Over a month ago, the Prime Minister of the Government of National Unity, Abdel Hamid Dabaiba, launched his project to support young people who are about to get married, and allocated a budget of one billion dinars for it, in an attempt to support the youth of Libya, after years of polarization and attraction towards other paths that are completely different from the “Dabaiba project”; a stage of wars in which there was no hope but the filling of cemeteries with bodies and body parts, and that was in the recent past, before the emergence of the national unity government from the dialogue tracks in “Berlin” and “Geneva” as well as others.
The birth of the government was accompanied by the relative stability of the security situation, and a complete ceasefire, so the country is experiencing a new era, in which there is no room for the outbreak of armed conflicts, exhausting the lives of young people or involving them in the midst of the cycle of “armed groups”, which are indicators described by observers as promising to move forward to prepare the various life milestones.
How can young people regain their normal lives, or those they were accustomed to before the outbreak of chaos, at the very least? What are the government’s options to achieve this?
Tens of thousands are unemployed
In light of the difficult economic conditions, and the number of young job seekers reached about 128,679 people registered with the Ministry of Labor, until the middle of last year; Prime Minister Abdel Hamid al-Dabaiba, abandoning and overcoming all challenges and obstacles, by announcing the marriage initiative, the implementation of which had already begun, without taking into account the general situation of the applicants, at least. Moreover, the government did not submit official studies to implement the presidential initiative, and work was limited to a system for registering those wishing to marry. Get money only.
Conflicting opinions
Journalist, Mahmoud Sharif, believes that the government was able, in terms of reality with this decision, to gain wide popular support, especially the group of young people who are about to get married, describing this step as those who were able to “replace peace in the place of strife.”
Sharif explained in an interview with “218News” that Dabaiba was able, in effect, to replace the “tents” of weddings, with the “tents” of consolation that most Libyans have been engulfed in flames over the past years due to the scourge of wars that have left thousands of victims.
However, Sharif, a journalist from the city of Tobruk, warned of negative repercussions and dire consequences that the marriage initiative will have in the long run, regardless of the moral boost to the initiative. In the meantime, he added: “As for logic, the Libyan youth need housing and job opportunities that would provide them with a stable income, and I wish the government had started looking at securing these requirements as important priorities in order to build a cohesive family that in turn would establish the foundations of social peace in Libya.”
Marital responsibility and the risks of divorce
Many young people – in various cities – accepted the initiative to marry at different ages, and the government has not yet provided a statistic showing the ages of the spouses, in addition to the fact that the decision did not restrict the targets to preconditions that reduce the risks of social problems, most notably divorce, which is a real dilemma for newly married couples. In addition, sociologists and civil activists have warned of potentially unintended consequences for 25,000 marriages, based on the impact of not bearing marital responsibility, in addition to data from Libyan courts that documented the occurrence of 7,476 divorce cases in 2019, according to official documents obtained by “218” in July 2020.
Shift from a vital goal to commerce and exploitation
With differing opinions about the “Dabaiba initiative” and the Libyan street split between a supporter and another strongly opposed, a prominent human rights official in the field of defense of freedoms, in his statements to “218,” saw that the initiative was born weak and does not serve young people equally, as the responsible authorities had to He granted it according to a comprehensive and integrated strategy and plan, and not by random, absurd decisions, adding that it transformed marriage from a lofty goal into trafficking and exploitation, as he put it.
The human rights defender, who preferred not to be named for personal reasons, pointed to the occurrence of dangerous acts in Libyan society, in light of the “marriage initiative,” saying: “There are reports of unrealistic marriage contracts and without cohabitation between the spouses (marriage on paper) with the girl staying in the house. Her family, in return, the value of 40 thousand dinars is shared between the spouses by mutual consent, and after that deal comes a proper divorce procedure free of compensation based on the pre-prepared marriage contract.
He continued, “We will see the tragedies of this disaster that Dabaiba unleashed through divorce records, courts, and scandals that will become evident after that, not to mention the family and social disintegration that the state of concluding unrealistic marriage contracts will cause, and the manipulation of the religious and human value of marriage in its content into a marriage of convenience.” He warned in this context of the youth’s rush behind the idea of a marriage grant, without providing the basics of social and family stability, and thus falling into countless social problems, as he put it.
At the conclusion of his statements, he confirmed that the “marriage grant” serves and helps one group of young people who are actually turning around at this stage, and they have prepared themselves for it by 50 to 60 percent, before announcing the initiative, pointing out that these people are really sincere in the intentions of marriage, they have established a proper foundation for it. In terms of the job opportunity and the provision of housing, the grant will contribute to providing their material needs such as furniture and the costs of joy.
The marriage initiative opens the door wide for large segments of Libyans to express their opinions and viewpoints. Some of them strongly supported this step, while others demanded more support by granting bank loans and residential real estate, and others called for government aid not to be limited to financial support only; Creating appropriate security conditions for living and providing a safe environment for work and competition, similar to the youth of the world, is what the youth of Libya aspire to today.
