The Libyan case of women’s activism is as much peculiar as under researched. Differently from its neighbors, women civil and political activism was almost entirely absent in Libya prior to the revolution. The same seems to be true with regard female participation to the revolutionary uprisings and subsequent Libyan civil war when compared to their Egyptian and Tunisian sisters. Nevertheless women were the Libyan rebellion’s secret weapon as they dominated a second front by raising money for ammunitions and smuggling them into the country, tending injured fighters in makeshifts hospitals, spying government troops and relaying their movements to the rebels. Moreover, in the aftermath of the revolution not only women’s associations have sprung up but women have also entered the ranks of newborn political parties and some of them have reached political posts in the newly elected institutions.
In light of this background, this paper intends to explore a much understudied but extremely important subject, which is that of women activism in post-revolutionary Libya. The paper will first provide the reader with an overview of what is the galaxy of women activism in Libya today, thus how they group themselves over ideological divides and convergences, what is their discourse in terms of women’s roles and the situation of women in their own country at this stage, which values they uphold and their attitudes towards women’s rights and women’s empowerment in today’s Libya. A second part of the paper will then analyze how women’s socio-economic background, in particular this of women once living abroad and now returned, may influence their roles to the newly emerged CSOs and political parties and their main goals with respect to women’s rights and empowerment. This paper will draw on field-work data collected in Libya during the year 2013-2014.
