He offered her an educational stipend. And health
insurance.
"It means everything to me," she said, opening up an
envelope containing check for $1,800.
"It's not about whether it's a lot or little. It's about
the time that I got it," she said.
It was like winning the lottery. Otherwise, she might
have wound up on the street in a few days.
Aujali said he thought al-Obeidi needs help.
"I told her one thing," he said. "You have to close the
doors to the past and look to the future. She cannot
live in misery the rest of her life."
Al-Obeidi first caught the world's attention in March
when she burst into Tripoli's Rixos Hotel, where
foreign journalists were staying, and publicly
accused members of Gadhafi's forces of gang-raping
her.
She was hysterical. She screamed that she had been
taken from a checkpoint and held against her will for
two days while being beaten and raped by 15 of
Gadhafi's militiamen.
Security officials said al-Obeidi was "mentally ill"
and was being taken to a "hospital." They dragged
her unceremoniously to a waiting white car and
whisked her away. She wasn't heard from for more
than a week, but eventually in media interviews, she
spoke of her ordeal.
She fled to Tunisia in May with the help of a defected
military officer and the Libyan rebels, then in the
thick of civil war. She found temporary sanctuary in
Qatar before being granted asylum in the United
States.
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