Married to Libyans: the ordeal of Moroccan women in Libya

There are many reports that many Moroccan women married to Libyans are suffering in Libya. And despite their calls for help, the Moroccan and Libyan authorities seem to be turning a deaf ear.

“Many Moroccan women married to Libyan citizens suffer greatly due to the culture of Libyan families that refuse the marriage of their sons with foreign women and look at them with contempt and disdain, which aggravates family problems and encourages the husband to abandon his wife,” one of these women, Siham, born in 1981 and mother of three children, told Hespress. Married to a Libyan since 2010, she confided that she faced some problems at the beginning, “but recently, the situation has taken a dangerous turn, going as far as repeated physical attacks without reason and in front of the children.” She added: “My husband no longer spends on me or on his children, who are now out of the classrooms because of his refusal to provide the administrative documents necessary for their schooling.” Siham said she sought help from the consular authorities, without success. “The consular authorities also refused to issue passports to my children, who also have Moroccan nationality, to return to Morocco due to the need to obtain the approval of the absent father.” Faced with the situation, she calls on the authorities in Rabat to intervene to resolve her case and to work to save her children and those of many other Moroccan women from loss and wandering. Helped by some members of the community who looked into her situation, she began the process of divorce.