Eman Al-Obeidy, Alleged Rape Victim, Leaves Libya

"I still do not know what I am going to do," Eman al-Obeidy told CNN in an exclusive interview. But at least now, she has escaped from Libya.

Al-Obeidy made international headlines in March, after she ran into a hotel full of journalists in Tripoli, and told reporters that 15 of Gaddafi's men had beaten and raped her. After she was dragged from the hotel by Libyan officials, journalists pressed for answers as campaigns rose up across the world to "free al-Obeidy."

In an audio interview with Anderson Cooper last month, al-Obeidy described how she was abducted at a government checkpoint and held for days. She said that she was bound, beaten, had alcohol poured over her eyes, and was gang raped repeatedly. She said one of the soldiers sodomized her with his Kalishnikov. A government spokesman, Moussa Ibrahim, said the men accused by al-Obeidy planned to sue her.

On Thursday, al-Obeidy fled Libya and crossed into Tunisia with the help of a defecting military officer and his family. According to CNN, al-Obeidy left Tripoli in a military car, hidden under a head cover. Although the car was stopped at various checkpoints, al-Obeidy crossed the Dahibah border disguised "in the local manner" and using a refugee document. European diplomats reportedly escorted her to Tunis. While she has called relatives in Egypt, she has yet to hear back from them. CNN reports:

Al-Obeidy's mother learned about her daughter's escape after seeing news reports on TV, her father told CNN from the family's hometown of Tobruk, Libya. Atiq Al-Obeidy said that his wife then called him, and both parents were overjoyed.

Atiq Al-Obeidy admitted he was "not optimistic" that his daughter would be able to safely leave Libya, thinking forces loyal to Gadhafi "would do the worst to her, given his past.

"I am extremely delighted, and I will be looking forward to more information about how she was able to escape," the woman's father said.

In the meantime, Eman al-Obeidy says she continues to fear for her life, and is hoping to receive protection from a Western government.

WATCH:

Comments

[SnapdragonLA]

11:50 AM on 07/05/2011

The Benghazi rebels have already been caught lying about crimes including rape and Ms Obeidi is affiliated with them. Moreover, if she really was brutalized as she said, there would have been tremendous physical evidence which has not been forthcoming. Finally, it simply doesn't make sense for Ghadaffi's men to brutally torture and rape her, then realease her and even allow her her into a hotel loaded with foreign journalists (they only threw her out when she started making attention-seeking accusations). This is the Scottsboro boys all over again.

[Fay Butler]

12:16 PM on 05/13/2011

Definately not on my list of vacation spots. Those people are nuts!

[baydolphins]

03:38 PM on 05/10/2011

bring her here, the networks will give her a realty tv show ...if I were her I wouldn't want to go to relatives in any mid-eastern country. USA, Canada anywhere but there.

[blastular]

04:18 AM on 05/10/2011

Just going on my instincts, I believe her. When she burst into the press room of that hotel, you can see on her face that she's been through hell. She's not faking. No one, not even Meryl Streep, is that good an actor.

Good on her for going down swingin'. Now she's back up. Hopefully she can move to France and have a good life.

[ArChiMi]

02:51 AM on 05/10/2011

This woman was raped. To admit having been raped, destroys her social place, her future.. She would never do it if it wasn't true. And to those ignorant fools who think she is lying... you are just as disgusting as the vermin who raped her.

[AnimalLover6]

09:05 PM on 05/09/2011

As a rape crisis counselor, I counseled a number of rape victims, and there's something about this woman that seems odd. Can't explain it,

[VerizonCells]

09:56 PM on 05/09/2011

really? your a rape crisis counselor, I sure hope if I ever need help your not my counselor.

[AnimalLover6]

11:44 PM on 05/09/2011

No need to be nasty. I merely weighed in with my thoughts. I would never assert that any woman who claimed to be raped was lying. Ever.

[Jess H]

01:39 AM on 05/10/2011

why because she's attractive? typical...it must have been all her fault right? I think you are full of it..

[mericart]

09:59 PM on 05/09/2011

I thought as a rape crisis counselor, you should have learned to reserve judgment until you have at least talked to the victims (which you haven't).
Anyway, I'm glad that this woman got out, which probably wouldn't have happened if her story didn't attract international attention. I hope her life will improve from this point on.

[AnimalLover6]

11:45 PM on 05/09/2011

I have reserved judgment. And I have the same hopes for her that you do.

[Dick Stone]

08:59 PM on 05/09/2011

The first story was that this woman had been held prisoner and repeatedly raped over a long periord of time, then she escaped and quickly made her way to a news report. She was then reported to have been re arrested and taken back into custody. Now she has been able to escape her captors for a second or third time and was able to make her way out of the country. I don't discount the fact that there are rapes in war, just as there is every day in our big and small cities in the US. This woman is more than likely someone that is being used by the rebels to incite anger toward the existing regime, for if the things had happened to her that she claimed she should have been in a hospital for quite sometime.

[Hamburger Time]

09:35 PM on 05/09/2011

Lest we forget, "Rape victim’s mom says “France, Obama, America, please come and save my daughter.”” -Washington Post

Via Willy Loman
"When trying to stage events like this, make sure that your “victim hero” doesn’t look quite so eager to jump into the car with the perpetrators at the end of the production, as that tends to give away the staged and rehearsed quality of the performance"

[wendoxia]

11:35 AM on 05/11/2011

uh, i guess its in perception. i saw someone get a bag thrown ovr their head then shoved into a car. But maybe you dont want to trust a muslim woman.

If I was her mother I wuld also be begging for help fro the rooftops, you callous cold person.

[exflatlander]

09:19 AM on 05/10/2011

You are an expert on rape? You know how YOU would react after being gang raped?

[x0staticpulse0x]

08:24 PM on 05/09/2011

I'm getting a little peeved that every article about a rape victim uses the word "alleged" somewhere in the headline. If we don't start taking rape cases seriously and recognizing it as a real problem, it's going to continue at this rampant rate.

[Jess H]

01:42 AM on 05/10/2011

exactly!

[exflatlander]

09:23 AM on 05/10/2011

The problem is that sometimes in THIS country there are false accusations. I would estimate that to be a less than 1% of charges, however. In this country the "perp" is innocent until proven guilty. In many Muslim countries, unfortunately, the woman is guilty of fornication until she can prove herself innocent, in which case, she' still disgraced for "allowing" the rape. AS for the "perps", they are guilty of losing control because they saw an eyebrow or an ankle.

I know somebody will chastise me for sounding anti-Islamic. I'm not. I just can find no empathy for men in a culture which treats women with less respect than they have for their horses and cattle.

[JacksonD]

08:11 PM on 05/09/2011

People keep writing that the US should let her come here.  While I'm not at all against that, why would she even wnat to.  Lack of jobs, inadequate social services, high cost of living... she'd be better off going to Sweden or some other country that would offer her more of a future.

[scarletxoxoxo]

07:35 PM on 05/09/2011

That poor woman.

[FACTISFACT]

07:34 PM on 05/09/2011

The man named Gadhafi when he can issue Viagra to the force to rape the under aged girls and women of Libya it speaks volume of his and of his entire family character.

I cannot but asked this senseless criminal what if people would send some force to rape his wife and daughter who are more beautiful that this women Eman al-Obeidy and Gadhafi got the news that his daughter and wife was gang rape repeatedly and were also sodomized both of them.

What would the insane do then, be happy? I should think he would be damn happy. I would like to get the Russian Prime Minister's response in such a case. And what he would do if in the near future it does happen to the family members of Gadhafi's family.

I would propose the Russian PM should alert Gadhafi to be mind full from now on about his family members getting raped and sodomized by the liberators in retaliation to what he had done to theirs mother sisters and daughters including to EmanAl-Obeidy.

[SnapdragonLA]

11:57 AM on 07/05/2011

Disgusting! You are fantasizing about raping and sodomizing Ghadaffi's children and justifying it as "retaliation" for unproven and likely false claims in rebel propaganda. You just showed your true colors.

[FACTISFACT]

02:18 PM on 07/05/2011

SnapdragonLA read my comment minutely to understand its meaning as it is written in future tense. another thing is you said it is rebel propaganda. if it so, how are you so sure can you prove where as doctorse up in Libya proved raping took place. Girls would never go public shouting she is raped. So my friend you do not know Gadhafi but I know him. That is why I ask Russian PM to alert him.

However, thanks for your response.Take Cre

[SnapdragonLA]

09:22 PM on 07/05/2011

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have said that they have no significant evidence of rape by Ghadaffi forces AND have found that the rebels have knowingly lied about atrocities including rape. http://feb17.info/news/amnesty-questions-claim-that-gaddafi-ordered-rape-as-weapon-of-war/

There is a rebel doctor in Benghazi who claims to have interviewed hundreds of rape victims but she has refused to open her research for review and is being accused even by her colleagues in Benghazi of fabricating her data. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/20/world/africa/20rape.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1 But that is not what made me mad about your post. The idea that rape can ever be a legitimate form of "retaliation" is incredibly sickening.

[JoeBoy254]

07:29 PM on 05/09/2011

Hope she is safe and sound.

[EveScof]

06:22 PM on 05/09/2011

Perhaps the writer and publisher of this article could remove "alleged" from the headline. Last I looked, being a victim of rape is not a crime. A person may allege a rape and the rapists may be the alleged perpetrators, but is that a proper modifier for the alleger?

[scarletxoxoxo]

07:33 PM on 05/09/2011

It is rather disgusting.

[Imago]

08:52 PM on 05/09/2011

Thanks, Eve -- happy to be your first fan.

And Scarlet, every time I see that lovely Mrs. Slocumbe face I smile!

:-)

[Andythelawyer]

06:00 PM on 05/09/2011

Fleeing Libya makes sense even if you weren't raped.

[Quotidien]

05:51 PM on 05/09/2011

She is beautiful