Amazon Guard
As Amazonian Guard one was elite group of 30 to 40 women called, officially virgins be had and with the protection of the revolutionary leader of Libya , Muammar Gaddafi , were commissioned. In Europe the unit was called "Amazon Guard", in Africa haris al-has .
The formation of the guard began in the early 1980s. Candidates underwent extensive martial arts and firearms training at a special academy for female officers. The members of this elite group were endowed with privileges that caused a sensation in conservative Arab countries - these included dressing at their own discretion (e.g. Western-style combat suits ), wearing make-up or showing themselves with Western hairstyles and High heels .
The existence of this elite group led to controversy because it challenged the role model of women in the Arab world. In the conservative Libyan society, family loyalty to girls who join such a formation disappears. Therefore, the risk of conspiracies based on clans or tribes in Gaddafi's vicinity decreased by choosing an exclusively female bodyguard; this is cited as a rational reason for Gaddafi's seemingly bizarre behavior.
In 1988, a guardsman allegedly saved Gaddafi's life in an attack by throwing herself over his body to protect him from the bullets. The guardsman was killed and seven other women were injured. The “Amazons” also accompanied Gaddafi on state visits, which resulted in several incidents. In 1984 they tried armed to advance to an OAU summit in Addis Ababa , in which Gaddafi was attending, and were only able to be disarmed with difficulty. When Gaddafi visited Egypt, a similar attempt by the Egyptian security forces led to a physical confrontation. In Nigeria, only the country's president, who happened to be at the airport, was able to prevent a scandal over the disarmament of the Guards.
After Gaddafi's escape from Tripoli , the guard disbanded. Some of his bodyguards charged him with serious allegations of regular abuse and rape . A Libyan psychologist made the allegations part of a dossier on rape in the Libyan civil war for the International Criminal Court .
Amnesty International reported beatings and sexual assaults against captured guardsmen in irregular detention centers run by the National Transitional Council (NTC). Captive women are also said to have been forced to make false confessions that they killed NTC fighters.
The director Rania Ajami shot the documentary " Shadows of a Leader " about the Guard .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Martin Chulov: Gaddafi's' Amazonian 'bodyguards' barracks quashes myth of glamor. The Guardian, Sept. 7, 2011.
- ^ A b Gaddafi dead: Behind Colonel Gaddafi's army of female bodyguards, Daily Mirror, October 20, 2011
- ↑ Swantje Strieder: Gaddafi's nuns of the revolution. Der Spiegel, August 9, 1982.
- ↑ R. Chimelli: Revolutionary leader with a weakness for women. Süddeutsche Zeitung, May 17, 2010.
- ^ Desperately seeking Qaddafi's brigade of beautiful bodyguards, Al Arabiya, August 26, 2011
- ^ Gaddafi 'raped' his female bodyguards, Times of Malta, August 28, 2011
- ↑ Detention abuses staining the new Libya, Amnesty International, October 13, 2011, p. 17, engl., Pdf