Eman Speaks With Anderson

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April 5, 2011

Iman al-Obeidi, Libya Woman Who Claimed Rape, Speaks With Anderson Cooper (VIDEO)


First Posted: 04/ 5/11 -- 02:37 PM ET | Updated: 04/ 5/11 -- 02:44 PM ET

Iman al-Obeidi, the Libyan woman who claimed she was raped by Gaddafi forces, told Anderson Cooper horrifying details of her ordeal in an interview on Monday night.

Al-Obeidi, who was reportedly free on Monday, said that she is still being harassed by government forces and had been told not to discuss her experiences. However, Cooper said that she felt she had "nothing left to lose" after her abduction.

In a tearful audio interview, al-Obeidi recounted how she was abducted at a government checkpoint and held for days while being told she would "never see the light of day again." She described being bound, beaten, and having alcohol poured over her eyes. She also said that she was gang raped repeatedly, and that one of the soldiers sodomized her with his Kalishnikov while her hands were bound. "Let the men from Eastern Libya come and see how we treat their women, how we rape their women," she reports the guards saying.

The Gaddafi government has claimed that al-Obeidi is an unreliable source, claiming she was "drunk" and a prostitute. As Cooper points out, one broadcaster on Libyan television said that calling her a prostitute was an insult to that profession because "even a whore feels patriotic about Libya."

Al-Obeidi, who says she has been re-arrested multiple times, tried to flee to Tunisia. However, she says she will not stop speaking out about her ordeal because "after all I went through, there is nothing else that constitutes a danger to my life."

"I've reached the end of my tolerance for this," she told Cooper.

Watch Cooper's interview with al-Obeidi: