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Tripoli, 31 March 2013:
The Grand Mufti, Sheikh Sadeq Al-Ghariani, has called on the government to ban Libyan women from marrying foreigners.
Ghariani . . .[restrict]said in a letter to the Minister of Social Affairs, Kamila Khamis Al-Mazini, leaked on Facebook, that Libyan women should not even be allowed to marry foreign Muslims.
The move came after the Grand Mufti apparently received several complaints from Libyan citizens about some Syrian Shiites and Druze are taking advantage of the chaotic state of the country’s administration to marry Libyan women.
An official from Ghariani’s Dar Al-Ifta office has been quoted by Benghazi newspaper Qurina (Cyrene) claiming that a number of Turks had contracted marriages with Libyan women in Cyrenaica and then disappeared back home.
The official said that any decision on the matter would have to come form the government not the Fatwa office. As a result it was felt that Libya women should not be allowed to marry any foreigner until the situation had improved.
When Ghariani’s letter appeared on Facebook there was an outcry on social media networks among Libyan human rights activists.
When contacted by the Libya Herald, the Ministry of Social Affairs declined to comment. [/restrict]
