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Libya's culture clampdown silences popular rap music

Libyan authorities have clamped down on rap music for violating "moral rules." Artists fear a return to cultural repression as observers see a more general shift to a stricter Islamic way of life.

"The Eastern authorities frame these restrictions as being Islamic societal rules," Virginie Collombier, professor of practice at Rome's Luiss Guido Carli University and co-editor of the book "Violence and Social Transformation in Libya," told DW. Armed militant groups didn't take it well that he continued to write rap songs in which he rallied against atrocities, violence and corruption among supporters of the head of the Libyan National Army, General Khalifa Hiftar. The eastern part of the country remains under the rule of General Khalifa and the House of Representatives in Benghazi, while Libya's west is under the administration of the UN-recognized Government of National Unity (GNU) under President Abdul Hamid Dbeibah in Tripoli.

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