Last night in New York City, Vital Voices partnered with Anne Barnard of The New York Times for a lively discussion about the role of Libyan women in shaping the future of their country.
For much of her career, Anne has reported from war zones, and recently brought their voices to the front page of the Times: “Libya’s War-Tested Women Hope to Keep New Power.” Anne highlights women-led initatives to support the uprising, and notes that “Libyan women have big plans and face big obstacles.”
Two Libyan women joined us for Wednesday night’s discussion. Shahrazad Kablan, the founder of Libyan Women Alliance and Libyan Outreach, Sara Maziq from the Women4Libya steering group and founder of Libyan’s Civil Society Organization and Transparency Libya. Inge Relph, the Women, Peace, and Security Advisor at Women4Libya also attended the event.
These three women are hard at work rebuilding the country they love and securing women’s inclusion in all aspects of society. Read this summary of the evening in the Times: “With New Hope, Women Activists Keep Hope on Libya.”
Followig news of Muammar Gaddafi’s death on Thursday, Shahrazad shared her perspective:
“Libya today is embarking on a long journey of reconciliation and rebuilding and the Libyan people will need the support of the international community to become a stable partner in the Middle East. In light of today’s event with the death of Gaddafi and hopefully the end of the war, we have to expedite the work to establish a solid ground for civil society to flourish and take its deserved role in shaping the new country.”
Our thanks to Vital Voices Board Member Emeritus, Jill Iscol, who hosted the event in her New York home. Watch out for more from the event, including a transcript of the discussion and many more photos. Below, check out a few photos from the event.
In the main photo, from left: author Jill Iscol, Alyse Nelson and Anne Barnard of The New York Times. Photo credit: Aaron Kisner.