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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Libya
Index
Libyans reckon kinship patrilineally, and the household is
based on blood ties between men. A typical household consists of a
man, his wife, his single and married sons with their wives and
children, his unmarried daughters, and perhaps other relatives,
such as a widowed or divorced mother or sister. At the death of the
father, each son ideally establishes his own household to begin the
cycle again. Because of the centrality of family life, it is
assumed that all persons will marry when they reach an appropriate
age. Adult status is customarily bestowed only on married men and,
frequently, only on fathers.
In traditional North African society, family patriarchs ruled
as absolute masters over their extended families, and in Libya the
institution seems to have survived somewhat more tenaciously than
elsewhere in the area. Despite the changes in urban and rural
society brought about by the 1969 revolution, the revolutionary
government has repeatedly stated that the family is the core of
society.
The 1973 census, the last for which complete data were
available in mid-1987, showed that the typical household consisted
of five to six individuals and that about 12 percent of the
households were made up of eight or more members. The pattern was
about the same as that reported from the 1964 census, and a 1978
Tripoli newspaper article called attention to the continued
strength of the extended family. Individuals subordinated their
personal interests to those of the family and considered themselves
to be members of a group whose importance outweighed their own.
Loyalty to family, clan, and tribe outweighed loyalty to a
profession or class and inhibited the emergence of new leaders and
a professional elite.
Marriage is more a family than a personal affair and a civil
contract rather than a religious act. Because the sexes generally
were unable to mix socially, young men and women enjoyed few
acquaintances among the opposite sex. Parents arranged marriages
for their children, finding a mate either through their own social
contacts or through a professional matchmaker. Unions between the
children of brothers were customarily preferred, or at least
matches between close relatives or within the same tribe. One
study, however, showed that many marriages occurred outside these
bounds, the result of increased levels of education and internal
migration. Nomads, particularly the Tuareg, have always allowed
much more freedom of choice and courtship.
According to law, the affianced couple must have given their
consent to the marriage, but in practice the couple tends to take
little part in the arrangements. The contract establishes the terms
of the union and outlines appropriate recourse if they are broken.
The groom's family provides a dowry, which can amount to the
equivalent of US$10,000 in large cities. Accumulation of the
requisite dowry may be one reason that males tend to be several
years older than females at the time of marriage.
Islamic law gives the husband far greater discretion and far
greater leeway with respect to marriage than it gives the wife. For
example, the husband may take up to four wives at one time,
provided that he can treat them equally; a woman, however, can have
only one husband at a time. Despite the legality of polygyny, only
3 percent of marriages in the 1980s were polygynous, the same as a
decade earlier. A man can divorce his wife simply by repeating "I
divorce thee" three times before witnesses; a woman can initiate
divorce proceedings only with great difficulty. Any children of the
union belong to the husband's family and remain with him after the
divorce.
Both the monarchical and revolutionary governments enacted
statutes improving the position of females with respect to
marriage. The minimum age for marriage was set at sixteen for
females and at eighteen for males. Marriage by proxy has been
forbidden, and a 1972 law prescribes that a girl cannot be married
against her will or when she is under the age of sixteen. Should
her father forbid her marriage to a man whom she has chosen for
herself, a girl who is a minor (under the age of twenty-one) may
petition a court for permission to proceed with her marriage.
The revolutionary government has enacted several statutes
expanding women's rights and restricting somewhat those of men in
matters of divorce. Women received increased rights to seek divorce
or separation by either customary or legal means in cases of
abandonment or mistreatment. Other laws prohibit a man from taking
a second spouse without first obtaining the approval of his first
wife and forbid a divorced man from marrying an alien woman, even
an Arab from another country. A companion law prohibits men in the
employ of the state from marrying non-Arab women. Yet the child
born abroad of a Libyan father is eligible for Libyan citizenship
irrespective of the mother's nationality, while a child born to a
Libyan mother would not be accorded automatic Libyan citizenship.
In a society as tradition-bound as Libya's, the effects of
these new laws were problematic. Despite the backing of the regime
and Qadhafi's calls for still further modifications in favor of
women, the society reportedly was not yet ready to acknowledge the
new rights, and women were still hesitant in claiming them.
Data as of 1987
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