Uploaded November 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
This documentary investigates the phenomenon of Qaddafi's elite female bodyguard corps and the tensions these women embody between Islam, modernization in a nomadic society, militarist feminism and of course tensions of an urban dictatorship.
What sort of life did these women lead, what was their political position, and how has it evolved? The female guards in Libya were unique as modern Islamic women challenging Western stereotypes of the repressed Arab female. Using original and archival footage, and being the first to be allowed access to sites and persons in Libya, this two-year effort went beyond existing representations of the Muslim woman by elucidating and criticizing a complicated ideal of a modern day Amazon warrior.
A Wondermaker Labs Production
A film by Rania Ajami
2004 © Licensed by First Hand Films
This documentary investigates the phenomenon of Qaddafi's elite female bodyguard corps and the tensions these women embody between Islam, modernization in a nomadic society, militarist feminism and of course tensions of an urban dictatorship.
What sort of life did these women lead, what was their political position, and how has it evolved? The female guards in Libya were unique as modern Islamic women challenging Western stereotypes of the repressed Arab female. Using original and archival footage, and being the first to be allowed access to sites and persons in Libya, this two-year effort went beyond existing representations of the Muslim woman by elucidating and criticizing a complicated ideal of a modern day Amazon warrior.
A Wondermaker Labs Production
A film by Rania Ajami
2004 © Licensed by First Hand Films
