[Al Arabiya Latest] Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the Libyan leader's liberal-leaning son, on Wednesday said a constitution is vital to Libya's prosperity and that resources were "wasted" on women who prefer to get married and stay at home rather than work.
| I don't know... send a girl to college to become an engineer, and you'll never have to hire a plumber to fix a leaky faucet. That would pay off awfully fast. Let her study English lit. and mathematics and you won't have to hire a tutor for your idiot sons. Send her to medical school and your children will grow up healthy and strong, and your parents will live long and happily. The investment in training women who end up staying home may not pay off for society, but the woman's family certainly benefits. |
Analysts say Islam, who took a central role in ending Libya's long stand-off with West, has unsettled the country's old guard with proposals for political and economic liberalization.
"We need a constitution. You cannot run a country without having a constitution, without basic laws. It's a must," Gaddafi told a conference in Cairo.
Libya has no formal constitution and on paper is ruled according to a system of grass-roots socialism set out in Muammar Gaddafi's "Green Book," which outlines his philosophy and views on how countries should be governed.
Saif al-Islam, who studied at the London School of Economics
| Oh dear. Does he really want to admit that? |
and has spent years cultivating an image as a reformer, has been seeking to gather support for a constitution, according to Libyans close to ruling circles, but has encountered resistance from hardliners with vested interests in the current system. |