Special Episode: "My Father and Qaddafi"

This special episode of As It Happens features Jihan Kikia and her mother, Baha Omari Kikia, discussing Jihan's powerful documentary, 'My Father and Gaddafi,' which explores the disappearance of her father, Mansour Rashid Kikia—a Libyan human rights lawyer and former foreign minister—after he defected from Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in 1993. The conversation delves into the emotional and psychological impact of her father’s absence on a young Jihan, who recalls her childhood as a series of fragmented dreams, devoid of concrete memories. Her mother, Baha, shares how she maintained strength and transparency for her children while tirelessly pursuing answers, even confronting Gaddafi personally in a desert tent. The film becomes a journey of reclaiming identity, truth, and agency, navigating the moral complexities of Gaddafi’s legacy and the broader history of Libya. Jihan reflects on the film as both a personal reckoning and a political act, resisting manipulation by any agenda while humanizing Libya beyond its association with Gaddafi.