East Libya is trying to ban women from traveling without a man

Women under 60 years of age were banned from traveling out of East Libya without a male guardian, after a decision by military officials.

But the ban has been frozen after significant backlash. 

"Our main aim is to get the order cancelled completely," Abir Mneina, the director of East Libya's civil society commission, said, according to the BBC.

When the ban was implemented, officials cited security concerns as justification.

"It's about Libya's national security," General Abdelrazek al-Nadhouri said this week, saying the decision was "not motivated by religion or politics." He said that there have been cases of Libyan women working "with foreign intelligence services."

And apparently no Libyan men are capable of doing the same? Hmm.

"We respect Libyan women who are totally free as long as they stay on Libyan soil, but we must keep an eye on them as soon as they leave it," Nadhouri said.

Libya has been divided by civil war since uprisings in 2011 that overthrew the country's leader Muammar al-Gaddafi. The country's eastern authorities have refused to align with a UN-backed unity government based in the capitol of Tripoli.

Concerns on women’s rights piqued after Libya descended into chaos in the aftermath of al-Gaddafi death.

"Since NATO helped rebels topple the regime of Moammar  al-Gaddafi, women in the new Libya have suffered ironically at the hands of those who claim to have liberated them, most of whom became militias involved in crime," Mustafa Fetouri, a Libyan academic and an award-winning journalist wrote in 2015.