Tunisia: Longing For A Place To Call Home

Since the outbreak of war in 1991, Somalia has been left with no central government. Located in the Horn of Africa, this east African country has managed to maintain an informal economy based on livestock, remittances from its expatriate community, and the telecommunications sector. However, two decades of civil war has disrupted many lives and forced many Somalis to flee their country in search of asylum.

Sixty-three year old Hawiyeh Awal is one of them. Eighteen years ago Hawiyeh embarked on a treacherous journey through the desert with her daughter after violence, which claimed the lives of her entire family, and caused severe damages to both of her hands.

"Both of my hands were hit during a gun battle and they were unable to save my small finger on my left hand. My right hand suffered many fractures. After losing my family it was hard to ignore the situation anymore," Awal told Her Blueprint. "The government in Mogadishu wasn't doing anything to protect us and I needed to find safety for me and my daughter."

Relying on middlemen, Hawiyeh was able to survive a four month journey through the desert to finally reach her destination in Libya. For eighteen years, she managed to rebuild her life working as a domestic worker for Libyan families but then the civil war broke out.

When we met, Hawiyeh was sitting outside her makeshift tent with her daughter and grandson as they tried to find a bit of shade from the Tunisian desert's scorching sun. She was sitting on a white bucket that she had turned upside down to function as a temporary chair, while her daughter -- who is in her late twenties -- nibbles at the couscous mixed with onions and tomatoes they were given for lunch.

"I'm scared that I'm going to die in this hot desert," she explains. "I have diabetes and I've lost more than eight kilos since coming here because of the hot weather."

Like many other migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers from Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, Hawiyeh was once again uprooted from her fairly stable situation and forced to flee to Libya's North African neighbor of Tunisia by bus several months ago.

"The situation was getting really bad. Many families were being held up at gunpoint in their homes and robbed," Hawiyeh adds. "I started to worry for my daughter because she is without a husband and emotionally I just couldn't bear going through another war."

Tens of thousands of individuals have crossed Ras Ajdir border crossing to the under-equipped and under-staffed Shousha refugee camp in Tunisia with what little belongings they manage to salvage. For many, Libya was a relatively stable economy where one could find modest work or flee political violence due to Muammar Gaddafi's Pan African stance in the 1990's, which opened the country's borders.

Now many just wait for another border to open.

"My daughter and I can't bear the situation in this camp anymore because all we do is sit and wait. We're just hoping to be resettled in a safe place where I can find medical treatment because here we must first get approval from the Tunisian military in order to access any kind of healthcare," Hawiyeh adds. "The problem is that the West decided to bomb Libya in order to protect people but also decided to close their borders so no one is interested in protecting us. We're trapped here."

Tunisia: Faced With a Life in Limbo Part II

During my two week visit to the Shousha refugee camp on the Libyan-Tunisian border I had the fortunate opportunity of meeting several individuals who were trying to make the most out their new living situation after the Libyan civil war erupted. In part two of my series on how two young women have managed to overcome their obstacles while faced with a life in limbo I introduce twenty-year old Mowahab Abdullah Noor.

As a means of preserving her identity due to the nature of the story she reveals I opted not share her portrait but instead an artistic view of the sprawling tent city that was erected to house the thousands of economic migrants, political refugees and asylum seekers that sought refuge in Tunisia. This is her story.

My name is Mowahab Abdullah Noor and I'm twenty-years-old. I was born in 1990 and have never lived outside of Libya or ever seen my country of Sudan. My parents are from Al Fasher City in Darfur. The problems in Darfur started in 1958 when the Sudanese government started preventing Darfurian people from living a normal life like the other Sudanese by denying them access to government jobs, education in the University and there was a lot of racism.

Fearing for their life, my parents fled to the capital Khartoum and then to Tripoli in 1988 because during this time the government was attacking villages, taking women as hostages or using them as human shields and killing new born boys because they believed that once they reached adulthood they would take up arms against the central government.

There are some people that choose to close their eyes to the truth but I'll never stop sharing these stories.

While in Libya my father worked as a cook and my mother was a domestic worker for Libyan families. My two brothers and younger sister and I attended the best schools that our parents could afford and before fleeing Libya I was in my third year of University pursuing a degree in the medical field.

When the Libyan civil war broke out my family was shocked because we never thought revolutions on this scale could ever happen in the Arab world. Actually, in Tunisia and Egypt it was great to see the people take back their freedom after all those years of being oppressed but in Libya it took a bloody turn because people no longer respected the law and started raping women, taking hostages and killing people.

