt that his pizza deliveries were the most dangerous in the world!!!

It is these individuals who have brought tears to my eyes and a lump in my throat they fought the war too even if it were without weapons, do not underestimate the power of these small anonymous acts of defiance. NATO and the freedom fighters struck Gaddafi’s fire power but these defiant individuals struck at Gaddafi’s psyche and frightened him enough to make him fear a public appearance and address the people on the phone from undisclosed locations.

The war against Gaddafi was fought a combined effort, the world stood and said that was enough and acted upon it, the Libyan people said they were prepared to die to kick Gaddafi out and the unarmed civilians stamped their feet silently and delivered Gaddafi their defiant civil disobedience acts to infuriate him and finally make him flee the capital. A winning combination if ever there was one to topple the dinosaur of dictators.