Lilia Sebouai
Interior minister says ‘personal freedom does not exist here in Libya’, adding those seeking it ‘should go to Europe’. Libya will introduce morality police in the capital to enforce “modesty” and clamp down on “strange” haircuts, the country’s interior minister has said. Girls from the age of nine will have to wear veils, and women will be forbidden from travelling without a male companion or sitting “inappropriately” with men in public after the crackdown begins next month.
The sweeping attack on personal freedom is also intended to reverse the influence of “imported” European fashion and social media trends, such as clothing and popular hairstyles including quiffs or skin-fades. The morality police will have the power to shut down barbershops and shisha bars that do not comply with the new regulations.
Emad Al-Trabelsi, the interior minister of Libya’s Tripoli-based, UN-backed Government of National Unity (GNU), warned the morality police would ensure strict adherence to the country’s Islamic “social values”. “Personal freedom does not exist here in Libya,” said Mr Al-Trabelsi, adding that those seeking it “should go to Europe”. Experts have warned that the Libyan government is introducing the so-called morality police to tighten its grip on the country.
Repression ‘under the guise of upholding morality’
Libya has faced deep instability since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi’s dictatorial rule in 2011. The country was severed into eastern and western factions in 2014, each governed by rival administrations. Bassam Al Kantar, Amnesty International’s Libya Researcher, said that Mr Al-Trabelsi threat was a “a dangerous escalation in the already suffocating levels of repression” faced by Libyans.
“The Government must scrap plans for these repressive measures and instead address the human rights crisis across the country, characterised by mass arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, torture and unfair trials,” he said. Hanan Saleh, associate director of the Middle East and North Africa division at Human Rights Watch, said the “arbitrary and repressive laws” for women and girls were being implemented “under the guise of upholding morality”.
“The government should urgently rescind any such plans that would violate fundamental rights, and instead, guarantee that women and girls do not face discrimination and that their rights are respected,” she told The Telegraph. Jalel Harchaoui, an expert on North African security and a fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security (RUSI), warned that installing morality police would also give the government “vicious” powers to “streamline arrests” without the “formality of legal procedures”.
Mr Harchaoui emphasised that due to Libya’s continued political divisions, the new restrictions will be concentrated in some areas of the capital. “Libya is not a normal situation. The Prime Minister cannot project power in all of the capital, let alone beyond the capital. We’re talking about some neighbourhoods, in the best scenario,” he told The Telegraph.
He added that the measures were a way for Mr Al-Trabelsi, the interior minister, to consolidate his power. “The main goal here is to remind the universe that [Mr Al-Trabelsi] exists as an interior minister, that he matters, that this is still just the beginning,” he said.
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Libyan minister seeks mandatory hijab and morality police
Ghaya Ben Mbarek
Interior Minister Imad Trabelsi also proposed bans on mixing of genders in public and ‘indecent’ clothing and hairstyles.
While Libya struggles with the impact of years of civil war and the division of the country under two separate governments, the Interior Minister in the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity is seeking to make head coverings mandatory for women and launch a morality police to enforce this and other measures against “indecent” behaviour in public.
Interior Minister Imad Trabelsi proposed his ideas at a press conference called to discuss smuggling last week, and said he would speak to Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah and the Education Minister about making wearing headscarves, or hijab, mandatory for girls from the fourth grade onwards.
“All of our women are respectful but there is a small category that is not respecting the norms and we must act to correct that,” he said. He said he would also seek to shut down beauty salons, ban certain “indecent” hairstyles for men and women, stop opposite genders from mixing in public and require women to have a male guardian in order to travel.
“We will reactivate the morality police and we already have an administration specialised in morals,” Mr Trabelsi said. Although Libya has never had a morality police, some Islamist militias began forcing their moral codes on the public after rising to power in the years after the overthrow of dictator Muammar Qaddafi in 2011.
The has been no public reaction to Mr Trabelsi’s proposals from Mr Dbeibah or his government, but rights group Amnesty International denounced his ideas in a statement on Friday, saying they would further entrench discrimination against women and girls. “Proposals to impose compulsory veiling on women and girls as young as nine, restrict interactions between men and women, and police young people’s personal choices with regards to hairstyles and clothing are not only deeply alarming, but also violate Libya’s obligations under international law,” the group said.
Jalel Harchaoui, a Libya analyst and associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute think tank in London, said Mr Trabelsi’s attempt to impose such measures would probably not stand because of opposition from the public. “I do not think he would succeed in implementing what he is talking about – the situation might be intense for a while but it [the measures] will not be sustained,” he told The National.
“People were caught off-guard by such a statement and it’s coming from nowhere; everybody has been talking about how they were enjoying safety and how women have been feeling safe to move around on their own.” Public sentiment in recent years has never been inclined towards implementing “a strict interpretation of Islam”, Mr Harchaoui said.
The EU Ambassador to Libya, Nicola Orlando, said on X that he had reminded Mr Trabelsi at a meeting on Monday that the bloc’s partnership with the North African country “remains firmly rooted in respect for universal human rights and humanitarian principles, as well as Libyan sovereignty and culture”.
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