News Center- During a press conference in Tripoli on November 6, Emad Trabelsi, the acting interior minister of the Government of National Unity, announced that wide-ranging “morality” measures would be imposed on women and girls.

Emad Trabelsi declared that there is “no space for personal freedom in Libya” and said women should dress with propriety and modesty in public and that not wearing a hijab headscarf “is not acceptable”. He also called on the education minister to impose the hijab for schoolgirls from the fourth grade onwards. He also said he would deploy “morality police” to monitor social interactions between women and men, threatening to “imprison” unrelated couples who meet in public.

Women will need permission to travel abroad

Emad Trabelsi also announced that women who wanted to travel abroad would need the written permission of a male guardian such as a father, husband, or brother, without explaining the legal basis for these measures, which would violate Libya’s constitution.

As a state party to many international human rights treaties, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and its Maputo Protocol on Women’s Rights in Africa, Libya is legally obliged to end all discrimination against women and guarantee the right to freedom of movement.

Since the conference, human rights defenders and women’s organizations have published statements saying the restrictions on clothing, social interactions, and travel would flagrantly violate the rights of Libyan women and girls.