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One rare glimpse behind the wall comes from a report issued today by Human Rights Watch. The conclusion that might be drawn from it is that regardless of the colonel's own revolutionary fervour, Libyan society at large remains deeply imbued with tradition and, in some ways, extremely conservative.

The report concerns an issue that in Dickensian England was politely referred to as the problem of "fallen women" - those who have been cast out of their homes for "moral misconduct" or impugning their family's "honour". In some cases their only "sin" is that they have had the misfortune to be raped.

In traditional Arab societies, women who disgrace their family are often killed by their brothers in order to purge the "shame". To reduce the risk of this happening, the Libyan authorities provide refuge in "social rehabilitation" centres. That is more than some countries do, but for many of the women who go there, "rehabilitation" leads only to more suffering.

Despite their name, the rehabilitation centres have a distinctly prison-like character, Human Rights Watch says, and for all practical purposes they are indeed jails: "The women and girls sleep in locked quarters and are not allowed to leave the gates of the compound. The custodians sometimes subject them to long periods of solitary confinement, occasionally in handcuffs, for trivial reasons like 'talking back'.

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