Outspoken Libyan Rape Survivor Eman Al-Obeidy Reportedly Still In Custody

Last week, a Libyan woman named Eman Al-Obeidy burst into a hotel housing various journalists (other reports call it a “foreign press dining room,” specifically), exhibiting various wounds and telling witnesses that she’d been raped. Al-Obeidy expressed fear that, if she left the hotel, she’d be immediately apprehended by Gaddafi’s forces once again – the same forces who allegedly gang raped her. Despite efforts by journalists to protect Al-Obeidy, she was eventually led away by “security” forces expressing concern over the fact that she may have been “drunk” or “mentally ill.”

According to her mother, Aisha Ahmed – and in stark contrast to reports from officials in Tripoli – Al-Obeidy remains in custody:

Reports are coming in that Iman al-Obeidi, the woman who claimed she was detained and raped by pro-Gaddafi troops, has not been freed from custody. Her mother, Aisha Ahmed, say in an interview with Al-Jazeera that her daughter was being held at Gaddafi’s Bab Al-Aziziya compound in Tripoli.

Her claims contradict the official line from Tripoli which says she was released and five people arrested over her rape accusations. al-Obeidi was dragged away by security officials after rushing into a hotel full of foreign reporters on Saturday.

“I don’t feel ashamed, instead my head is up high,” she says in the interview and says her daughter “broke the barrier that no other man could break”.

Andrew Sullivan adds that, according to a recent report by a physician in Ajdabiya, Viagra and condoms have been found on pro-Qaddafi forces, bolstering the doctor’s fear that they are “systematically using rape as an instrument of war.”

Here is a video report on Al-Obeidy: