A personal account from one of Muammar Gaddafi’s former sex slaves published in the New York Post today sheds even more light on the strange and terrifying lifestyle of Libya’s former dictator.
Soraya
was just 15 years old in April 2004 when she was handpicked by Gaddafi
to become one of the many sex slaves in his harem.
French
journalist Annick Cojean details Soraya’s life as a sex slave in a new
book titled: ‘Gaddafi’s Harem: The Story of a Young Woman and the Abuses
of Power in Libya’ due out this September from Grove Press.
Tapped: Soraya was just 15 years old when she
met the Gaddafi on a visit to her school, and he hand-picked her to be a
sex slave in his harem
Soraya first met Gaddafi when the dictator made a visit to her school and she was chosen to present him with a bouquet.
Gaddafi's Harem: The new book by French
journalist Annick Cojean gives Soraya's full account of the nightmare of
being Gaddafi's sex slave
‘You can’t imagine the excitement,’ she said. ‘To see Gaddafi in person…His face had been known to me since I was born.’
Their
first exchange was innocent. Her heart raced as she handed Gaddafi the
flowers, knelt and kissed his hand. He tapped her head and then she
left. She said she felt like she was on a cloud.
But
that tap was more meaningful than Soraya could possibly comprehend.
That tap meant that Gaddafi had chosen her to be his sex slave.
The
following day three members of his Amazonian guard – an all-female
group – arrived at her mother’s upscale salon and said that Gaddafi
wanted to see Soraya.
Her mother reluctantly agreed, knowing she didn’t have a choice.
Soraya
was whisked away in a speeding SUV to a remote outpost where she was
taken into a tent to meet the dictator. He didn’t acknowledge her as he
surfed the channels on his TV, but commanded the female guards to ‘get
her ready.’
This
included shaving her down, administering a blood test, measuring her for
clothes, and changing her into a G-string and white slip.
When she was ready, Soraya was escorted into Gaddafi’s bedroom where he was waiting naked on the bed.
‘Turn
around you whore!’ Gaddafi yelled at the young girl. ‘Whore’ would be
the only name Soraya was ever called by the dictator. Then he yanked her hair and made her look into his eyes.
‘Don’t
be afraid,’ he said. ‘I am your Papa – that’s what you’ll call me,
isn’t it? But I am your brother as well, and soon I’ll be your lover.
I’ll be all of that to you. Because you’re going to stay here and be
with me forever. ‘
'I am your Papa': Gaddafi told Soraya he would be father, brother AND lover to the 15-year-old girl
Soraya was confused.
She was told that after she met with the dictator that she could go
home. Being so young, she didn’t quite understand what the dictator
wanted with her.
After
that Soraya was held captive as a sex slave until Gaddafi’s demise.
Along with his many other slaves, she lived in a windowless basement
room stuffy with mold and sweat. Their single role in life was to
fulfill Gaddafi’s sexual appetite, as he would have sex at least four
times a day and it had to be with different women each time.
This came as quite a shock to Soraya who, like many other Libyans, thought of Gadaffi as a feminist in many ways.
He
started the Amazonian Guard, the all-female regiment that protected
him. He wrote ‘The Green Book’ which advocated for women’s rights and
constantly criticized the West for their treatment of women.
Secret sex slaves: Gaddafi was thought of as a
feminist in Libya for some time because he started the all-female
Amazonian guard, but many of them were actually kept as sex slaves
Feminist: One female member of his vice squad told the AP in 2011 that Gaddafi 'opened opportunities for women to advance'
One member of his
female vice squad told the Associated Press in 2011 that Gaddafi opened
opportunities for women to advance. ‘That’s why we cling to him; that’s
why we love him. He gave us complete freedom as a woman to enter the
police force, work as engineers, pilots, judges, lawyers. Anything.’
But
the truth was that many of Gaddafi’s own Amazonian guard were used as
sex slaves as well. He scoped out other potential slaves at weddings,
schools and political summits. There was even a secret apartment at the
University of Tripoli he used to rape students.
And
his treatment of Soraya was far from feminist. After her first time
with the dictator, she bled for 36 hours straight after. In a report
published as the revolution, Gaddafi’s chef told The Times of India that
many of his sex slaves suffered such serious injuries from intercourse
that ‘they went immediately from his bedroom to the hospital.’
Soraya
hated the way he ate garlic cloves for breakfast, chain-smoked, got
drunk off of Johnnie Walker Black and was constantly high on cocaine.
'He was repulsive and he was the president of my country,' Soraya said.
But some women, especially foreigners, willingly engaged with Gaddafi. She
was always surprised to see visiting women head to Gadaffi's bedroom
immaculately dressed carrying designer purses, and then emerge later
with their lipstick smudged and hair undone.
His sex acts with her were gruesome. After years of sex slavery, she says Gaddafi completely deformed her body.
‘Because
they had been pushed, crushed and bitten, my breasts were drooping and
very painful,’ she said. ‘[I] had the chest of an old lady.’
One time he urinated on her and another time he raped her right after having sex with a slave infected with hepatitis.
In
one instance she was brought into his bedroom while he was having sex
with a young man while another man dressed like a woman was forced to
dance. After he was finished he moved onto Soraya.
Outside
of Libya no one really seemed to understand just how crazy the dictator
was. Soraya recalls a visit from Tony Blair. Blair exited Gaddafi’s
tent in a great mood and yelled ‘Hi, girls!’ to the people congregated
outside, not knowing they were slaves.
Hi, girls! Former British PM Tony Blair seemed
clueless of the sex atrocities committed by Gaddafi when he visited the
country in 2007
Eventually Soraya
gained some freedoms, like the ability to use a cellphone or take a
brief trip home. Many of the sex slaves used these liberties as a way to
escape, but most were eventually found and brought back.
Years of containment made Soraya relish the freedoms, so she never dared try to leave.
‘The
few hours outside the compound gave me such a boost that I never asked
any questions,’ Soraya said. ‘I wasn’t even thinking of escaping
anymore. I was a long-forgotten girl without any sort of future.’
Then
Tripoli fell in August 2011, and two months later Gaddafi was killed.
The world was opened up to the atrocities Gaddafi had committed, and the
weird lifestyle he kept. When revolutionaries took his palace they
found tons of porn, a life-size poster of Jake Gyllenhaal and a photo
album of pictures of Condoleezza Rice whom he called ‘my darling black
African woman.' They also found a labyrinth of underground tunnels where
Soraya and other slaves were locked away.
Freedom: Tripoli fell in August 2011, and two
months later Gaddafi was killed. Now Soraya is free but still feels the
aftershocks of her life as a sex slave
Now
Soraya lives in Tripoli, smoking three packs a day in her apartment,
completely friendless and wondering if anyone will ever acknowledge what
happened to her and others like her.
‘I didn’t dream it!’ she told Cojean. ‘You believe me, don’t you?’
The
International Criminal Court issued a warrant for Gaddafi four months
before he died, but no one would step up to testify to rape.
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