Eventually all the companies shut down and my father and I lost our jobs, our education was halted due to the closure of the schools and for two months we remained trapped in our house because no one was allowed to go out, especially men because they were killing any males caught on the street.

The situation became very difficult for us because we were drinking tap water, which was so salty and undrinkable but it was what we had. Whenever there was relative calm on the streets our mother would go out to the market for food but there were many days that we starved from running out of food.

As refugees we had only two options, which was to stay in Libya and risk being killed by the NATO airstrikes or be killed by the Libyans but luckily we learned that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was helping those stranded flee Libya and on the 9 May we arrived at the Shousha refugee camp in Tunisia. However, the reality of ending up in a refugee camp has been a big tragedy for our parents because they left Sudan to protect us from living this kind of life, only to find it again.

Through this experience I've learned to be strong and accept this current situation by volunteering and working with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) where I've been able to work as a nurses aid and assist their psychologists who provide mental health services to inhabitants of the camp. This opportunity has actually allowed me to gain some hands on experience with working in the medical field, which is going to be helpful for when I'm eventually resettled in a new country and can resume my studies.

Tunisia: Faced With a Life in Limbo

Photo credit: NY Times

NATO's five month bombing campaign in Libya under the guise of protecting civilians has not only caused major disruptions to the lives of thousands of Libyan civilians but it has also taken its toll on countless numbers of refugees from sub-Saharan Africa who took up refuge in Libya after fleeing violence and persecution in their own countries.

In this two part series I'll introduce two young women whose lives were turned upside down when the "Arab Spring" reached Libya, and explore how they've managed to overcome their obstacles while faced with a life in limbo.

Twenty-year-old Eiman and her family was living a fairly good life in Libya before the war hit. Her parents, originally from Darfur, fled to Libya where Eiman and her brothers and sister were born.

At the time of the conflict, Eiman was in her third year of university where she was pursuing a degree in agronomy and nutrition but those dreams had to be put on hold as the situation worsened.

"We were so scared when fighting erupted between pro and anti-Gaddafi forces on my street because we could hear the guns, people were shouting and everyone was running from one area to the next trying to find safety," explains Eiman in an interview with Her Blueprint. "The security situation became unbearable when NATO started bombing and eventually we fled to Tunisia. My father who was in Benghazi working at the time of the fighting had to flee to Egypt and we're waiting for him to join us here in Tunisia."

Located in the middle of the desert along the main Libyan coastal highway leading to Tripoli just east of the southern Tunisian border crossing of Ras Ajdir, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) run Shousha camp has become home to thousands of refugees like Eiman since the outbreak of the Libyan war.

For most inhabitants of the camp, daily life has become difficult.

How Far Have We Come? UN Resolution 1325 Ten Years Later

Last month, the UN released the results from its evaluation of UNSC Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security. Resolution 1325 was adopted in 2000 for the purpose of protecting women and children in conflict zones. Unlike Resolutions that went before it, 1325 explicitly recognized the unique role women play in conflict zones and sought to create greater protections for women, while at the same time welcomed women into the peacemaking process.

The report evaluated UNSC Resolution 1325 on the basis of achievement as defined by six major themes:

1. Women's participation in peace negotiations and peace agreements
2. Women's participation in political processes and governance structures in conflict-affected countries.
3. Gender sensitivity and women's participation in disarmament, demobilisation, and reintegration.
4. Gender sensitivity and women's participation in security sector reform.
5. Legal and judicial reforms
6. Protection of women IDPs and refugees'

Not surprisingly, the findings were rather mixed; while the report found that generally women gained serious traction in their political standing and well-being, there are still serious issues concerning women’s physical safety.

Many of these points are even reflected by the early reports coming out of Libya. The New York Times recently reported on the brave work of female volunteers in the refugee camps in Tunisia. Women students and professionals alike are flocking to the camps to assist the refugees pouring in from Libya. “You can see in their faces that they have been through a lot, and we want to show them our solidarity,” said Dorsaf Hmidi, a 23 year old student volunteer from Tunisia. Whether it is female refugees taking on leadership roles within the camps, or an increase in the number female volunteers going to the camps, there has been a serious increase in women’s involvement in such roles since the passage of Resolution 1325.

However, just as the report outlines, violence against women, particularly sexual violence against women, persists, often with few repercussions for the attackers. One must look not further than the case of Eman al-Obeidy, the now internationally famous women who ran into a Tripoli hotel two weeks ago screaming that she had been attacked and gang raped. Rather than treating her with the concern owed to a victim of such a brutal crime, her story was suppressed and riddled by Libyan security forces. The protections afforded to women in war have come a long way but there is still much work to be done.

