On 7 July 2012, Libya held its first free national election in about sixty years, and women queued at a polling station in Tripoli. A Reuters photographic record shows voters waiting—some with tears of joy—to choose a national assembly after the Gaddafi era.
What distinguishes this queue is that it was not an ordinary choice between governments. People were waiting for national elections themselves to restart after a long dictatorship. With violence still a risk, the line carried expectation and uncertainty about the new system at the same time.