Yalda Hakim has travelled to Benghazi in Libya for SBS's Dateline to tell the rarely-reported stories of the women of the revolution, and found that many have had their lives torn apart by the country's conflict.
Rape has been widely used as a weapon of war, leaving behind a stigma for the victims' families, and many who have escaped must bring up their children in a strange city, not knowing if or when their husbands will join them.
One woman, who refused to give her name because of fear, fled Misrata with her seven children, leaving her husband and 25-year-old son to fight. She tells Yalda, “Rapes and kidnappings really do happen. None of what you heard was a lie.”
Rebuilding
But as well as meeting everyday Libyans, Yalda also speaks to high profile women helping to shape the country's future, such as Salwa Digalil from the National Transitional Council, which is trying to establish basic services that Libyans have long lived without.
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“There have been no social services in the last 42 years”, she says. “The regime didn't acknowledge social problems.”
No one knows that more than 83-year-old Noura Jibreel, who remembers the time before Gaddafi and says he's ruined everything.
“He's closed our country, our mosques, our universities”, she tells Yalda. “Him and his children – they are the biggest devils.”
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