Justice for Salwa 2024
To mark the 10th anniversary of our colleague Salwa Bugaighis, Karama will be hosting an online meeting to reflect on the struggle for accountability across the region and world, considering the recent developments in international justice in relation to Gaza.
Read below the reflections of our founder and CEO, Hibaaq Osman, as part of the ongoing Justice for Salwa campaign.
The sound of the shots that killed Salwa Bugaighis still reverberate around the streets around her home in Benghazi.
Loud, booming blasts that were meant not only to silence her, but to hush all those who dreamt of a free and democratic Libya. In the weeks and years that followed, there were echoes every bit as loud. They could be heard as politician Fariha al-Berkawi was gunned down in Derna just weeks after Salwa, in the murder of activist Intisar al-Hasairi and her aunt in Tripoli. There were echoes as politician Seham Sergiwa was taken from the streets of Benghazi, never to be seen again.
Every time a Libyan politician or UN administrator cancels or postpones yet another planned election, I hear the sound of those bullets, like some terrible laughter in my head.
The gunmen who murdered Salwa and abducted her husband Essam on that day ten years ago did not just want to kill a woman, they wanted to kill the dream of what Libya could be.
That is why Salwa’s friends and colleagues began our campaign under the slogan that Justice for Salwa is Justice for All.