The Women’s Center in Zawia is a learning space for women and girls of the community – free lessons include Cooking Classes, Quran Classes, Language Classes, and assisting women in their own at – home businesses. We also encourage discussions related to current events and peace building dialogue. The center is used by over 10 local Civil Society Organizations for their weekly meetings, workshops and events at no cost. It is also home to a Children’s Sanctuary run by the local NGO “Mother’s of Martyrs”, and is utilized by over 300 local Zawian women.

The Zawia Women’s Center, supported in part by the Finnish Government, has been a place for support for mothers, wives and sisters of martyrs, who lost their lives in support of our great February 17th revolution. It is also the only Center which exists out of a major city. We thank the Zawian local council, military officials and community who have been endlessly supportive of this endeavor.

The Voice of Libyan Women are the organizers of “International Purple Hijab Day“.

We thank you all for you sincere support, and hope that the success of Zawian women, and Libyan women as a whole, continues. For more information on the Women’s Center, or any other VLW initiatives, please contact info(at)vlwlibya.org or you can use our contact page .

There will also be two Key Recommendation Building Sessions, “How to move forward – A Roadmap for Women’s Participation in the Constitution” and “How to move forward: Security and Security Provisions” which will allow participants to focus solely on establishing concrete procedures among themselves, allowing them to create change both on a local and national level.

The conference will feature keynote speakers including the His Excellency Dr. Mohamed Magariaf, the Honorable Amina Megheirbi, Member of the General National Congress of Libya, His Excellency Rainer Eberle, German Ambassador to Libya, Former Austrian Minister Maria Rauch-Kallat. H.E Melanne Verveer, the United States Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues will be delivering a video message to participants, as will internationally renowned women’s rights activist Zainab Salbi, founder of Women for Women International.

Libyan speakers include the Honorable Majda Fallah, member of the General National Congress of Libya, Ahmed Bani of the National Military Council, prominent judges Naima Gibril and Thuraya Ghdamsy, Founder of the Al Taghyeer Political Party Juma Al Gamaty, Former Libyan Prime Minister Abdulrahim El Keib, Intisar Aghily formerly of the National Transitional Council, Abdulrahman Arabi, Head of the Department of Civil Society within the Ministry of Culture, Prominent lawyer Azza Maghur, Sami Zaptia owner of KnowLibya and editor of the Libya Herald, Intisar Azzouz , as well as leading Libyan activists: Rania Swedak, Rabab Halab, Shafa Abida, Najla Mangoush, Wafia Safialnasr, Riadh Salem, Ibtesam Bheh and Huda Alghali. Panel moderators include Najiba Istaita, Najat Dau, Heba Alshibani, Rida Al Tabuly, Mohamed Murabit, Nadine Nasrat, Samira Elmassoudi, Amal Twatti, Azza Maghur, and Laila Bughaighis.

International speakers include the Co-Founder and Executive Director of the American Islamic Congress Zainab Al-Suwaij, Anna Luhrmann, the youngest-ever member of the German Parliament as well as the youngest member of parliament in the world. Sally Fehat founder of The Uprising of Women in the Arab World, and , activists Christina Hering, Sufian Benfarhat, Shatha Al-Harazi, Judith Brand, Kathrin Quesada, Inge Relph, and Katarina Kralikova.

November 2011, One Voice marked itself as the first ever International Women’s Conference in Libya and earned a reputation for pragmatic and actionable recommendations. One Voice 2011 has since been acknowledged as a pivotal moment in the women’s movement in Libya, as it propelled further action nationally from female activists and geared civil society organizations, many of which were humanitarian aimed, into a new arena.

This year’s One Voice 2013 program is being organized in collaboration with Attawasul Association, Together we Build it Movement, The Committee for the Support of Women in Decision-Making and Tripoli Women’s Union. It has been generously supported by The German Federal Foreign Office.
During the final evening of One Voice 2013: New Horizons The Voice of Libyan Women will present the first ever “Khadijah Al-Jehmy” Award for outstanding representation of women in public life as well as the “Hamidah El-Anezi” Award for outstanding initiative

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About The Voice of Libyan Women

The Voice of Libyan Women (VLW) was initially founded in August 2011 as a result of the February 17 Revolution which renewed not only our hope for equality in Libya, but also renewed the hope of the Libyan society as a whole in their basic human rights, including women’s rights. This hope quickly translated into action, which VLW believes is the best method for any concrete improvement with regards to women’s rights.

Although VLW has grown considerably since its founding, we remain a youth-led organization and have a strong base in our hometown of Zawia. As a group of young Libyan women from different backgrounds, our ultimate goal is to advocate for an increased investment into one of Libya’s greatest resources which unfortunately has yet to receive the attention it deserves: women.

We focus our activities mainly on: improving the political participation and the economic empowerment of women in Libya. We are also active in advocating against gender based violence (GBV).