Libya's Ceasefire and the Safety of Journalists

In a strong move, UN Security Council Resolution 1973 has called to halt military action in Libya to ensure citizens' safety. Arab countries, European nations, and the United States all backed the resolution to force a ceasefire.

France took the lead in negotiations and now promises immediate action to impose the no fly zone. Located in North Africa, Libya has been under the control of Muammar el-Qaddafi for forty years, but in mid-February protestors and rebel groups began an uprising after witnessing successful protests throughout the Arab world.

According to the New York Times, "in Benghazi, a coastal city about 400 miles east of Tripoli, the BBC quoted witnesses as saying that the unrest was inspired by the arrest of a human rights lawyer, Fathi Terbil, who has been critical of the government. Around 2,000 people took part, the BBC said, quoting witnesses as saying the police used water cannons, tear gas and rubber bullets. The number of injuries was unclear."

By March 5, el-Qaddafi's forces had killed at least 35 people when they opened fire on unarmed protestors in Tripoli and Zawiyah. From there, escalating daily violence has occurred against innocent victims in both Libya and Bahrain.

Captured Journalists Are Safe
Today, four New York Times journalists held in Libya are also said to be freed after finally making contact with their families for the first time on Thursday since their disappearance on Tuesday. The Libyan government held Anthony Shahid, the Times's Beirut bureau chief, Tyler Hicks, Stephen Farrell, and Lynsey Addario. Qaddafi's son Saif al-Islam gave a statement of release citing that the four were taken into custody after illegally entering the country.

"...when the army, when they liberated the city of Ajdabiya from the terroists and they found her, they arrest her because you know, foreigner in this place. But then they were happy because they found out she is American, not European. And thanks to that, she will be free tomorrow."

The "her" Qaddafi's son was referring to Lynsey Addario, the sole female being held, highlights how often gender plays a role for female journalists who are covering conflict and whose work focuses on women's issues in some of the most dangerous areas of the world, such as Addario's Veiled Rebellion chronicling Afghan women's fight for justice amid extreme war and poverty.

Number of Sexually Assaulted Journalists Unknown

In February, journalist Laura Logan was sexually assaulted during a mass "celebration" in Egypt post-protest, but was saved by a group of women from the crowd. In an Op-Ed soon after Logan's return to the United States to heal with her family, reporter Kim Barker's Why We Need Women in War Zones confronted outcomes of Logan breaking the silence around women journalists and photographers being assaulted in not only war zones, but in places ranging from their hotel rooms to mass mobs. She cited that although the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) does keep data on how many journalists are killed in action per year, they do not keep data on how many journalists, either men or women, are sexually assaulted or raped -- even though sexual violence is recognized as a legitimate and pervasive issue. Why not confront it? The CPJ claims that sexual assault of journalists simply goes underreported, even as their handbook to date does not even include a chapter on the topic (though one is being added in a future release).

However, the CPJ has voiced sexual assault as a serious issue for journalists to politicians in the past. "We [CPJ] have advocated for our concerns about sexual violence against journalists on a political level. For instance, we wrote to U.S. Secratary of State Hillary Clinton in September 2009 to raise awareness about the safety of three women reporters covering women's issues and 'femicide' in Bukavu, in Congo. The unstable eastern region, which is rich in minerals but devastated by war and atrocities against civilians, including the systematic rape of women, is currently one of Africa's most dangerous cities for journalists, according to CPJ research."

The Democratic Republic of Congo is often considered to be the most dangerous place in the world to be a woman, whether journalist or civilian. Yet, the importance of women journalists and photographers are inherent in the stories they shape and share about war-torn regions. Barker's Why We Need Women in War Zones reflects, "Look at the articles about women who set themselves on fire in Afghanistan to protest their arranged marriages, or about girls being maimed by fundamentalists, about child marriage in India, about rape in Congo and Haiti. Female journalists often tell those stories in the most compelling ways, because abused women are sometimes more comfortable talking to them. And those stories are at least as important as accounts of battle."

Barker also discusses how unfortunate it would be if Logan's going public made it tougher for female journalists to get assigned to war zones. "The publicity around Ms. Logan's attack could make editors think, 'Why take the risk?' That would be the wrong lesson. Women can cover the fighting as well as men, depending on their courage."

With Libya as an example, hopefully one where all four journalists are released relatively unscathed, the hope is that journalists who risk their lives to grant the vulnerable a voice, join Laura Logan in breaking the silence about sexual violence and assault against journalists to bring formidable change and soon. This weekend two museums on two coasts will exhibit female-focused photography exhibitions demonstrating the strength and voice that women photographers and journalists bring to world issues.

Photo credit: Reuters