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![]() Female protestors in Tripoli protest against calls to separate the country into three autonomous regions (March 2012). | |
General Statistics | |
---|---|
Maternal mortality (per 100,000) | 72 (2020) |
Women in parliament | 14% (2021) |
Women over 25 with secondary education | 55.6% (2010) |
Women in labour force | 34% (2019) |
Gender Inequality Index [1] | |
Value | 0.259 (2021) |
Rank | 61st out of 191 |
Global Gender Gap Index | |
Value | NR (2012) |
Rank | NR |
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Women in society |
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The overall status of women in Libya has undergone significant changes and progress over the years. The Gaddafi government has made emancipation effort, with the empowerment of women being a central aspect of the 1969 revolution. [2] The same government has yet been held responsible for various human rights violations, including on women. [3] [4] The condition of women in society has improved through policies such as equal pay for equal work, universal healthcare, and right to education. Women have also gained the right to vote, run for political office, and participate in national institutions. However, cultural biases against women in the workplace and resistance to change from more traditional sectors of society have been obstacles to process. Moreover, the political upheaval of the 2011 revolution has led to both gains and setbacks for women's rights. Nonetheless, the continued involvement and engagement of women in public life and government have emphasized the importance of female emancipation for the progress and development of Libya as a whole.
Central to the revolution of 1969 was the empowerment of women and removal of inferior status. [5] Which after the change of rule resulted in the roles and status of women becoming subject of a great deal of discussion and legal action in Libya under the new established republic, as they have in many countries of the Arab World. Some observers suggest that the Gaddafi regime made efforts on behalf of female emancipation because it viewed women as an essential source of labour in an economy chronically starved for workers. Furthermore, commentators postulate that the government was interested in expanding its political base, hoping to curry favour by championing female rights. Since independence, Libyan leaders have been committed to improving the condition of women. [6]
In the 1970s, female emancipation was in large measure a matter of age. One observer generalized that city women under the age of thirty-five had discarded the traditional veil and were quite likely to wear Western-style clothing. Those between the ages of thirty-five and forty-five were increasingly ready to consider such a change, but women over the age of forty-five appeared reluctant to give up the protection which they perceived their veils and customary dress to afford. A decade later, veiling was uncommon among urban women. [6]
During this era, women were also increasingly seen driving, shopping, or traveling without husbands or male companions (known as Mahrams).
Since 1964, Libyan women have had the right to vote and to participate in political life. [7] [8] [9]
Since then, the government has encouraged women to participate in elections and national political institutions, but in 1987 only one woman had advanced as far as the national cabinet, as an assistant secretary for information and culture. [6] However, from 1989 to 1994 Fatima Abd al-Hafiz Mukhtar served as Minister of Education. Salma Ahmed Rashed, from 1992 to 1994, served as Assistant Secretary of Women, then as Secretary in the General Secretariat of the General People's Congress for Women's Affairs from 1994 to 1995, and was eventually the Ambassador to the League of Arab Nations in 1996.
Others serving as Secretary in the General Secretariat of the General People's Congress for Women's Affairs included from 1995 to 1998 Thuriya Ramadan Abu Tabrika, Nura Han Ramadan Abu Sefrian from 1998 to 2000, Dr. Shalma Chabone Abduljabbar, and Amal Nuri Abdullah al-Safar from 2006 to 2009. Women serving as Secretary in the General Secretariat of the General People's Congress for Social Affairs have included Dr. Shalma Chabone Abduljabbar and Abd-al-Alim al-Shalwi, while from 1995 to 2000 Fawziya Bashir al-Shalababi served as Secretary for Information, Culture and Mass Mobilization. Dr. Huda Fathi Ben Amer began serving as the Secretary of People's Committees Affairs in 2009, and also served as President of the Transitional Arab Parliament. [10] Dr. Salma Shabaan Abdel Jabar began serving as Secretary of Woman Affairs in 2009. [11] In March 2021, Najla el-Mangoush was appointed as the foreign minister. [12]
Women were also able to form their own associations. The first associated was in 1955 in Benghazi. In 1970, several feminist organizations merged into the Women's General Union which in 1977 became the Jamahiriya Women's Federation. [13] An early president of the Women's General Union was the writer and broadcaster, Khadījah Jahamī. [14] Under Clause 5 of the Constitutional Proclamation of 11 December 1969, women had already been given equal status under the law with men. Subsequently, the women's movement has been active in such fields as adult education and hygiene. [6]
