Women need better protection and support to be able to engage in the political process, say women in Tarhuna

Sixteen women from Tarhuna joined Deputy Special Representative for the Secretary General, Political, Stephanie Koury in a consultation meeting on the political process on Wednesday and stressed the need for better protection from violence, particularly online, as well as representation in decision making roles at state institutions. 

“We know that Libyan women are very competent, but with the intimidation and threats, women are reluctant to step forward and engage in the political process,” said one participant suggesting that a closed list system for electoral candidates helped support better female participation. 

Another participant, who’s sister was a prominent female figure in the community, highlighted that they had seen sustained hate campaigns against her for a number of years. “This behavior needs to criminalized. Women are subject to violence and it should be stopped,” she said. 

The participants discussed the options put forward by the Advisory Committee and unanimously agreed that option 3 was the best way forward to overcome the political deadlock. 

“The Libyan feeling is that UNSMIL and the political situation are going in circles,” said one woman, adding, “to us it feels like the situation has been managed, not solved, and the same ideas are being recycled.” 

They added that representation for women in institutional bodies and at decision-making level was crucial. “Quotas are needed, because without them we would probably have only men elected,” said one participant, adding that 30 per cent was not enough, but would be acceptable for now to help build up to a point where 50 per cent of those elected were women, reflecting the demographics of the population.  

The group discussed the importance of empowering women, and highlighted the Ra’idat programme [link] – with two of the participants having applied for this year’s programme – as part of the work being done to support young women.  

“Hopefully in the future we will not need a quota, but it is not a political tradition here to have women participate so we need it now,” said one woman. Others agreed saying that Libya was not experienced at democracy and they would like to empower more women to be able to engage.  

“There needs to be more outreach and education to support women, fostering public awareness and cultural engagement” stressed another participant. “We need to be educating them about their political rights.” 

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL).