DiManno: Women rally to back Libyan rebels

[CHIMO]

BENGHAZI, LIBYA—Some bellowed cheers from behind the full face covering of a niqab, their bodies entirely swathed in voluminous black fabric. Most wore only the modest hijab in gay colours. A few were even bare-headed.

This is the diversity of outward appearance within the female panorama of eastern, rebel-held Libya. But there is solidarity of purpose and cohesion of sentiment: They back the rebels at the front and the political aims of the National Transitional government in the rear.

On Thursday night, hundreds of women massed in Liberation Square here for a ladies’ rally while their menfolk watched approvingly from behind a fence, forbidden from entering the estrogen zone.

The revolution may be unisex — indeed, female students were at the ramparts of protest when the pro-democracy movement began last month — but the genders remain firmly segregated in the domain of public activism, just as they will be traditionally separated during regular Friday prayers.

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/967041--dimanno-women-rally-to-back-libyan-rebels?bn=1