Based on the review of published research about women's education, work, legislation and the family structure, three indicators of power were selected: decision making, freedom of movement, and control over income. One of the contributions of the study lies in the fact that as far as I am aware it is the first study in the Arab world to use the research framework of Cromwell and Olson. In spite of the fact that the theoretical framework consists of three main components of power, the study concentrates mainly on outcomes in which power can be measured clearly. The study tackles this component in detail while analyzing data. In fact bases and processes can be manifested through outcome which is the final product of the first two. Furthermore, unlike other similar studies in the Arab world, the study is the first to have employed marital status as an independent variable. [15]
Women had also made great gains in employment outside the home, the result of improved access to education and of increased acceptance of female paid employment. Once again, the government was not the primary motivating force behind this phenomenon. For example, the 1976–80 development plan called for the employment of a larger number of women "in those spheres which are suitable for female labour", but the Libyan identification of what work was suitable for women continued to be limited by tradition. According to the 1973 census, the participation rate for women (the percent of all women engaged in economic activity) was about 3 percent as compared with 37 percent for men. The participation was somewhat higher than the 2.7 percent registered in 1964, but it was considerably lower than that in other Maghrib countries and in most of the Middle Eastern Arab states. [6]
In the 1980s, in spite of the gain registered by women during the prior decade, females constituted only 7 percent of the national labour force, according to one informed researcher. This represented a 2 percent increase over a 20-year period. Another source, however, considered these figures far too low. Reasoning from 1973 census figures and making allowances for full- and part-time, seasonal, paid, and unpaid employment, these researchers argued convincingly that women formed more than 20 percent of the total economically active Libyan population. For rural areas, their figure was 46 percent, far higher than official census numbers for workers who in most cases were not only unpaid but not even considered as employed. [6]
Among non-agricultural women, those who were educated and skilled were overwhelmingly employed as teachers. The next highest category of educated and skilled women ware nurses and those found in the health care field. Others areas that were open to women included administrative and clerical work in banks, department stores, and government offices, and domestic services. Women were found in ever larger numbers as nurses and midwives, but even so, Libyan health care facilities suffered from a chronic shortage of staff. [6]
By contrast, in clerical and secretarial jobs, the problem was not a shortage of labour but a deep-seated cultural bias against the intermingling of men and women in the workplace. During the 1970s, the attraction of employment as domestics tended to decline, as educated and ambitious women turned to more lucrative occupations. To fill the gap, Libyan households sought to hire foreigners, particularly Egyptians and Tunisians. [6]
Light industry, especially cottage-style, was yet another outlet for female labour, a direct result of Libya's labour shortage. Despite these employment outlets and gains, female participation in the work force of the 1980s remained small, and many socially female jobs were filled by foreign women. Also, in spite of significant increases in female enrollments in the educational system, including university level, few women were found, even as technicians, in such traditionally male fields as medicine, engineering, and law. [6]
Non-urban women constituted a quite significant, if largely invisible, proportion of the rural work force. According to the 1973 census, there were only 14,000 economically active women out of a total of 200,000 rural females older than age 10. In all likelihood, however, many women engaged in agricultural or domestic tasks worked as unpaid members of family groups and hence were not regarded as gainfully employed, accounting to at least in part for the low census count. Estimates of actual female rural employment in the mid-1970s, paid and unpaid ranged upward of 86,000, as compared with 96,000 men in the rural work force. In addition to agriculture, both rural and nomadic women engaged in the weaving of rugs and carpets, another sizable category of unpaid and unreported labor. [6]
Beginning in 1970, the revolutionary government passed a series of laws regulating female employment - equal pay for equal work and qualifications became a fundamental precept. [6] Other statutes strictly regulate the hours and conditions of work, specifically the prohibition of hard labor, and 48 hours. [16]
Working mothers enjoyed a range of benefits designed to encourage them to continue working even after marriage and childbirth, including cash bonuses for the first child and free day care centres. A woman could retire at age fifty-five, and she was entitled to a pension. [6]
Women are free to engage in the private business and finance sectors, and banks to not require the consent of the husband to obtain a loan. [16]
