“Libya Will Not Become Afghanistan”: Young Libyan Women Fear New Laws That Target Their Rights

On November 6, Libya’s Ministry of Interior announced plans to mandate the hijab, male guardianship laws, and other restrictions on women’s rights across the country.

The plan, which Human Rights Watch says would violate Libya’s constitution, includes reviving the “morality” police. Interior Minister Emad Trabelsi declared that women and girls would be forced to wear the hijab from the age of nine, banned from traveling without express permission from a male guardian, and prohibited from being in public spaces with men.

Trabelsi dismissed personal freedoms as “European concepts” that conflict with Libya’s Islamic values. 

“Personal freedom does not exist here in Libya,” he said, adding that those seeking it “should go to Europe.”

“Global human rights groups and women’s rights advocates fear the restrictions signal a dangerous tidal change in the country that would “flagrantly violate the rights of Libyan women and girls, yet the prime minister and other government officials have remained conspicuously silent on the proposals,” Hanan Salah, the Associate Director of the Middle East and North Africa Division at Human Rights Watch (HRW), said on Wednesday. 

Under Muammar Gaddafi’s rule, Libya was often labeled a "police state” by human rights watchdogs. The Revolutionary Committees and state security forces closely monitored public behavior, including women’s dress and conduct. After Gaddafi's fall in 2011, many of these forces were disbanded, but the enforcement of conservative social norms and interpretations of Islamic law persisted, particularly in areas controlled by militias or conservative factions.

“What is this extremist mindset? Libya has turned into Iran, where everything is imposed by force,” 21-year-old Shahad, a political science student in Tripoli, told More to Her Story. “Today, it’s hijab and not traveling without a male guardian. Tomorrow, it will be banning women from employment and confining them to their homes,”

“It’s already a highly patriarchal society, and women have no rights in Libya,” says Naro, 30, a makeup artist in Tripoli. “This decision will negatively affect all women and make society move backward instead of progressing. They’ve ignored all the major problems like political conflict, inflation, and civil wars and focused on women’s hijab instead,”

Some women in Libya feel the new regulations won’t significantly impact their daily lives. “It won’t make a difference because 90% of Libyan girls wear the hijab, and it’s rare to see one who doesn’t,” 16-year-old Darla in Janzour, a city in northwest Libya, told More to Her Story.

Others, like 29-year-old Eman, see this as yet another form of control in a country where women are already oppressed. “I feel humiliated, marginalized, and unable to live fully or safely. Daily life feels like a constant challenge to assert one’s dignity and independence. These conditions will create a pervasive feeling of being silenced, restricted, and controlled,” 

Malak, 27, fears her country could face a future akin to Afghanistan under Taliban rule, where women and girls are oppressed to the fullest extent. “I am against these backward decisions. Libya will not become Afghanistan. [Trabelsi] is deeply involved in financial corruption and human rights violations. He should discipline himself first.”