When you just don't give a damn any more

Rape



The way the case of Libyan lawyer Iman al-Obeidi was treated, and continues to be treated by the Gaddafi regime is horrific, tasteless, despicable and nothing short of what would expect from the madness that pervades Tripoli.
Ms Obeidi risked life and limb to burst into the Rixos hotel to tell Western journalists of how she was beaten and raped by members of the Gaddafi regime - simply because her papers identified her as a Benghazi resident.


Having been to Libya and having met Gaddafi, I might offer some insight. Staff of the Rixos Hotel, men and women, immediately pounced on the woman, despite the attempts of journalists to shield her. These people are not Gaddafi minders, or employees - or at least, not officially. What the West needs to understand is that in Libya, to get a job, you have to be a loyal Gadaffi supporter. And you have to remain as so. I had first hand experience of this in Libya - Sirte to be precise. Normal staff watch your every move, and they report on you every day. What you eat, what you say, what you do in your room... that's the way it goes.

Her involuntary cowering reaction was clear enough to see, she was petrified, but they would not shut her up. Waitresses even tried to pull a bag over her head to shut her up, but it was only when a Gaddafi lackey intervened that she was properly silenced. A minder frogmarched the woman out of the building and to a waiting car. He put his hand over her mouth and tried to literally shut her up. He did not succeed and parts of this incredibly brave woman's story have now been made public as she struggled to speak and to show the bruises on her face and thighs to the media who were present. She claims she was gang-raped by 15 men, drunk on whisky, who proceeded to put her through living hell. 

"Her involuntary cowering reaction was clear enough to see, she was petrified, but they would not shut her up. Waitresses even tried to pull a bag over her head to shut her up, but it was only when a Gaddafi lackey intervened that she was properly silenced"

One journalist who tried to forcefully ask where they were taking Mrs al-Obeidi, was tackled and moved out of the way, and that was it, she was gone.

As the West tried to check on her whereabouts, the regime's propaganda machine, fronted by the Moussa Ibrahim, told the world that the woman was safe with her sister and inferred that she was a prostitute who brought this shameless attack on herself. In the meantime, the Libyan authorities claim to have fired those who accosted the woman in the hotel and other staff have been told "not to interfere in affairs with journalists". It is clear that there are two wars, the ground war and the propaganda war.

It 

is stomach churning to say the least, but what else can one expect from this regime?

The woman's parents have now come forward and spoken in an interview with Al Jazeera. They claim their daughter is still being held by the police and the mother, proud, bitter and anguished, all in one, tells of the Gaddafi regime's shameless attempt at buying her silence. Her family has been promised anything they want to get her to retract her claims. The mother said: "I don't feel ashamed, instead my head is up high."

The mother says she received a phone call from an unidentified caller who said: "Whatever you ask for, you will get: build a new house or get the money."  This is the Gaddafi regime. This is Gaddafi's Libya. This is hell on earth.

The faces of the Libyan uprising

Real stories

Her pained face says it all. This beautiful woman is Galea, or Galia. She was interviewed by the BBC about the uprising in Libya, as she demonstrated in Benghazi, to try to and draw attention to the plight of people in Misurata. She implores the news crew to convey her message to the coalition, she tells them that she has been trying to call friends and relatives for days, but the phone lines are out.

She tells the camera the little of what she knows, there is no water and electricity in Misurata, the people are running out of food and Gaddafi forces continue to bombard the town while snipers continue to try and pick off resistance.

The blurry footage and screen grab does not do justice to the beauty of the woman. As she speaks eloquently and in measured tones, the passion on her face accentuates her good looks. She wears a traditional headscarf, yet from the way she speaks, it is clear that she is educated, possibly a teacher, or a doctor. She tries to keep her emotions under control, but she cannot quite manage it, she gets stuck in what she is trying to say: “I hope, I hope… I hope, the UN bombs him, so we can free Libya”.

“I am a software engineer. I have a wife and kids. Do you really think I want to be here with a rifle, fighting off Gaddafi’s thugs? No, I should be at work, providing for my family. If I lived in the West, I would be trying to work some overtime to save for a summer holiday, or to buy a flat screen TV. But no, I live in Benghazi and it is our time to throw off 41 years of dictatorship”

But like Galia, there are thousands. Their faces are with us today, but they will fade away into obscurity over time. Thousands of young men and women are taking up the struggle. Mohammed, 33, also spoke to the BBC. He tells the news crew that he did not want to take up arms, but cannot stand the sight of more innocents being ripped to shreds by heavy weaponry.

“I am a software engineer. I have a wife and kids. Do you really think I want to be here with a rifle, fighting off Gaddafi’s thugs? No, I should be at work, providing for my family. If I lived in the West, I would be trying to work some overtime to save for a summer holiday, or to buy a flat screen TV. But no, I live in Benghazi and it is our time to throw off 41 years of dictatorship,” he said.

The pleas are the same. The aspirations are the same. The grief is the same. We live just next door, and yet we are curiously detached from it all. Let us be completely frank, for all the declarations by Maltese politicians past and present, the Maltese and the Libyan people are not blood-brothers and sisters. But, we do share common aspirations of a better life, freedom of expression and for fundamental human rights. The woman I decided to use as the face for this article is one of many others with a similar voice and views. She is a proud young Libyan woman, probably aspiring to find a husband and build a family to raise in a free and secure environment. These are the people that deserve our help, our compassion, our support and action.

Boots on the ground have been ruled out, but we owe it to these people to give them a fighting chance to rebuild a free Libya. The fight will be long and hard, but if the Libyan people can retake Adyabijah and hold onto Misurata, then they will have a chance to fulfill their destiny.