Amazonian Guard

The Amazonian Guard (also "the Amazons") was an unofficial name given by Western journalists to an all-female elite cadre of bodyguards officially known as الراهبات الثوريات (al-rāhibāt al-thawriyyāt) "The Revolutionary Nuns", tasked with protecting the late, former leader of Libya, Muammar Gaddafi.

Formation

The group was formed in the early 1980s, after Gaddafi's official resignation as Libyan head of state in favour of the title of "Brotherly Leader and Guide of the First of September Great Revolution of the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya".

According to Joseph T. Stanik, Gaddafi reportedly employed a cadre of female bodyguards because he believed that an Arab gunman would have difficulty firing at women. However, it has also been submitted by other authors that Gaddafi's female bodyguards were, in reality, just an aspect of the dictator's well-known eccentric showmanship and his fondness of surrounding himself with young women. Gaddafi would usually travel with 15 of his Amazonian Guards assigned to security or housekeeping.