Like all things in Libya, this is easier said than done: reports on Libyan women are almost slim to none. This is not surprising, considering Gaddafi and his sons are so adept at hogging the media spotlight with their controversial headline-making shenanigans<\/a>. Media portrayals of Gaddafi\u2019s wife Safiyah<\/a> are rare, as she\u2019s almost absent in the public sphere.<\/p>\n The colonel\u2019s only daughter Aisha (pictured here), a 30- year-old lawyer who recently married his cousin, rarely gives any face time for media requests or speaking engagements. She is rarely interviewed by western media (she recently gave a statement<\/a> about her brother\u2019s arrest in Switzerland), but is written about occasionally. You may remember reports about her joining Saddam Hussein\u2019s legal team<\/a>. If you don\u2019t, its because they were somewhat underplayed cut-and-dry accounts without her take on anything.<\/p>\n Like this story<\/a> from the BBC.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t even quote Aisha, so we don\u2019t understand her reasons for choosing to defend Saddam Hussein. Are they political reasons? Was it a public relations stunt? Did Iraqi officials approach Libya? We don\u2019t know because the main source in the story doesn\u2019t have a say in it. The same is true with TimesOnline<\/em><\/span><\/a><\/em><\/span> <\/span>story, which ran a short blurb of the matter accompanied by a tall photo of Aisha. It claims rather obscurely that she\u2019s said to \u201ccovet her father\u2019s job.\u201d Not only is this not true, (as Gaddafi\u2019s son Saif is the chosen one) but it leaves the impression that Aisha defends dictators because she wants to be one. The woman the Libyan media nicknames the \u201cClaudia Schiffer of North Africa\u201d (presumably because of her statuesque frame and blonde locks), is according to the Times<\/em>, a power-hungry dictator-ess in waiting.<\/p>\n The bulk of media reports abut Aisha are imbedded in articles about Libyan politics and her father\u2019s political actions. This story about Libya\u2019s release of six Bulgarian nurses<\/a> convicted of infecting Libyan children with the HIV virus, mentions Aisha met with Cecilia Sarkozy, then married to French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Accompanying head shots of the women are welcome, but some quotes from either of them would have added to the story. Or better yet, why didn\u2019t the media run a full story detailing Mrs. Sarkozy\u2019s visit with Aisha in Tripoli? Did Mrs. Sarkozy, acting as a free agent, think that meeting with a female would help bring the nurses home? What is Aisha\u2019s role in all this and how did she receive her? Surely some editor would deem this newsworthy, yet there was no press about it.<\/p>\n Libyan media often reports on Aisha\u2019s public appearances and accomplishments: she heads Wa\u2019tassimu, Libya\u2019s main charity group, and serves as Libya\u2019s National \u200eGoodwill Ambassador for the U.N. Development Program. Yet these are usually third-person accounts that rarely include an interview with her. When she was appointed as \u200eGoodwill Ambassador for the U.N., The Tripoli Post<\/em>, Libya\u2019s only English-language paper, ran the story<\/a> without ever interviewing her!<\/p>\n Local media rarely talks to Aisha. This results in stories being told about her, without her really in them. It\u2019s not difficult to understand how this connects to the media\u2019s history of portraying Muslim women as unattainable, shy and oppressed beings without a voice or a say in anything. That\u2019s not to say that Aisha (who has six brothers) is necessarily a victim of Islamic patriarchy. She received her law degree from Paris, travels frequently and generally fits in with Western ideals of modernity. <\/span> So why all the mystery surrounding her? Why don\u2019t journalists quote her? My experience is it\u2019s because she\u2019s not interested in communicating with the press.<\/p>\n I put in a formal request to see her while in Tripoli this summer and was denied (although not flat-out. Her chief-of-staff said he was awaiting her response and I left the country shortly thereafter). But the vibe I got after meeting with him and explaining my intention to interview her was that she doesn\u2019t like doing one-on-one interviews.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t walk away empty-handed, though. He made sure to give me a copy of\u00a0 Aisha\u2019 biography Amirat asSalam<\/em>, or \u201cThe Princess of Peace\u201d. The cover is a soft, noble-looking Aisha in a loose white headscarf, blonde locks peeking through. Many of the facts stated in the book surprised my Libyan friends and family\u2013all consumers of Libyan media, adding weight to the theory that the media simply does not report about Aisha. This is understandable in a state-controlled society, as saying the wrong thing could land you in jail or worse. This also explains the scant international knowledge about Libyan women (how many of you even knew Gaddafi had a daughter?) as the local setting influences international reporting.<\/p>\n Libya\u2019s history of isolation makes reporting difficult to say the least, but women living in similarly oppressive regimes and in war-torn countries like Sudan, Afghanistan, and Iraq are reported on at length. At the least, shouldn\u2019t we be hearing more about the women in Libya\u2019s elite circle by virtue of their status if nothing else? Shouldn\u2019t working-class Libyan women be given some media attention, especially now, as Libya begins to restore political ties with the west and globalize its market?<\/p>\n![\"Aisha](\"https:\/\/www.chinadaily.com.cn\/english\/doc\/2004-07\/06\/xin_36070106084836412271.jpg\")
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