Tripoli— According to the High National Elections Commission’s (HNEC) Cyber Violence Response System, there have been 85,000 cases of cyber violence recorded against women candidates in Libyan municipal elections this year.
The HNEC’s report, which was jointly released on Thursday by the Ministry of State for Women’s Affairs and the Ministry of Justice, indicated that the Cyber Violence Response System (CVRS) has monitored 89% increase in digital violence against women who involved in the 2025’s municipal elections compared to the 2024 elections.
Both the Minister of State for Women’s Affairs Ms. Houria Al-Tarmal and the Minister of Justice Ms. Halima Al-Bousifi said that the report provides, for the first time, a clear and transparent picture of the scale of the challenge that is faced by political active women in the country.
“Digital violence is no longer just fleeting abuse, but has become an organized tool to obstruct women’s participation and silence their voices,” adding that the report reveals the extent of the national effort exerted to protect female candidates and empower them to engage in politics with confidence and safety.”
For many years, violence against women in Libya, especially female candidates, was merely individual testimonies or scattered stories without monitoring or documentation, but now, thanks to this new report, the has been moved the realm of estimates to the realm of factsand from silence to monitoring and analysis.
In January 2025, Ms. Al-Zayra Al-Maqtouf, who was elected mayor of the Municipality of Zelten in northwest Libya and became the first woman to hold this position, was harassed and by various groups and by means of cyber violence.
Nonetheless, Al-Maqtouf has stood her ground and she has proved to be a competent mayor for her municipality and confident local official.
Al-Tarmal emphasized the importance of the report’s findings in formulating policies to protect women, while Al-Bousifi affirmed the Ministry of Justice’s commitment to incorporating its recommendations into the draft law criminalizing violence.
The meeting underlined that protecting women is a collective responsibility requires full dedication from the Ministry of Justice, security agencies, human rights institutions, national figures, national mechanisms, media and civil society.