WUNRN
TUNISIA - WOMEN ADVOCATE FOR RIGHTS
& EQUALITY IN NEW DEMOCRACY
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Tunisia's Higher Election Authority announced that, out of the 3.8
million Tunisians who have voluntarily registered to vote, some 45 per cent
are women [EPA] |
For
55 years,
Women
were active players in the uprising that ended the rule of Zine Abidine Ben
Ali, and many hope that event will translate into a more visible role in the
country’s soon-to-be democratic political life.
Yet
some are worried that the rights women have enjoyed for the past five decades
might soon be swept away by the tide of social conservatism that has emerged in
the wake of the uprising.
"We
know that the former regime took advantage of women's rights," says Faiza
Skandrani, who founded an organisation called Equality and Parity shortly after
the uprising.
Despite
the legal rights, women suffered from the same climate of fear and oppression
as men, she says.
Now
that the old regime is out, activists are hoping that this will mean women will
become politically empowered and active members of the new democracy.
Not
everyone shares the same vision of what the new
"It
is very difficult for us to have our voices heard, whether on the TV or the
radio," she says. For women and men alike, everything hinges on the
election of the constituent assembly on October 23.
'Rights' in the balance
That
assembly will be tasked with writing a new constitution and choosing what form
of political system the country will have in the future, rewriting the ground
rules that have piloted political life in the years immediately after
Al-Nahda,
the Islamist party led by Rachid Ghannouchi that was outlawed under Zine El
Abidine Ben Ali, is one of the most well-organised political movements. It
enjoys strong support, particularly in rural areas.
Ghannouchi
has long called for a moderate, pro-democratic brand of political Islam, and
has given many interviews promising that fundamental humanism of the previous
regime is not up for debate.
"I
think some values which were values since independence are accepted by all
parties … [including] Arab-Muslim identity [which] is accepted even by the
Communists. And women's rights are accepted by all sides, among them
Islamists," he told me in an interview in
But
some secularist critics say that Al-Nahda is sending mixed messages, playing to
more conservative segments of the population even as the party seeks to win
over more progressive voters.
Cherifa
Abdelhafidh, a mother of three and a practicing Muslim who wears a hijab, says
she is scared of how Al-Nahda, the country's most influential Islamist party,
might leverage its newly found political might.
The
41-year-old, who lives with her husband and daughters in the industrial coastal
city of
"I
think they are aggressive. Islam doesn't say that a woman must stay at
home, that she shouldn't work," she says.
She
feels that politicians from Al-Nahda are not being clear about what they
represent, and that they are using Islam for political aims.
"That's
why I'm uneasy. They are taking two [conflicting] stances, to build their
popularity," she says.
Abdelhafidh
battled with conservatism in her own family. She married her husband when she
was 16, and her father-in-law forced her to quit school.
He
forbade her from working, and it was only after he passed away did she begin
her job as an administrator at a local high school. Abdelhafidh's husband, who
has very different values from his father, has no problem with her working.
To
the contrary, the couple struggled to make ends meet on a single income.
"It's
bad for women, and for men too," she says. She supports religious
freedoms, and thinks the state should allow polygamy.
But
the Sfaxian says she plans to cast her vote for one of the country's two most
well-known centre-left, secular parties - either Ettajdid or the Progressive
Democratic Party (PDP).
New freedoms?
Other
women, meanwhile, see in Al-Nahda the potential to gain new freedoms they have
never had before.
Manel
Sekmani, a 24-year-old who is studying for a masters in genetics in
Al-Nahda
is the party, she says, that will challenge the prejudices encouraged by
previous governments and allow women more, rather than less, liberty.
"Al-Nahda
will protect women's rights," she says. "I was derided during the
time of Ben Ali and I don't want another government like that."
Like
Abdelhafidh, the student rejects conservative interpretations of Islam. In her
view, however, Al-Nahda is clear on its progressive values and is not calling
for women to stay at home.
"Women
who don't wear headscarves already have freedoms, and those freedoms cannot be
taken away from them." Sekmani does not want to see strict Islamic law
introduced, but rather a hybrid legal system that reflects the diversity of
Tunisian society.
"We
live in an Islamic country, but it is also a modern society," she
says.
The
young woman's desire to see a fusion of secular and Islamic law, leaving
existing rights intact, is similar to what some of Al-Nahda's most vocal
critics are calling for.
She
rejects the idea that voters like her are being misled about what Al-Nahda
really stands for.
Indeed,
many of Al-Nahda's most active members are female, and, Farida Laabidi, a member
of the party's executive branch, says they have some clout within the
movement.
"Many
thousands of Al-Nahda activists were imprisoned [during the previous regime]
and it was their wives who worked to support their families," she says.
Laabidi
denies that her party is encouraging women to quit their jobs.
"Women
must participate in the economic, social and political life of the
country," she says.
Rights in jeopardy
The
tension between those who want to keep politics and religion separate, and
those who would like to see Islam become more integral to the Tunisian state is
hardly new to the North African nation.
At
the dawn of independence, even before President Habib Bourguiba abolished the
monarchy and introduced the present constitution, the anti-colonial leader gave
Tunisian women legal rights that he hoped would break the shackles of
tradition.
Bourguiba
introduced the "Personal Status Code" (CSP by its French acronym) in
1956.
Women
were given the right to vote and to be elected to parliament, to earn equal
wages to men and to divorce.
Polygamy
was outlawed and a woman's consent became a requirement for marriage.
