Libyan rape victim forcibly deported back by Qatar

Libyan rape victim forcibly deported back by Qatar
Friday, June 3, 2011, 10:59 [IST]

Eman al Obeidy, Libyan, rape, victim, forcibly, deported, back by Qatar,

Doha, Jun 3: It is difficult being a woman, more so if you are one in Libya where the current state of affairs is worse than even what some may refer to as hell. A living testimony to the travesty of being a woman in the strife-torn nation is Eman al Obeidy, the lady who had accused Gaddafi's security forces of gang raping her.

al Obeidy, who had fled Libya has now been forced back to the country by Qatari authorities.

According to reports, authorities in the Gulf Arab nation, forcibly took her along with her parents, shoved them in to a military plane that left Qatar on early Jun 2 and landed in the Libyan rebel-held city of Benghazi.

al Obeidy has been reported as saying that she was beat and handcuffed by the Qatari authorities before being forcibly pushed in to the plane.

According to CNN, officials of the United Nations Human Rights commission have informed that the Qataris deported her despite repeated requests from UN High Commissioner for Refugees and anonymous third parties.

Bill Frelick, refugee program director at Human Rights Watch has been quoted as saying, "Forcibly returning a refugee who survived gang rape not only violates international law, but is cruel and could trigger further trauma. All eyes are now on the authorities in eastern Libya, who should allow al Obeidy to leave the country."

Al Obeidy shook the world attention on March 26 when she barged into the Rixos Hotel in Tripoli, Libya while international journalists staying there were having their breakfast. She told to the reporters that she had been taken from a checkpoint east of the Libyan capital and was held forcibly for two days while being continuously beaten and raped by 15 men of Gaddafi's security forces.

She later fled Libya to Tunisia with the help of two rebel Gaddafi army officers and their families. French diplomats drove her from the border and handed her off to members of the Transitional National Council, who arranged for her flight to Qatar with her family members. She was in the gulf Arab state, awaiting resettlement as a refugee before she was deported by the country's authorities.