Thread by @monaeltahawy

I have stood under a podium on which Gaddafi conducted a news conference where I asked him the first question, at an event just outside of Tripoli in 1996. Tell me, did you meet or report on Gaddafi?

https://twitter.com/deenesphory/status/1101934843267551232

In 1996, I was a Reuters correspondent in #Cairo. I went to #Libya to cover the 27th anniversary of the “Green Revolution.”I don’t have access to the Reuters articles I wrote from #Libya but here are some opeds I’ve written about Gaddafi the dictator and the hypocrisy of the West

#Gaddafi’s quirks should never have distracted from his abysmal human rights record. Arbitrary arrests, a muzzled press, a ban on political parties and the squandering of #Libya's oil wealth have never been laughing matters for Libyans. washingtonpost.com/archive/opinio…

Even under #Gaddafi rule, migrants. asylum seekers & refugees were subjected to abuses, including beatings, arbitrary arrests, & forced returns.Western leaders like Sarkozy were happy to do business with him. They didn’t care about Libyan or migrant rights nytimes.com/2007/12/14/opi…

AK-47 wielding female bodyguards were never a reason to believe #Gaddafi was some kind of feminist or saviour of women. His AK-47 wielding male bodyguard sexually assaulted me during a news conference with Gaddafi in #Libya in1996 theglobeandmail.com/amp/opinion/ga…

During that 1996 visit to #Libya to mark the Green Revolution, I got into trouble with Libyan regime minders because I tried to leave the hotel to report on the Nation of Islam’s Louis Farrakhan who was due to receive a hunan rights award from #Gaddafi m.huffpost.com/us/entry/273297

At a news conference a couple of days later, one of #Gaddafi’s male guards and I got into a pushing match which he tried to end by twisting my nipple.

After the news conference, an #Algerian journalist told me he heard the minders say “just shoot her.” #Libya

In my opeds on #Libya, I condemn #Gaddafi’s authoritarianism & hypocrisy of western leaders who were all too happy to call him “mad dog” one minute & do deals with him another. I do not side w/dictators bec they claim to be “anti-imperial” while they massacre & brutalize at home.