For more information on One Voice 2013: New Horizons please visit:

Our Full Project Report can be found here: http://www.vlwlibya.org/resources/VLW-2011-July-2012.pdf

Learn more about The Voice of Libyan Women at www.vlwlibya.org or www.facebook.com/Thevoiceoflibyanwomen or contact info@vlwlibya.org for more information.

Media Contacts:

Arabic:
Suhaila Shehoumi
Media Director
The Voice of Libyan Women
media@vlwlibya.org
+218927675070

English:
Issraa Murabit
Vice President
The Voice of Libyan Women
issraa@vlwlibya.org
+218918616199

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 Due to recent media attention on certain incidents that are being related to women’s rights issues in Libya and which are painting a negative picture and undermining the progress that has been made, not only the visible changes, but the changes in mentality and the importance of women’s inclusion in decision-making. A matter of months ago, it would have been an idealistic dream to even be discussing the importance and mechanism of women’s involvement in public life in Libya. The fact that the importance of women’s roles are now being highlighted and fought for by not only Libyan women, but Libyan men as well is a landmark of progression and growth and realization of the ultimate values of equality that this revolution was built on.

Unfortunately media is quick to disregard input from activists on the ground, who have traveled the country safely numerous times and done work in regards to women’s political, social and economic rights not only with the blessing of the local communities but more importantly with the active and enthusiastic support of the women and men in these communities.

Despite there being no threats or issues, brigades in Zawia guard our women’s center, voluntarily and even in winter, for which we are thankful.

Many of our programs incorporate religious foundations, and the reason for this is because women’s rights issues in Libya are rooted in a lack of Islamic education and knowledge more than anything else. We have to understand that we are first and foremost an Islamic country and that our ability to achieve our realizations is only through a better understanding of our religion, and not through simply following the culture. We can say that we will entice women to get more economically, politically or socially involved, however without understanding that Islam supports and pushes these women to do so, Libyan society as a whole will not support it.

Our ultimate challenge is reeducating ourselves on Islam, and allowing growth and understanding while keeping in mind that our religion is one which allows for the full rights of ALL people, and that it is our own man-made culture and traditions, as well as recently imported ideals, which hinder our growth as not only women, but Libyans as a whole.

We thank you all for your unending support, trust, recommendations, criticisms, and ideas. We hope you will continue to actively engage with us and that you continue with us on this journey, as we know we have only just begun to take on a massive task and responsibility. Our members are constantly working on representing Libyan women and society to the best of their abilities and are always eager and open to hearing your suggestions and answering your questions.

With all our love and thanks,
The VLW Family

Do you want to make real change?

The Voice of Libyan Women, in partnership with Inclusive Security, based in Washington, D.C, will be conducting a workshop on Advocacy for civil society leaders in Libya! The workshop, to be conducted in early November, will act to enhance the advocacy skills of activists to ensure greater results.

Places are limited. For more information please contact info@vlwlibya.org

All our love,
The VLW Family

Click here to view the PDF file for One Voice 2012 Call for papers.

 ”One Voice 2012: New Horizons” will be done in collaboration with Attawasul Association, Tripoli Women’s Union, Together we build it movement and The Women’s Support Committee to Participate in Decision Making.

Last year, in an effort to truly get the message of Libyan women heard, we hosted the first ever International Women’s Conference during November 11 – 15th 2011. The conference proved to be phenomenally successful, bringing together over 150 women from all over Libya, who ultimately made 22 recommendations to the NTC in areas such as political participation of women, economic empowerment of women, and social and education improvement. Former Libyan Prime Minister Mahmoud Gibril, current Libyan Prime Minister Abdulrahim El Keib, and the Chairman of the National Transitional Council, Mustafa Abdul Jaleel all attended, and remained in attendance for nearly four hours, during which they were questioned about previous comments and decisions made in regards to women. Nearly 25 other members of the NTC were also present, although the Ministries had not yet been assigned at this point. International guest speakers included Her Excellency Catherine Ashton, as well as Ian Martin, SRSG of the UNSMIL, and the Director of Human Rights Watch International – Women’s Division, Liesl Gerntholz.The official First Announcement and Call for Papers for One Voice 2012: New Horizons will be announced August 28th 2012.Registration for Speakers will open August 28th 2012 and remain open until September 15th 2012, the deadline had been extended to October 25th 2012.

General Registration for Potential Applicants will open September 5th 2012 and remain open until September 26th 2012, the deadline had been extended to October 25th 2012. As One Voice 2012 is a closed conference – only registered applicants may attend.

The Voice of Libyan Women is extremely pleased to have influenced the Women, Peace and Security Act, which was introduced on August 1 2012 in Washington, D.C. VLW Founder Alaa Murabit, along with the newly elected Amina Megheirbi, met with Congressman Russ Carnahan in late February 2012, and strongly advocated for women to have stronger roles in peace negotiations and reconciliation talks.

We are glad to have influenced such an important Act, and hope that it will translate on the ground in Libya.