Employment was estimated at 22% for Libyan women by the early 21st century, [17] [18] and 27% by 2006, relatively high for an Arab nation. [19] This marked a 14% increase since 1986. [19] Employment by women in Libya is largely influenced by choice. [16] Positions in all fields of the economy were held, including lawyers, doctors, judges, and senior government positions. [17]
In May 2011, the New York Times reported during the Libyan civil war that the rebels had begun rolling back this progress as their size increased. One Libyan woman, a 23-year-old therapist, quit the rebel National Transitional Council saying when the revolution started, women had a big role, but it had disappeared. [17]
Under King Idris, educating women was considered suspicious. During the last decade of his rule, females enrolled in primary education was only between 11 and 19%. Under Article 14 of the Libyan Constitutional Declaration in 1969, education was made a right, and by 1990 the figure stood at 48%. Enrollment in higher education stood at 8% in 1966, but reached 43% by 1996, equal to males. [20]
By 2001, 16% had a university degree or higher, and 48% a secondary school certificate, in which there is no prohibition on choice educational studies. [16]
At the time of the revolution in 1969, 40% of the population lived in tents or shanty houses and was one of the worst in the Arab world. [21] The revolution promised "housing for all", and by 1997 virtually every Libyan owned their own home through government laws which supported such. Criticized by opponents of the government for not creating a mortgage market, [22] women obtained equal rights as men to own and have independent use of their property. [16]
Following the revolution in 1969, universal healthcare services were created through the National Social Insurance Institute, with women having equal access. [23] Between 1969 and 1978, the number of physicians increased by 4-5 times. Libya had one of the best healthcare systems in Africa before the 1992 U.N. sanctions, which rapidly declined the quality of medicine and supplies. [5]
By the 1980s relations within the family and between the sexes, along with all other aspects of Libyan life, had begun to show notable change. As the mass media popularized new ideas, new perceptions and practices appeared. Foreign settlers and foreign workers frequently embodied ideas and values distinctively different from those traditional in the country. In particular, the perceptions of Libyans in everyday contact with Europeans were affected.
The continued and accelerating process of urbanization had broken old kinship ties and association with ancestral rural communities. At the same time, opportunities for upward social movement have increased, and petroleum wealth and the development plans of the revolutionary government have made many new kinds of employment available thus opening up more well paid jobs for women especially among the educated young. Many of these educated and increasingly independent young women preferred to set up their own households at marriage, rather than live with their in-laws. In addition, social security, free medical care, education, and other appurtenances of the welfare state had lessened the dependence of the aged on their children in village communities and had almost eliminated it in the cities.
As of the late 20th century the regime had sought to introduce women into the armed forces. In the 1978 Libya's new military academy began training women, training thousands since. [24] In the early 1980s where the 'Nuns of the Revolution' were created as a specialist police force attached to revolutionary committees. [6] Then in 1984, a law mandating female conscription that required all students in secondary schools and above to participate in military training was passed. [6] In addition, young women were encouraged to attend female military academies, the first of which was established in 1979. These proposals originated with Colonel Gaddafi, who hoped that they would help create a new image and role for Libyan women everywhere. Nonetheless, the concept of female training in the martial arts encountered such widespread opposition that meaningful compliance seemed unlikely.
Child marriage was banned, and the minimum legal age to marry placed at 18. [24] Since 1973 Libyan women have had equal rights in obtaining a divorce. [5]
After the 17 February revolution in Libya, women in Libya have enjoyed a far greater exposure in public life and government. Thirty-three women have been elected to serve in Libya's General National Congress in the first free elections since the NATO-backed revolt deposed during which Muammar Gaddafi was killed. [25] However, "the ways in which the New Libyan state chooses to appropriate or obliterate the remnants of Gaddafi's gender regime remains to be seen." [26]
Likewise, NGOs have emerged that are fighting for the rights of women by improving their education and training.
Libyan Women ORG is providing free trainings to all Libyan women who wish to enroll in the training courses.
A new platform that aims to claim the role of women in Libya and participate with women in the reconstruction of the Libyan country.
In March 2021, five Libyan women were named for a new unity government, including the first woman foreign minister, Najla el-Mangoush. [27]
The Libyan Hispanic Chamber of Commerce is currently collaborating with all Libyan ministries to offer reconstruction aid services and enable the country to open again to the rest of Europe.