Then
came the legalisation of abortion in 1961, at time when it was still a taboo
topic in many European countries, including
In
a 1966 reportage on
Tunisian women - marking the tenth anniversary of the CSP - the former
president said: "Beneath men, who were victims of the colonial
regime, were women, who were also victims of an appalling situation ... which
came from old habits, traditions, which have a sacred character, which meant
that women themselves were resigned to their fate," he said.
The
video shows him lifting rural women's veils, a characteristic act that
represents emancipation for some, while showing a lack of respect for religious
beliefs to others.
Until
now, critics of the progressive stance on gender equality have been forced into
silence.
Under
Ben Ali in particular, most prominent Islamists had to chose between prison and
exile.
The
phenomenon that is stoking fears in some quarters is the increasingly
conservative tone that, they say, is encroaching media, mosques and public
discussions.
With
freedom of speech, topics that have long been taboo in the public arena, such
as polygamy and the argument that women should stay at home as a solution to
unemployment, are suddenly arousing widespread debate.
And
women are largely being excluded from the discussions.
"There
are many political debates taking place, but few women are given the chance to
participate," says Ahlem Belhaj, president of Tunisian Association of
Democratic Women (ATFD by its French acronym).
"There
is a lack of any debates about women's rights, certainly not in terms of how to
take them forward," she says.
"Partly,
it's a reaction to the way the former regime used women's rights, and partly
it's a concession to the Islamists."
There
have also been a series of murky violent incidents linked to fringe Salafist
activists, including attacks on a cinema screening a film about
secularism in June and on a police station in the town of
Al-Nahda
was not involved in these events but neither did the party side squarely with
secular groups who have come under attack from the ultra-conservatives.
"Attacks
on our liberty have already begun," Belhaj says.
"Every
time [there is an incident] Al-Nahda says it isn't them, but exactly who it is,
I don't know."
Laabidi
says that Al-Nahda is a party based on dialogue and does not condone
violence.
She
stops short of supporting the showing of films like the one that the activists
deemed an offence to Islam, however, saying it is not the time to raise such
divisive questions.
"Freedom
of expression has its limits," she says.
Activists
say the trend is linked to the emergence of a long-suppressed sector of
Tunisian society that wants to cast off the perceived Western influences in
favour of a stronger Arab-Islamic identity, looking east to the conservative
Gulf countries, rather than north.
This
viewpoint is founded on a total rejection of Bourguiba's vision, and is about
taking society in a very different direction.
Since
the late 1980s, Ghannouchi has declared himself in favour of maintaining the
CSP, given its integral place in contemporary Tunisian society.
Whether
the confusion among many Tunisians about Al-Nahda's programme is the result of
misinformation against the party, its own deliberate political strategy or
simply fear born of a lack of information depends on who you ask.
"There
are no contradictions. I believe we are clear about our position on
women," Laabidi says, arguing that much of the fear is based on groundless
speculation. "It is too early to judge us on our intentions."
For
Skandrani, however, there is a deliberate doublespeak.
"They
have a double discourse," she says.
In
one example of the type of statement that can be interpreted in a number of
ways, a video posted to his party's Facebook page
shows Ghannouchi explaining how, in his view, the institution of marriage has
been denigrated since independence.
"The
problem in
"The
regimes under Bourguiba and Ben Ali have destroyed our society, and now you
don't find many children in our schools," he continues - arguing that many
schools have been forced to close because of "a drop in reproduction
caused by misguided social polices".
Samir
Dilou, Al-Nahda's spokesperson, called polygamy a "fundamental
principle" of his party's political programme in an interview with Investir en Tunisie published
on June 1.
"We
are determined to add this right to the Tunisian Constitution," he told the website.
In
response to the controversy that followed, Dilou released a statement arguing he had been misquoted
and that the party had no intention of legalising polygamy.
The
outsider has no way to judge whether it is Dilou or the journalist who is being
dishonest - another example of the type of incident that is leading to
confusion over Al-Nahda's position.
As
Laabidi argues, it is impossible to judge Al-Nahda without the party having any
track record in power.
And
whether political parties are the driving force behind the groundswell of
religious conservatism is another question again.
Framing the debate
In
Sidi Bouzid back in January, a crowd of desperate young men explained their
anger over their economic, social and political marginalisation under both Ben
Ali and Bourguiba's governments.
"In
We
were among the first journalists to reach the town where the revolution began
and his words were raw, well before the media or opposition parties had kicked
in to gear.
Whoever
they vote for, the real test of women's engagement in the political process
will be how many of them vote, and their ability to stand alongside men on the
campaign trail.
Those
who support gender equality obtained a considerable victory
in April, when the National Council for the Protection of the Revolution, a
body created to help oversee the transition process, announced that gender
parity was an obligation for electoral lists.
Come
October, 50 per cent of candidates fielded by every party must be female.
Moreover, the lists must alternate between genders (man-woman-man or
woman-man-woman), putting
The
Tunisian Higher Election Authority (ISIE by its French acronym) announced on
Tuesday that, of the 3.8 million Tunisians who have voluntarily registered to
vote, some 45 per cent were women.
The
figure given to Al Jazeera by the ISIE a week earlier was 37 per cent,
suggesting a high number of women enrolled in the last week of
inscriptions.
More
than half of the 1.7 million women who signed up are between the ages of 21 and
30.
So
while older Tunisian women are lagging well behind men of their age group,
younger women are ensuring that they will partake in the fruits of their
engagement with the uprising - and help to frame the limits of the
debate.