Woe to You—Do Not Fornicate, Nor Give Charity!
The poet once wrote:
“She who feeds orphans with the labor of her body
Woe to you, woman, do not fornicate, nor give charity!”
This haunting verse captures a bitter paradox: a prostitute who donates to orphans with the money earned from her body, as though charity could wash away sin. Sadly, this line mirrors Libya’s grim reality today where a wealthy official or a powerful militia leader amasses wealth by looting the state, then dons the mask of a noble benefactor, distributing crumbs of that stolen wealth to the very people they robbed. They steal from your beard, then use it to braid your noose.
Since Gaddafi’s 1969 coup, Libya endured decades of deliberate impoverishment, repression, and tyranny. While the ruling family and its inner circle lived in obscene luxury, the people languished in darkness, disease, and despair. When the regime fell, Libyans dared to hope hope that their country’s wealth would finally return to its rightful owners. But the so-called “revolutionaries” and those who jumped ship from the old regime had other plans. They plunged the country into chaotic wars and political-military coalitions that dismantled the state and left the average Libyan who asked for nothing more than a dignified life begging at the doors of those who looted his future.
In the east, the poor knock on the doors of Haftar’s sons and in-laws now lords of public wealth under the banners of “the war on terror,” “the Dignity Revolution,” and more recently, “reconstruction funds.” In the west, the desperate turn to warlords allied with governments past, present, and future warlords who turned public office into personal gold mines.
What prompted these words despite the inevitable backlash from those we write to defend was a video I recently saw. In it, one of Libya’s hollow celebrities, a product of our intellectual, moral, and civic vacuum, publicly praised a certain “Hajj So-and-So,” pleading with him to “help” families who couldn’t feed their children during Ramadan. The pious Hajj, in an act of staged benevolence, answered the call, and our fame-hungry influencer became the Robin Hood of the poor. Except this isn’t Robin Hood stealing from the rich to feed the poor this is a man begging the thieves themselves to spare a coin, then thanking them for their generosity, and asking us to applaud.
A quick drive through Tripoli’s elite neighborhoods or “liberated” Benghazi reveals palaces erected on the ruins of the poor, luxury cars fueled by money that should’ve built schools, stadiums, and hospitals.
Local and international reports expose billions hidden in offshore accounts, as new tycoons are born daily from the womb of poverty. At least 30% of Libyans live below the poverty line. So, how did warlords on both sides become billionaires in a country where half the youth are underemployed and public services rival those of the world’s poorest nations? The answer is simple: legalized, systemic corruption that turned public wealth into spoils, and the people into a flock slaughtered twice once by theft, and again by humiliation.
Perhaps the cruelest irony is how this corruption has been normalized how the corrupt “Hajj” has become a folk hero. The state, which should guarantee citizens’ rights, has been replaced by armed gangs with political covers, now the sole providers of aid and relief amid runaway inflation.
The man whose house collapsed in a flood? He begs the son of a government official for help. The mother whose children die due to lack of medicine? She pleads with a general’s wife via Facebook video. This isn’t just theft it’s the destruction of human dignity. It’s the rebranding of slavery in a modern form: You live because we allow you to live.
Breaking this cycle will take more than Facebook posts, fiery speeches, or eloquent essays. Libya’s experience proves that a “revolution against corruption” means nothing if the infrastructure of corruption isn’t dismantled.
But instead of dismantling it, we’ve renovated and upgraded it. The colonel became a field marshal. The colonel’s sons departed, leaving room for the marshal’s sons. The corrupt “Hajjs” multiply. And the flatterers, climbers, and beggars have become role models modern-day Samaritans casting scraps on their golden calves, hoping to catch an echo of their hollow roar.
That poetic verse we opened with is no metaphor it’s a brutal truth: the brazen thief who commits the obscenity of grand larceny, then washes it clean by feeding orphans with stolen crumbs, demands our gratitude. But the dignity of the Libyan people will not be reclaimed through begging it will be restored through justice. A nation forced to eat scraps from the hands of those who stole its bread is not merely impoverished it is stripped of its dignity.