‘TOO TERRIFIED TO LEAVE THE HOUSE’: INTERNET TROLLS IN LIBYA TARGET WOMEN

In Libya, discriminatory legal, social, economic and political structures have long left many women feeling like second-class citizens. Well before the 2011 “Arab Spring” revolution which eventually toppled long-term dictator Muammar Gaddafi, and through the unrest which ensued and divided the country between feuding governments in 2014, women’s political representation has been limited and their empowerment overlooked. Now, cyberattacks have emerged as an additional form of violence against Libyan women, limiting their role in society and their participation in building a new society.