Tunisia: Understanding Conflict 2012 - Johns Hopkins School of ...

Women’s Rights in Tunisia:
A “Non-Issue” at the Center of the Debate
Sara O’Rourke
Many claim that the question of women’s rights in Tunisia is a non-issue. For years the
country has been known as a beacon of hope for the Middle East in the realm of gender
equality. Tunisian women make up 55% of university students and received the right to
vote before their Swiss counterparts, while Tunisian law forbids polygamy and promotes
adoption, even by single mothers. The leader of the largest business union, UTICA
(Union Tunisienne de l’Industrie, du Commerce et de l’Artisanat), is a woman and there
is a greater percentage of women in the Constituent Assembly than in the U.S. Congress. 8
As many of those we interviewed noted, Tunisian women are seen to have the same
rights as women in Europe and North America. Especially given the country’s status as
an Arab Muslim nation, and even in comparison to some of the most progressive
countries in the world, Tunisia’s record on women’s rights is impressive. And as the
argument goes, women’s rights have been so entrenched in the Tunisian mindset that
even with the ousting of a secular dictator and new dominance of a moderate Islamist
party, women’s rights will continue to be unquestioned and untouched.
However, historically, the “woman question” has played a crucial role in Tunisia
in times of transition. During both Bourguiba’s and Ben Ali’s rise to power, the rights of
women formed the center of the debate between the secularist 9 and Islamist movements.
As a result, women have in the past received their rights through top-down, stateenforced
legal reforms—beginning with Bourguiba’s revolutionary Code of Personal
Status (CPS) and continuing with Ben Ali’s progressive updates to the law. Such reforms
have provided a mechanism for these leaders to consolidate power and suppress the
8 Roughly 24% of the Constituent Assembly (49 out of 217) are women, compared to roughly
17% of U.S. Congress (17 out of 100 Senators and 73 out of 453 Representatives).
9 I will use the term “secular” simply to denote those groups in favor of liberal laws promoting a
separation of church and state. I will distinguish this from “laicists,” by which I mean those
favoring a more militant secularism which is against religion in the public space, following the
French doctrine of laïcité.
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