The Minister of the Interior of the interim government in Tripoli sparked intense controversy during a press conference on Wednesday (November 6). Imad Trabelsi announced a series of measures aimed, according to him, at strengthening the country’s moral standards, but which in reality restrict individual freedoms. In particular, he wants to force Libyan women to wear the veil, while reestablishing moral police from December.
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The announced measures sparked intense controversy. In addition to the compulsory wearing of the veil for all women and girls from the age of 9, including in schools, the official Libyan wants to ban Libyan women from traveling without being accompanied by a man or without the authorization of a man in their family. The Ministry of the Interior also announced a ban on mixing in cafes and public places.
The measures also affect the way of cutting hair or dressing in order to respect the “ specificity of Libyan society », justifies Imad Trabelsi, member of the national unity government of Interim Prime Minister Abdelhamid Dbeibah.
Monitoring measures will be applied in the streets and beyond: content on social networks will be monitored and the authors of texts deemed morally inappropriate will be prosecuted. Imad Trabelsi would also like to administer religion courses to Libyan police officers. He finally invited those who complain about restrictions on individual freedoms and who do not respect Libyan morals to go to Europe.
“ These statements completely contradict the Constitutional Declaration »
These statements immediately divided public opinion, some were in favor, but a majority criticized the attitude of the minister who, “ instead of caring for the security of Libyans, attacks their freedoms “. This is the case of Layla Ben Khalifa, candidate for the presidential election, who accuses the minister of wanting to win the sympathy of fundamentalists.
Human rights NGOs have unanimously denounced declarations which respect neither the Constitution nor Libyan laws. This is particularly the case of Ahmad Hamza, president of the National Human Rights Commission, who denounced the content of these declarations.
The Interior Minister’s statements include a number of deviations and violations of the law. It imposes a sort of security supervision under religious cover on the morality of society. Which constitutes an insult and a distortion, because Libyan society is thus presented as morally decadent. What he puts forward in his statements constitutes a dangerous precedent in terms of the behavior and language of an official regarding questions of human rights, public and fundamental freedoms and citizenship rights. These statements completely contradict the Interim Constitutional Declaration, guaranteeing rights and freedoms in Libya. Not to mention that this violates current national laws and legislation. With these statements, he deviates from the functions of the Ministry of the Interior and its security services. These functions are limited to enforcing the law in accordance with legislation and not to creating and promulgating legislation.
The desire of the Tripoli government to impose the wearing of the veil on Libyan women “violates the national laws and legislation in force”, denounces the president of the National Human Rights Commission Ahmad Hamza