LIBYAN WOMEN is a photographic report on the position of women in Libya, one of the most progressive Arab countries in the field of women's rights. Libyan women have the right to welfare, to own property, to divorce and to pensions. They also make up half of the academic population. But their emancipation is far from complete. In the countryside 20% of the women are illiterate, and most of the traditional Bedouin tribes - pillars of the Khadaffi regime - to this day require women to wear a veil and permit them to work only inside the house or in the fields. In some isolated regions female circumcision is still practised.
Reza (b. Iran, 1952), operating from a base in Paris, has been producing engaged photo essays for over twenty years now. He photographed refugee camps in Africa, Moslems in America and women's prisons in Afghanistan. For years Reza was active for UNICEF, and in 2000 he opened a media and cultural centre in the Afghan capital Kabul.