Ibtisam Oghfair

Benghazi_In a country where the Impacts of wars intersect with economic crises and deep social transformations, Violence against women emerges as one of the most complex and intertwined phenomena.And while voices calling for confronting it grow louder,the reality remains far harsher than what official reports portray.

In this context, Abeer Amneina, President of the “Washm Center for Women’s Studies,” opens a wide space for understanding the roots of violence, dismantling its patterns, and examining the reasons for its persistence—whether within the family or at the institutional level. Through her perspective, she offers an in-depth analysis of what is happening in Libya today: the effects of wars, absent legislation, withheld data, and the factors that drive some women to justify violence or remain silent about it.

 

The Fragile Social Status of Women

Abeer Amneina stresses that the first thing that comes to mind when discussing violence is the fragile social situation women in Libya experience. Recent incidents of murder, mutilation, and severe abuse raise serious questions about the causes behind this reality and the factors that allow it to persist.

“Violence is not an isolated event or an accidental incident,” she says, “but is linked to a complex network of economic, social, and psychological relationships, as well as institutional and legal structures that contribute to its entrenchment.”

She believes that violence against women is, at its core, the product of a confused social environment where traditional family roles, social pressures, and transformations in women’s identities intersect—changes that society has not been able to adapt to.

“The tremendous development in women’s awareness, education, and entry into the workforce was not met with a similar development in societal awareness. This created clashes in roles and intensified tensions within households. Added to this are the difficult economic conditions that increased the burden on women, pushing some men to use violence as a means of dominance or reaction.”

 

Submitting to Violence Out of Fear of an Unknown Future

Abeer Amneina links violence to several factors, the first of which is the economic factor. A woman who has no income or alternative housing may see returning to her abusive husband as “the lesser of two evils.” Here, she emphasizes the critical importance of women’s economic independence so they can have decision-making power over their own lives.

The second factor is social pressure, which heavily burdens abused women. Some families refuse to take their daughters back after divorce; some communities still view divorced women with rejection or suspicion. Added to this are harsh conditions such as giving up children or obeying the family’s dictates. These pressures push many women to remain inside the circle of violence rather than step into an unknown future.

Amneina highlights a disturbing behavior in which some women blame themselves, saying things like, “He hit me because I provoked him… he didn’t mean to hurt me.” She considers this type of justification one of the most painful and complex forms of violence, as the woman becomes a partner in rationalizing the abuse inflicted on her.

 

A Perspective Far from the Spirit of Religion

When comparing domestic violence with institutional violence, Amneina states that both are harmful, but the daily violence experienced inside the home is more brutal, because it strikes at the heart of the place that is supposed to be safe and peaceful.

She adds that society and legislators often normalize domestic violence, considering it “natural” or “disciplinary,” relying on misinterpretations of religious texts—interpretations she says are far removed from the true spirit of religion.

Amneina expands her analysis by explaining how wars have shaped violence in Libya. Armed conflicts, she says, always lead to harsher and more complicated circumstances.

“Throughout years of conflict, Libyan women faced displacement, loss of breadwinners, deprivation of housing, income, and work, and were forced to deal with institutions unable to meet their needs. This opened the door to new forms of economic and administrative exploitation.”

She also notes that numerous studies confirm that wartime often pushes women to shoulder the full responsibility of the family—even when men are physically present.

She reminds that the COVID-19 pandemic also deepened violence inside households, imposed additional roles on women, and pushed some families to marry off their underage daughters in search of so-called ‘protection,’ leading to long-lasting psychological and social problems.

 

Withholding Statistics Does Not Prevent Harm

Amneina explains that she made several attempts to obtain accurate statistics on violence against women.

“I was only given general data covering three months—July, August, and September. The figures were shocking, showing a rise in all forms of violence, from minor harm to intentional murder. Each time we requested gender-disaggregated data, the response was absent, as if the question itself was being pushed aside without explanation.”

She questions this ongoing refusal to provide detailed statistics on women and asks what state institutions should actually be doing to reduce violence against them.

She stresses that the absence of detailed data is one of the biggest obstacles to crafting effective policies. When official statistics on abused women were requested, only vague numbers were provided, hiding the true scale of the crisis.

“Some agencies treat data requests as a threat to national security or an attempt to paint a negative picture of Libyan society. But the truth is, any policy without detailed data is a policy with no impact.”

 

A Still-Frozen Protection Law

She expresses regret over the lack of legislative will to address the roots of the issue, pointing out that the Law for the Protection of Women from Violence has been frozen in the House of Representatives for more than two years—without discussion, amendment, or even formal rejection.

She says this neglect reflects a broader unwillingness to seriously confront the issue of violence.

Amneina also comments on the recent decision to establish a new institution for the protection of women and children in eastern Libya, describing it as “an unplanned popular reaction,” especially since the Ministry of Interior already has specialized offices. She questions why existing structures are not strengthened instead of creating new bodies that consume time and budgets.

She also criticizes merging children and women into one institution, calling instead for a separate, constitutionally empowered body dedicated solely to women, with clear authorities.

 

Women Pay With Their Safety and Their Lives

Regarding opinions that call for focusing on violence in general rather than violence against women specifically, Amneina stresses that domestic violence disproportionately affects women. Accurate comparisons—if data were available—would clearly show the vast difference between what women face and what men face.

Men’s violence typically appears in criminal cases such as misdemeanors or felonies, while women are subjected to systematic domestic abuse that threatens their safety and lives.

She also criticizes attributing women’s suicide cases to “magic or the unseen,” calling it a dangerous regression in understanding the phenomenon. She insists that the real solutions lie in psychological, social, and economic analysis—not supernatural explanations that obscure the true causes.

Comparing Libya with neighboring countries, she says that violence in Libya, Egypt, and Algeria is similar in nature and consequences, while Tunisia stands out with stronger collective awareness and more effective institutions that give women a better ability to benefit from the law.

In conclusion, the President of the “Washm Center for Women’s Studies,” Abeer Amneina, confirms the center’s role in studying legislative gaps and organizing dialogues on violence despite logistical challenges. She hopes civil society organizations can strengthen rights awareness and that women receive psychological and legal guidance before marriage—so they fully understand their rights and can defend them