June 12 (Bloomberg) -- Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, who came to Italy with a retinue of 40 female bodyguards and demanded to meet 700 of the country’s most important women, called for a feminist uprising and condemned the Arab World for treating women like “furniture.”

“We need a feminist revolution,” Qaddafi said in a speech in Rome today, after meeting Equal Opportunities Minister Mara Carfagna. In the Arab-speaking Middle East, a woman is “like a piece of furniture that one can change whenever one wants without anyone asking why.”

To contact the reporter responsible for this story: Flavia Krause-Jackson at fjackson@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: June 12, 2009 09:19 EDT