For Women in Libya, a Long Road to Rights

[tabatha]

Published: November 22, 2011

TRIPOLI, LIBYA — The women of Libya are at a stage between hopes for more rights and fears about the possibility of civil war. After the overthrow of the regime of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, women are voicing their hopes for bigger roles in politics and society. In Tripoli, meetings are held weekly — either in private households or some of the bigger hotels — to discuss strategies to be heard.

Some of this organizing has been encouraged and financed by some nongovernmental organizations in the West and through conferences sponsored by Western embassies. But the fears are firmly Libyan.

“It is nice to see that people outside the country are worried about Libyan women,” said Asmaa Mukhtar al-Humaini, 39, a high school teacher. “But what we don’t want and need are people from outside who come and tell us how the Libyan women should be liberated.”

“We want to have more rights,” she said, “but we want them based on what our religion is teaching us, and the Shariah gives women many rights.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/23/world/middleeast/23iht-letter23.html?_r=3&ref=world

[Liberal_in_LA]

1. k&r for women's rights

[Southerner]

2. Really?

"Under sharia's civil code, a woman's testimony is worth half of a man's. A man can divorce his wife by repudiation, whereas a woman must give justifications, some of which are difficult to prove. Child custody reverts to the father at a preset age; women who remarry lose custody of their children even before then; and sons inherit twice the share of daughters."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2010/jul/05/sharia-law-religious-courts

[Liberal_in_LA]

3. I know. That's why I kicked the thread. us women have it shitty around the world.

[tabatha]

5. Scroll down to "Contemporary practice"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharia

[riderinthestorm]

4. I'm just waiting for those DUers to jump on who believe Sharia is just fine (for women, GLBTs,

religious minorities etc. etc.)

You should have heard the outcry over anyone expressing even a small bit of worry that Sharia may be put into play in these countries....

[ellisonz]

6. I was going to write an intelligent response...

But I think it's just better to *face palm*

:banghead: