Progress Amid Resistance

512 WOMEN’S RIGHTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA26Article 67 of the personal status code. Mothers do, however, gain guardianship overtheir children in the event of the father’s death.27Amendment to the CPS, April 5, 1996.28Article 207 of the penal code, which had prescribed a five-year prison sentence for husbandswho murder their adulterous wives but did not similarly reduce the sentence forwives killing their husbands in such circumstances, has been eliminated. Law No. 92 of1993 considers marriage to be an aggravating circumstance in instances of violence.29Collective 95, Degré d’adhésion.30Cabinet de Prospective Sociale (Social Prospective Cabinet) and National Union ofTunisian Women, La violence conjugale en Tunisie: Composantes sociologiques, culturelles,juridiques et institutionnelles [Conjugal Violence in Tunisia: Sociological, Cultural,Legal and Institutional Components], 1992.31“Press Conference: Ministry of Women, Family, Children and the Elderly,” La Presse,January 29, 2009.32For more information, see Public Health Ministry, National Office of the Family andPopulation, La violence fondée sur le genre en Tunisie: Etat des lieux [Gender-BasedViolence: State of Affairs] (Tunis: ONFP, 2007).33AFTURD, Divorce, violence et droits des femmes [Divorce, Violence and Women’sRights], 2001; and Collective 95, Degré d’adhésion.34Article 14 of the constitution states: “The right to property is guaranteed. It is exercisedwithin the limits established by the law.”35Collective 95, Degré d’adhésion.36The habous system, which was repealed by law upon independence in 1957, long permittedgirls to be disinherited to the advantage of male descendants. Habous is a sortof trust that permits its founder to render his property inalienable and devote it toreligious work or some other usage. The enjoyment of the property can be effectiveimmediately or upon the extinction of the descendants of the founder. The managersof the habous are named in the founding document, and are generally, but not always,the descendants of male lineage. They benefit from the revenues of the trust in a verystrict and precise manner. See Sophie Ferchiou et al., hasab wa nasab, Parenté, Allianceet Patrimoine en Tunisie [hasab wa nasab, Kinship, Alliance and Patrimony] (Paris:National Center of Scientific Research, 1992).37In the sample, 43 percent were unmarried people; 37 percent of those declared that theproperty or rental contract of their residence was in their father’s name, and 3 percentsaid it was in their mother’s name. Among married respondents, 38 percent of mendeclared the contract in their name, while only 8 percent of women did the same.And 41 percent of women stated that it was in their husband’s name, whereas only4 percent of men said it was in their wife’s name. Only 4 percent of couples declaredco-ownership. Collective 95, Degré d’adhésion, 106.38A law enacted on April 5, 1996, gave couples the right to take out a joint loan forhousing.39See Book Nine of the CPS, Articles 85 to 170.40According to Shari‘a, in the absence of a direct male heir, a part of the inheritance isdistributed to the male collaterals.