Libya will introduce morality police in the capital to enforce “modesty” and clamp down on “strange” haircuts, the country’s interior minister has said.
Girls from the age of nine will have to wear veils, and women will be forbidden from travelling without a male companion or sitting “inappropriately” with men in public after the crackdown begins next month.
The sweeping attack on personal freedom is also intended to reverse the influence of “imported” European fashion and social media trends, such as clothing and popular hairstyles including quiffs or skin-fades.
The morality police will have the power to shut down barbershops and shisha bars that do not comply with the new regulations.
Emad Al-Trabelsi, the interior minister of Libya’s Tripoli-based, UN-backed Government of National Unity (GNU), warned the morality police would ensure strict adherence to the country’s Islamic “social values”.
“Personal freedom does not exist here in Libya,” said Mr Al-Trabelsi, adding that those seeking it “should go to Europe”.
Experts have warned that the Libyan government is introducing the so-called morality police to tighten its grip on the country.
Repression ‘under the guise of upholding morality’
Libya has faced deep instability since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi’s dictatorial rule in 2011. The country was severed into eastern and western factions in 2014, each governed by rival administrations.Bassam Al Kantar, Amnesty International’s Libya Researcher, said that Mr Al-Trabelsi threat was a “a dangerous escalation in the already suffocating levels of repression” faced by Libyans.
“The Government must scrap plans for these repressive measures and instead address the human rights crisis across the country, characterised by mass arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, torture and unfair trials,” he said.
Hanan Saleh, associate director of the Middle East and North Africa division at Human Rights Watch, said the “arbitrary and repressive laws” for women and girls were being implemented “under the guise of upholding morality”.
“The government should urgently rescind any such plans that would violate fundamental rights, and instead, guarantee that women and girls do not face discrimination and that their rights are respected,” she told The Telegraph.
Jalel Harchaoui, an expert on North African security and a fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security (RUSI), warned that installing morality police would also give the government “vicious” powers to “streamline arrests” without the “formality of legal procedures”.
Mr Harchaoui emphasised that due to Libya’s continued political divisions, the new restrictions will be concentrated in some areas of the capital.
“Libya is not a normal situation. The Prime Minister cannot project power in all of the capital, let alone beyond the capital. We’re talking about some neighbourhoods, in the best scenario,” he told The Telegraph.
He added that the measures were a way for Mr Al-Trabelsi, the interior minister, to consolidate his power.
“The main goal here is to remind the universe that [Mr Al-Trabelsi] exists as an interior minister, that he matters, that this is still just the beginning,” he said.
