Revolutionary Freedom

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Why freeing countries from old habits of thought can actually prove more difficult than the usual revolutionary fare of storming prisons and attacking estates of the privileged. As Libya is about to start drawing up its new constitution, severing its legal ties with the Gaddafi era, lawyer Elham Saudi guides us through the dilemma of what to keep and what to reject from the 42 years of the colonel's rule. Historian Suzanne Desan offers a longer perspective on the same problem: the French Revolution swept away old legal systems, legalising divorce or giving women equal inheritance rights for instance, radically altering the fabric of French society. But the current president of PEN International, writer John Ralston Saul argues that removing unpalatable remnants of the past robs us of valuable insights, dooming us to repeat mistakes of the past. Picture: A dove in flight, Credit: Getty Images