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Many women in Libya have uplifted and positively influenced the educational sphere. Among many is Fatima Elarby Al-Hudeiry. She was the first academic director in the south. In 1968, she worked as a director of the Teachers’ Institute in Sabha. ‎During that period, the Teachers’ Institute had female students from different parts of Fezzan and Jufra. Many young women came to the Institute to learn and become teachers during the sixties. Indeed, it indicates to what extent Libyan women aspired to make a positive change in their communities. In addition, the Institute had a boarding section for female students from outside Sabha. ‎In 1966, Ms. Fatima Al-Hudeiry was selected among the top students from the Teachers’ Institute to visit counterpart institutions in Spain.

‎In the Institute, she spent around twenty years where generations of teachers graduated under her supervision. The Institute had a journal in which students contributed as writers, editors, and photographers. Also, they had musical and sports bands, seminars, sessions, and cultural activities. In 1988, she resigned from her position as the director of the Institute and founded an association considered one of the most important associations of voluntary civil work for many years.‎ In 2006, after working as a director, she founded a few educational institutions and continued to graduate many qualified teachers in Libya.

‎Above is a picture of the musical band of the Teachers’ Institute in Sabha in 1974. The cultural and musical activities thrived greatly during the sixties and the early seventies. ‎The band won first place in the annual public music festival at the country level three times. Still, many generations in Libya continue to fondly remember Ms. Al-Hudeiry’s influence.