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Libya
Family and Household
Libyans reckon kinship patrilineally, and the household is based
on blood ties between men. A typical household consists of a man,
his wife, his single and married sons with their wives and children,
his unmarried daughters, and perhaps other relatives, such as
a widowed or divorced mother or sister. At the death of the father,
each son ideally establishes his own household to begin the cycle
again. Because of the centrality of family life, it is assumed
that all persons will marry when they reach an appropriate age.
Adult status is customarily bestowed only on married men and,
frequently, only on fathers.
In traditional North African society, family patriarchs ruled
as absolute masters over their extended families, and in Libya
the institution seems to have survived somewhat more tenaciously
than elsewhere in the area. Despite the changes in urban and rural
society brought about by the 1969 revolution, the revolutionary
government has repeatedly stated that the family is the core of
society.
The 1973 census, the last for which complete data were available
in mid-1987, showed that the typical household consisted of five
to six individuals and that about 12 percent of the households
were made up of eight or more members. The pattern was about the
same as that reported from the 1964 census, and a 1978 Tripoli
newspaper article called attention to the continued strength of
the extended family. Individuals subordinated their personal interests
to those of the family and considered themselves to be members
of a group whose importance outweighed their own. Loyalty to family,
clan, and tribe outweighed loyalty to a profession or class and
inhibited the emergence of new leaders and a professional elite.
Marriage is more a family than a personal affair and a civil
contract rather than a religious act. Because the sexes generally
were unable to mix socially, young men and women enjoyed few acquaintances
among the opposite sex. Parents arranged marriages for their children,
finding a mate either through their own social contacts or through
a professional matchmaker. Unions between the children of brothers
were customarily preferred, or at least matches between close
relatives or within the same tribe. One study, however, showed
that many marriages occurred outside these bounds, the result
of increased levels of education and internal migration. Nomads,
particularly the Tuareg, have always allowed much more freedom
of choice and courtship.
According to law, the affianced couple must have given their
consent to the marriage, but in practice the couple tends to take
little part in the arrangements. The contract establishes the
terms of the union and outlines appropriate recourse if they are
broken. The groom's family provides a dowry, which can amount
to the equivalent of US$10,000 in large cities. Accumulation of
the requisite dowry may be one reason that males tend to be several
years older than females at the time of marriage.
Islamic law gives the husband far greater discretion and far
greater leeway with respect to marriage than it gives the wife.
For example, the husband may take up to four wives at one time,
provided that he can treat them equally; a woman, however, can
have only one husband at a time. Despite the legality of polygyny,
only 3 percent of marriages in the 1980s were polygynous, the
same as a decade earlier. A man can divorce his wife simply by
repeating "I divorce thee" three times before witnesses; a woman
can initiate divorce proceedings only with great difficulty. Any
children of the union belong to the husband's family and remain
with him after the divorce.
Both the monarchical and revolutionary governments enacted statutes
improving the position of females with respect to marriage. The
minimum age for marriage was set at sixteen for females and at
eighteen for males. Marriage by proxy has been forbidden, and
a 1972 law prescribes that a girl cannot be married against her
will or when she is under the age of sixteen. Should her father
forbid her marriage to a man whom she has chosen for herself,
a girl who is a minor (under the age of twenty-one) may petition
a court for permission to proceed with her marriage.
The revolutionary government has enacted several statutes expanding
women's rights and restricting somewhat those of men in matters
of divorce. Women received increased rights to seek divorce or
separation by either customary or legal means in cases of abandonment
or mistreatment. Other laws prohibit a man from taking a second
spouse without first obtaining the approval of his first wife
and forbid a divorced man from marrying an alien woman, even an
Arab from another country. A companion law prohibits men in the
employ of the state from marrying non-Arab women. Yet the child
born abroad of a Libyan father is eligible for Libyan citizenship
irrespective of the mother's nationality, while a child born to
a Libyan mother would not be accorded automatic Libyan citizenship.
In a society as tradition-bound as Libya's, the effects of these
new laws were problematic. Despite the backing of the regime and
Qadhafi's calls for still further modifications in favor of women,
the society reportedly was not yet ready to acknowledge the new
rights, and women were still hesitant in claiming them.
Data as of 1987
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