Issues currently faced by the women's emancipation process in Libya are indicated by UN Women as: high unemployment rates; underrepresentation in politics and public affairs; violence against women, including those who stand up for female emancipation; inadequate legal protection for women; and the current humanitarian crisis impacting women in particular. [28]
Libya's history involves its rich mix of ethnic groups, including the indigenous Berbers/Amazigh people. Amazigh have been present throughout the entire history of the country. For most of its history, Libya has been subjected to varying degrees of foreign control, from Europe, Asia, and Africa.
Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. Libya borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad to the south, Niger to the southwest, Algeria to the west, and Tunisia to the northwest. Libya comprises three historical regions: Tripolitania, Fezzan, and Cyrenaica. With an area of almost 1.8 million km2 (700,000 sq mi), it is the fourth-largest country in Africa and the Arab world, and the 16th-largest in the world. Libya claims 32,000 square kilometers of southeastern Algeria, south of the Libyan town of Ghat. The country's official religion is Islam, with 96.6% of the Libyan population being Sunni Muslims. The official language of Libya is Arabic, with vernacular Libyan Arabic being spoken most widely. The majority of Libya's population is Arab. The largest city and capital, Tripoli, is located in northwestern Libya and contains over a million of Libya's seven million people.
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi was a Libyan revolutionary, politician and political theorist who ruled Libya from 1969 until his killing in 2011 by rebel forces. He first served as Revolutionary Chairman of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then as the Brotherly Leader of the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011. Initially ideologically committed to Arab nationalism and Arab socialism, Gaddafi later ruled according to his own Third International Theory.
The Third International Theory, also known as Third Universal Theory and Gaddafism, was the style of government proposed by Muammar Gaddafi on 15 April 1973 in his Zuwara speech, on which his government, the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, was officially based. It combined elements of Arab nationalism, Nasserism, Anti-imperialism, Islamic socialism, left-wing populism African nationalism, Pan-Arabism, and it was partly influenced by the principles of direct democracy. The theory also contained elements of Islamic fundamentalism, as Gaddafi argued that Muslims needed to return to God and the Qur'an and rejected formal interpretation of the Qur'an as blasphemy. However, Gaddafi's regime has been described as Islamist, rather than fundamentalist, as Gaddafi opposed Salafism and many Islamic fundamentalists were imprisoned during his rule.
Throughout history, women in Iran have played numerous roles, and contributed in many ways, to Iranian society. Historically, tradition maintained that women be confined to their homes to manage the household and raise children. During the Pahlavi era, there was a drastic social change towards women's desegregation such as ban of the veil, right to vote, right to education, equal salaries for men and women, and the right to hold public office. Women were active participants in the Islamic Revolution. Iran's constitution, adopted after the Islamic Revolution in 1979, proclaims equality for men and women under Article 20, while mandating legal code adhering to Sharia law. Article 21 of the constitution as well as a few parliament-passed laws give women rights such as being allowed to drive, hold public office, and attend university but not wearing a veil in public can be punished by law; and when in public, all hair and skin except the face and hands must be covered. However, this is often not enforced; notably in recent years, Iranian women have started a number of groups to rebel against the government's oppressive policies and reclaim their independence and rights.
Human rights in Libya is the record of human rights upheld and violated in various stages of Libya's history. The Kingdom of Libya, from 1951 to 1969, was heavily influenced and educated by the British and Y.R.K companies. Under the King, Libya had a constitution. The kingdom, however, was marked by a feudal regime, where Libya had a low literacy rate of 10%, a low life expectancy of 57 years, and 40% of the population lived in shanties, tents, or caves. Illiteracy and homelessness were chronic problems during this era, when iron shacks dotted many urban centres on the country.
Muammar Gaddafi became the de facto leader of Libya on 1 September 1969 after leading a group of young Libyan Army officers against King Idris I in a bloodless coup d'état. After the king had fled the country, the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) headed by Gaddafi abolished the monarchy and the old constitution and established the Libyan Arab Republic, with the motto "freedom, socialism and unity". The name of Libya was changed several times during Gaddafi's tenure as leader. From 1969 to 1977, the name was the Libyan Arab Republic. In 1977, the name was changed to Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. Jamahiriya was a term coined by Gaddafi, usually translated as "state of the masses". The country was renamed again in 1986 as the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, after the United States bombing that year.
