30 March 2011 By Osman Mirghani When statements issued by government officials and
spokespersons are inconsistent and contradictory, then
this means that the regime is lying. When a regime
desperately tries to disprove a certain incident, this
confirms that the incident took place, even if the
regime is trying to blur the reality of the situation
by spreading lies and distortions. This is what happened with regards to the Gaddafi
regime attacking Libyan lawyer Iman al-Obeidi, who
courageously exposed the Libyan regime and the
practices of its soldiers and mercenaries, brining the
crime of her rape to the attention of the world, and
bringing the regime and its practices to trial in the
court of public opinion. It seems that the Libyan
regime has told many lies, particularly in the recent
period when it began to feel the noose around it
tightening, however its desperate attempts to distort
the truth and destroy the reputation of this young
Libyan woman represents the summit of its moral and
ethical collapse. Perhaps one could not expect
anything else from this regime whose leader described
the people of Libya as rats and stray dogs, calling
for their extermination. The Libyan regime attempted to confront the young
lawyer that challenged it utilizing all of its
security and media tools, however Iman al-Obeidi faced
this without any such weapons, breaking through the
fear barrier and any feelings of shame in order to
publicly confront the regime and tell her tragic
story, which freezes the blood of any respectable
human being. Iman al-Obeidi entered the hotel where
the foreign journalists were staying under the
watchful eyes of the regime which prevents them from
freely traveling around Tripoli and speaking to its
citizens without supervision to tell her story. Libyan
security officials rushed to silence her after she
began to tell how she was arrested by Gaddafi forces
at a security checkpoint and imprisoned for two days
during which she was raped a number of times. We saw
hotel staff reveal themselves to be undercover members
of the Libyan security apparatus as they rushed to
forcibly and violently silence the young Libyan girl.
When foreign journalists attempted to intervene to
protect Iman al-Obeidi against the attempts to
forcibly remove her, they too were beaten, and their
equipment destroyed by security forces in their
frenzied attempt to prevent any pictures or footage
being taken of the scene. This scene disgraces the regime, however the
greatest disgrace is what happened afterwards. Libyan
officials and spokespersons rushed to tarnish the
image and reputation of the young Libyan lawyer for
daring to talk about her suffering. In the beginning,
the official Libyan spokesman said that the
investigators informed him that the girl "was drunk"
and that she was mentally ill. This is the standard
response of the Gaddafi regime. Did we not heard
Colonel Gaddafi himself say that the Libyans who
rebelled against him were drunks and on drugs? After
this, a Libyan television presenter fronted an entire
program on Libyan television which aimed to undermine
Iman al-Obeidi's reputation, describing her as a liar
and accusing her of "selling out her country and the
Libyan people." She criticized Iman al-Obeidi saying
"even prostitutes can be patriotic." This
"revolutionary" presented wanted Iman al-Obeidi to
keep silent about what happened in order to preserve
the reputation of Libya, so is this justice in
Gaddafi's Jamahiriya? The presenter revealed her
stance when she said "our morals in Libya is that a
girl should not talk, parents would rather die than
reveal that their daughter had been raped, indeed they
might kill the girl [to prevent this being revealed]"
The few minutes in which the young lawyer told her
story to the journalist was enough to challenge the
regime and ensure that all international media and
internet websites covered this story which has
horrified everybody, revealing to the world some of
the practices being carried out by the agents and
supporters of the Gaddafi regime away from prying
eyes. This regime which is utilizing mercenaries to
kill its own people has allowed for the country's
women to be abused, the entire world saw a glimpse of
this during the early days of the crisis when a
video-clip shown on YouTube and television showed
mercenaries forcibly entering a residential building
with women screaming "they want to break into our
homes and kill us" being heard in the background. In a
situation such as this where the regime is pushing its
battalions and mercenaries to kill people, it is not
strange for us to hear about a doctor in a city in
eastern Libya revealing that after the regime's forces
were expelled, a number of women came to hospital for
treatment after being raped. So Iman al-Obeidi is not
alone in suffering as a result of the regime's crimes,
and the violation of all values, particularly the
values of the Libyan people. The Gaddafi regime spent a great deal of time
trying to destroy the reputation of the young lawyer,
with a Libyan official spokesman coming out to claim
that she was a prostitute. He then attempted to play
down this story, telling journalists – who showered
him with questions about Iman al-Obeidi's fate after
security men forcibly arrested her – that she is well
and is being treated well. He then said that she had
been released and was with her sister and family, and
that four people had been arrested and questioned
about this incident. However just hours later, this
same official spokesman said that the Libyan
authorities" had questioned the girl and the
circumstances surrounding this case" and that "the
other party (i.e. the party accused by Iman al-Obeidi
of rape) is being sued by her alleged attacks for
libel and slander. With the intensification of the regime's campaign
against Iman al-Obeidi, her parents came out to defy
injustice and attempts to intimidate and silence them.
Iman al-Obeidi's father defended his daughter in an
interview broadcast by Al Jazeera, in which he
confirmed that his daughter did not suffer from any
mental illness or mental deficiency, as the regime has
attempted to claim, revealing that she is a lawyer and
has graduated from the Faculty of Law. Whilst Iman al-Obeidi's
mother tearfully revealed that the regime asked her to
intervene and convince her daughter to change her
story, in return for money or a house. However even if
the Libyan regime has sold its honour and values, Iman
al-Obeidi's mother refused to sacrifice her daughter,
and told her to be steadfast. The bereaved mother said
that she was not ashamed of her daughter, but that she
was proud because her will did not break in the face
of the security elements. Iman al-Obeidi's tragedy is another chapter in the
fall of Colonel Gaddafi's regime, which has lost all
of its legitimacy after it resorted to killing and
extermination to subdue the public, stripping itself
of all values and ethics. Comments 💬 التعليقات |