Libyan minister seeks mandatory hijab and morality police

Interior Minister Imad Trabelsi also proposed bans on mixing of genders in public and 'indecent' clothing and hairstyles

Imad Trabelsi, centre left, Interior Minister in Libya's Government of National Unity. AFP

While Libya struggles with the impact of years of civil war and the division of the country under two separate governments, the Interior Minister in the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity is seeking to make head coverings mandatory for women and launch a morality police to enforce this and other measures against "indecent" behaviour in public.

Interior Minister Imad Trabelsi proposed his ideas at a press conference called to discuss smuggling last week, and said he would speak to Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah and the Education Minister about making wearing headscarves, or hijab, mandatory for girls from the fourth grade onwards.

“All of our women are respectful but there is a small category that is not respecting the norms and we must act to correct that,” he said. He said he would also seek to shut down beauty salons, ban certain "indecent" hairstyles for men and women, stop opposite genders from mixing in public and require women to have a male guardian in order to travel.

"We will reactivate the morality police and we already have an administration specialised in morals," Mr Trabelsi said. Although Libya has never had a morality police, some Islamist militias began forcing their moral codes on the public after rising to power in the years after the overthrow of dictator Muammar Qaddafi in 2011.

The has been no public reaction to Mr Trabelsi's proposals from Mr Dbeibah or his government, but rights group Amnesty International denounced his ideas in a statement on Friday, saying they would further entrench discrimination against women and girls. “Proposals to impose compulsory veiling on women and girls as young as nine, restrict interactions between men and women, and police young people’s personal choices with regards to hairstyles and clothing are not only deeply alarming, but also violate Libya’s obligations under international law,” the group said.

Jalel Harchaoui, a Libya analyst and associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute think tank in London, said Mr Trabelsi's attempt to impose such measures would probably not stand because of opposition from the public. “I do not think he would succeed in implementing what he is talking about – the situation might be intense for a while but it [the measures] will not be sustained,” he told The National.

“People were caught off-guard by such a statement and it’s coming from nowhere; everybody has been talking about how they were enjoying safety and how women have been feeling safe to move around on their own.” Public sentiment in recent years has never been inclined towards implementing “a strict interpretation of Islam”, Mr Harchaoui said.

The EU Ambassador to Libya, Nicola Orlando, said on X that he had reminded Mr Trabelsi at a meeting on Monday that the bloc's partnership with the North African country "remains firmly rooted in respect for universal human rights and humanitarian principles, as well as Libyan sovereignty and culture".