Tunisian women are rising up against a proposed article in the new constitution seen by many as an Islamist ploy to reverse the principle of gender equality that made Tunisia a beacon of modernity in the Arab world when it was introduced six decades ago.
The National Constituent Assembly parliamentary committee adopted last week a proposed article that activists say would compromise rights enshrined in the Personal Status Code (CSP) promulgated in 1956 under Tunisia's first president, Habib Bourguiba.
The article must still be ratified at a plenary session of the interim parliament.
The 1956 code was the first of its kind in the Arab world. It abolished polygamy, under which Muslim men are allowed to have as many as four wives, and the practice of repudiation, under which husbands could divorce simply by saying so three times. At the same time, it instituted not only judicial divorce but also civil marriage. It is a system now deeply rooted in Tunisian society, where women are active in all sectors of society.
While none of these principles would be lost under the proposed article, activists fear that its language represents a step toward rolling back their rights. At issue, concretely, is that women's place in society would be defined in terms of their relation to men.
The offending article stipulates that the state guarantees "the protection of women's rights... under the principle of complementarity to man within the family and as an associate of man in the development of the country."
Read the complete story at The Nation, published 13 August 2012.
Tunisian women are rising up against a proposed article in the new constitution seen by many as an Islamist ploy to reverse the principle of gender equality that made Tunisia a beacon of modernity in the Arab world when it was introduced six decades ago.
The National Constituent Assembly parliamentary committee adopted last week a proposed article that activists say would compromise rights enshrined in the Personal Status Code (CSP) promulgated in 1956 under Tunisia's first president, Habib Bourguiba.
The article must still be ratified at a plenary session of the interim parliament.
The 1956 code was the first of its kind in the Arab world. It abolished polygamy, under which Muslim men are allowed to have as many as four wives, and the practice of repudiation, under which husbands could divorce simply by saying so three times. At the same time, it instituted not only judicial divorce but also civil marriage. It is a system now deeply rooted in Tunisian society, where women are active in all sectors of society.
While none of these principles would be lost under the proposed article, activists fear that its language represents a step toward rolling back their rights. At issue, concretely, is that women's place in society would be defined in terms of their relation to men.
The offending article stipulates that the state guarantees "the protection of women's rights... under the principle of complementarity to man within the family and as an associate of man in the development of the country."
Read the complete story at The Nation, published 13 August 2012.