The Revolutionary Command Council was the twelve-person governing body that ruled the Libyan Arab Republic after the 1969 Libyan coup d'état by the Free Officers Movement. Its chairman was Muammar Gaddafi, who had the most influence and served as Libya's de facto head of state as Revolutionary Chairman of the Libyan Arab Republic and commander-in-chief of the armed forces. It was ideologically Arab nationalist, republican, anti-imperialist and pan-Arabist.
Education in Libya begins with primary education, which is both free and compulsory. Children in Libya between the ages of 6 and 15 attend primary school and then attend secondary school for three additional years. About 60 percent of students are assigned to a vocational secondary program, while the remaining 40 percent are assigned to a more academic-focused secondary program, based on test scores and interests. Under Gaddafi, primary and secondary education focused on his treatise on political philosophy, the Green Book, with older students studying "Jamahiriya studies".
The law of Libya has historically been influenced by Ottoman, French, Italian, and Egyptian sources. Under the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Libya has moved towards a legal system based on sharia, but with various deviations from it.
The Libyan civil war or the 2011 Libyan revolution, also known as the First Libyan Civil War was an armed conflict in 2011 in the North African country of Libya that was fought between forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and rebel groups that were seeking to oust his government. The war was preceded by protests in Zawiya on 8 August 2009 and finally ignited by protests in Benghazi beginning on Tuesday, 15 February 2011, which led to clashes with security forces who fired on the crowd. The protests escalated into a rebellion that spread across the country, with the forces opposing Gaddafi establishing an interim governing body, the National Transitional Council.
Hikmat Abu Zayd was an Egyptian politician and academic. She became the first female cabinet minister in Egypt in 1962. Her tenure as minister of social affairs set a precedent. Afterwards, it became common for women to head that ministry. An avowed advocate of Nasserism, Abu Zayd has had a major impact on Egyptian law and policy in the areas of social affairs and insurance.
The 2011 Libyan rape allegations were allegations that Gaddafi's forces in Libya were committing mass rape during the 2011 Libyan civil war. Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Luis Moreno Ocampo said "we have information that there was a policy to rape in Libya those who were against the government." Libyan psychologist Seham Sergiwa said she distributed questionnaires in opposition-held areas and along the Libya–Tunisia border, and 259 women responded that they were raped. Sergiwa told Amnesty International's specialist on Libya that she had lost contact with the 140 victims she interviewed and was unable to provide documentary evidence. In March 2011, Iman al-Obeidi said she was gang-raped before Libyan security services dragged her away.
The Brotherly Leader and Guide of the Revolution of the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya was a title held by former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who claimed to be merely a symbolic figurehead of the country's official governance structure. However, critics have long described him as a demagogue, referring to his position as the de facto former political office, despite the Libyan state's denial of him holding any power.
From 1969 to early 2011, the politics of Libya were determined de facto by Muammar Gaddafi, who had been in power since his overthrow of the Kingdom of Libya in 1969.
Women played a variety of roles in the Arab Spring, but its impact on women and their rights is unclear. The Arab Spring was a series of demonstrations, protests, and civil wars against authoritarian regimes that started in Tunisia and spread to much of the Arab world. The leaders of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen were overthrown; Bahrain has experienced sustained civil disorder, and the protests in Syria have become a civil war. Other Arab countries experienced protests as well.
Women in Bulgaria refers to women who live in and are from Bulgaria. Women's position in Bulgarian society has been influenced by a variety of cultures and ideologies, including the Byzantine and Ottoman cultures, Eastern Orthodox Christianity, communist ideology, and contemporary globalized Western values.
The 1969 Libyan revolution, also known as the al-Fateh Revolution or 1 September Revolution, was a coup d'état and revolution carried out by the Free Officers Movement, led by Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, which overthrew the Senussi monarchy of King Idris I and resulted in the formation of the Libyan Arab Republic.
Gender equality is the notion that each gender should receive equal treatment in all aspects of life, and that one should not be discriminated based on their sex. Gender equality is a human right, which is recognised under the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Gender pay gap in India refers to the difference in earnings between women and men in the paid employment and the labor market. For the year 2013, the gender pay gap in India was estimated to be 24.81%. Further, while analyzing the level of female participation in the economy, this report slots India as one of the bottom 10 countries on its list. Thus, in addition to unequal pay, there is also unequal representation, because while women constitute almost half the Indian population, their representation in the work force amounts to only about one-fourth of the total.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain . Country Studies. Federal Research Division. (Data as of 1987.)