Sami Zaptia Libya Herald The handover ceremony between Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC) and the newly elected 200-member General National Congress (GNC) by any standard was a truly historic day for both Libya and for democracy in general. Here was an unelected body, the NTC, in a developing part of the world handing over power peacefully and seamlessly to a newly elected body, the GNC. There were no deaths, no bullets, no fires, no demonstrations, no negotiations, and no international mediators trying to reconcile outgoing and incoming parties. The ceremony Wednesday night unsurprisingly started slightly late. The presenter, Sarah Elmesallati, had to nudge the participants on a couple of occasions to take their seats for the ceremony to start. It was not surprising that those gathered were excited. It was the first time, and probably the last, that all the newly elected 200 GNC members, the 100-odd NTC members, the present government and members of the first post-Revolution administration of Mahmoud Jibril, all met in the same space. No wonder the road to the Congress Hall was closed off and heavy security surrounded the area. Elmesallati eventually succeeded in getting the gathering to settle down and she smoothly commenced proceedings. She made her introduction speech and presented the next speaker. There was nothing wrong with what she said, nor the manner in which she presented it. However, little did Elmesallati know that she was to become the eye of the storm regarding her appearance. During Elmesallati's opening remarks Salaheldin Badi, an independent GNC member from Misrata, shouted, “cover your hair”. Apparently the majority did not support the outcry, or if they did, they did not support the way in which it was presented. Mustafa Abdul Jalil, head of the NTC, obviously agreed with the sentiment. When he spoke at the podium he commented that “today we are a people celebrating religious occasions and we have our traditions and practices”. He made no direct comment about the presenter, but the message was clear. After Abdul Jalil finished his speech, Sarah Elmesallati did not reappear on stage and was replaced by an unprepared and clearly nervous male stand-in. She told Libya Herald later that Abdul Jalil gestured to her not to continue. This is not the first time that Abdul Jalil made a controversial statement at a major occasion. Who could forget the flak that he received for his Liberation Day speech in which he urged Libyan men to exercise their Islamic right to marry four wives. Wednesday night Abdul Jalil once again stole the limelight for all the wrong reasons, and once again he received criticism for imposing his own personal views and for getting his priorities wrong. Instead of concentrating on the pressing issues of national safety and security, reconciliation, the armed militias, unemployment, corruption and transparency or accountability, he chose to concentrate on the personal choice of whether one woman was or was not wearing her headscarf. Two major points that Abdul Jalil made in his speech have been pushed out of the limelight by the controversy. The first was that Libya did not compensate and has not committed itself to compensating the international community for its efforts during the Revolution. The second and equally major point he mentioned was the need to do away with food and fuel subsidies and replace them with direct cash subsidies. Nope — no one has been able to get past the headscarf incident. The controversy brings to the fore the debate in Libya on women's rights in an Islamic society and issues of personal choice, personal freedoms and tolerance of the opposite view. The incident is a symptom of the battle between the contending schools of thought in Libya attempting to shape the new Libya. Article 14 of the Transitional Constitutional Declaration, a document Abdul Jalil is an instigator of, clearly says that “the state guarantees the freedom of opinion and expression to individuals and groups…insofar as it does not conflict with the law”. It also clearly says in Article 7 that “the state guarantees human and basic rights and seeks to join international declarations and conventions that protect these rights and freedoms”. Although Article 1 says that Shariah is “the main source of authority”, it also clearly says the “people are the source of power” and that “the state guarantees the rights of non-Muslims to practice their religions.” There is no written law that imposes the wearing of the hijab (headscarf) in Libya, and hence, it is not an offense not to wear one. Yet the TCD guarantees the rights of non-Muslims to practice their religion. The TCD, it seems, gives more protection and more freedoms to non-Muslims and non-Libyans than it does to the Libyan citizens it was written to protect. It could be argued by one reading of the Transitional Constitutional Declaration that Elmesallati was exercising her individual human right and freedom to not wear a headscarf and that this right is enshrined in Articles 1 and 14 of the TCD. It is also arguable that Abdul Jalil transgressed on Elmesallati's individual human right and freedom and instigated a discriminatory act by ordering her removal. The issue of the role of the state and individual rights and freedoms is a much more vexing one. As expected, much of the criticism of the whole affair was aimed at Abdul Jalil. He was criticized for choosing not to object to the appointment or appearance of Health Minister Fatma Hamroush who is also not a wearer of the hijab and of shaking hands with women such as Hillary Clinton. It will be interesting to see what the reaction of the 200-member GNC will be to this affair. It will be of particular interest to see the reaction of the female GNC members, especially those of them who are not hijab wearers. Will they be allowed to enter the GNC without wearing the hijab, if they so choose? Little did Elmesallati know, with hair uncovered, what she was letting herself in for on Wednesday night as she innocently walked up to the podium on what she must have thought was the biggest night of her life. She was apparently consoled and encouraged by many leading figures present at the ceremony afterward. A leading Libyan English-language radio station immediately hosted her on a show and a Facebook page supporting her has already got over a thousand “likes”. She has been transformed into an overnight celebrity and will forever be associated with this historic night in Libya's democratic development. She must not take it personally. She is a symbol for, and a victim of, a much wider and deeper battle of ideas, ideals, beliefs and politics that is going to play out throughout the new democratic Libya over the next few days, months, years and decades. The battle may never end. It is a long process, a process that will hopefully remain within the acceptable democratic rules of the game – peaceful and civil.
