During Gadhafi’s rule, it was almost impossible for a man to marry a second wife. While polygamy was not banned outright, it was made very difficult thanks to a clever legal maneuver. The law required any man wishing to marry a second wife to obtain the consent of his first wife.
Such consent is only legal if obtained through a court of law: A judge would ask the first wife, in private, whether she permits her husband to marry a second time. Should a man marry a second wife without the written consent of his first wife, the marriage contract is illegal.
Although official figures are unavailable, it is thought that this law played a significant role in making polygamy almost obsolete.
The NTC was also responsible for another piece of legislation that disadvantaged women when, in 2012, it adopted the election law allocating only 10% of the seats to women in the national elections, while leaving it to political parties how to allocate seats at the local level.
In a male-dominated society, women will have little say at the local level if the law is not on their side, since all political parties are led by men, making women’s chances of getting nominated in any party’s list slim.
In fact, and in spite of its role in the revolution, the NTC itself only had two female members, one being the murdered Bugaighis. The other is Salwa el-Deghali.
During the Gadhafi era, women made steady progress in gaining access to education and work. It became very common to see female lawyers, judges, civilian pilots and university professors.
One of the greatest achievements for women under the Gadhafi regime was unlimited access to free education at all levels. Realizing the importance of education in modernizing society, the former regime made it compulsory for parents to keep their children of both sexes in school until the age of nine.
