This
article has been presented within Symposium intiteled Modernization, Islam,
(neo)Liberalism and reproductive Policies in Tunisia and Turkey, Practicing feminist
medecine in the system that took place on November
13, 2017 in Geopolis Lausanne
Tunisia
has been precocious compared to other Arab and Muslim countries when it comes
to the emancipation of women.
Long
before independence, Ibn Abi Dhiaf, (1804- 1874), a Tunisian historian and
politician, known to be the author of a multi-volume chronicle on the history
of Tunisia And private secretary of five successive beys of Tunis ; wrote in 1856, his Epistle on Women, (Risalah fi al'mar'a), as a response to a list
of 23 questions asked by Léon Roches, General consul of France in Tunis.
This thirty-pages manuscript examines the social role of
women in Tunisia, their ights and duties with regard to the family and conjugal
relations (marriage, divorce, polygamy, presence in the public sphere
(veiling). isolation, segregation and repudiation), housework and lack of
education.
Nearly in the same period, Minister Khair-Eddine, a major
actor in the Tunisian reform movement, called for women’s education and the
modernization of the political system based on the reconciliation of Western
contributions with Islam.
Half a century after that, Tunisian activist Habiba
Menchari called for veil abolition at a conference in Tunis in 1924 and
publically removed her veil. Four years later, she was pleading for the
abolition of polygamy, and from 1924 to 1929, public interventions by Habiba
Menchari and feminist activist Manoubia Ouertani aroused scandal among
conservatives.
In
that same intellectual motion, Tahar Haddad, syndicalist and Tunisian author,
raised the question of the Personal Status of Women in 1930 to the public
opinion.
From
1930 to 1955, several newspapers published articles on women's dowry, polygamy,
veil, education and voting rights.
There have been pioneering women's organizations in the
colonial era like
Muslim Women's Union of Tunisia (1936-1956) made of committed women of the upper middle
class anticolonialist activists like Bchira
Ben Mrad (1913-1993)- anticolonialist activist who
created the Muslim Union of Women of Tunisia in 1936, linked to the Zeitounian
circles, (visa in 1951 and dissolution in 1956).
Meanwhile, The Union of Tunisian Women U.M.F.T was created in 1944 after the victory of the French Left that favored
the establishment of and was linked to the Tunisian Communist Party ; whose demands mainly concerned the
schooling of young girls but which, under the Protectorate, turned into
political demands for the victims of colonial repression.
This NGO focused mainly on the emancipation of women and
the schooling of disadvantaged children, it’s activities were reduced after
independence, until its dissolution, in 1963.
Since the independence of the country (1956),
women's emancipation has been closely linked to nationalism, modernity and even
universal access.
The Code of Personal Status had secular orientation,
published in August 13, 1956 (before the constitution) and it Abolished polygamy,
replaced repudiation by the judicial divorce that the two spouses also have the
possibility of claiming, and abolished of the
matrimonial guardian ;
CSP gave also women the right to vote and eligibility in
municipal elections.
In the years following independence, women got the right
to work, to move, to open bank accounts or to set up businesses without
requesting the permission of their husbands.
From the early 60s, a vigorous family planning policy was
implemented making contraceptives
available throughout the country and legalizing
unconditional abortion.
The emancipation dynamic, however, lost its
impetuosity in the 1970s. At that time,The political will to break the Marxist
intellectual left lead to the
constitution of "Safeguarding the Quran" associations, first nuclei
of what will be the Islamist movement.
And in 1973, a
circular prohibiting the celebration and registration of marriages between
Muslims and non-Muslims was published making all mixed marriages where the spouse
has not converted to Islam null and void in the eyes of the Tunisian
authorities.
Bourguiba
renounced in 1974 to modify the inheritance law aiming gender’s equality and in the late 70s, a total stagnation of women's
status took place since the improvement of women situation was no longer a main priority.
Nevertheless, in 1981 a law that
automatically conferred to the mother the guardianship of minor children in
case of the death or incapacity of the husband, and new measures in favor of
women in case of divorce. During this period, the first research topics on
women, especially in history and sociology in universities
Luckily previous social changes helped the emerge of
feminine consciousness capable of rethinking the question of women and
femininity; the Tunisian feminist
movement was born during this period: the Autonomous Feminist Movement
(1978 to 1982). The exacerbation of socio-economic contradictions
generates a movement of opposition in the wake of which is born an autonomous
feminist movement, marked by the creation in 1978 at Club Tahar Haddad, of the
Club of the Condition of the Women, carried by a group of students of the Human
Sciences University of Tunis aiming the
creation of a Women's Trade Union Commission.
Feminine members of the Teachers and Scientific Researchers
Union created this commission on March 8th 1982, during an event, in the
presence of Taieb Baccouche, general secretary of the UGTT who gave his
approval for the creation of the Study Commission on the Status of Women at Work,
within the UGTT.
This NGO could also have been created as a response to
the National Union of Tunisian Women
(1958-2012) created in January 1956 under the aegis of the Neo Destour, which
first president was Radhia Haddad. This organization was never independent
because it was always subordinated to the ruling parties under Bourguiba and
Ben Ali. UNFT was charged with balancing effective participation of women in
economic and social life with the promotion of a harmonious family life. This
structure has always executed the programs of the ruling party and was a force
of political mobilization.
The Autonomous Feminist Movement got more
structured between 1978 and 1982 and the consolidation of the Movement took
place in 1989 with the creation of two independent NGOs in opposition to the established
power, namingly AFTURD (Association of Tunisian Women for Research on
Development) and the ATFD (Association of Democratic Women), who have
contributed a lot to the promulgation of new laws for women, maintaining the
pressure on the power in place from 1989 to 2011.
An importent event took place on November 7th, 1987, when Ben
Ali took over power and this was accompagned by new cultural practices as Interruption
of television programs to transmit the daily five prayer calls but also Reopening
of the former theological university of Zitouna suppressed shortly after
independence by Bourguiba and Beginning of the glorification of
"Arab-Islamic identity" of Tunisia by the new regime.
Surprisingly Official
receptions had become exclusively masculine.
For the feminist movement, it was no longer a
question of feminists claiming but of defending the CSP against attacks not
only of Islamists, but also of the political party in power ;
Ben Ali publicly affirmed his attachment to the CSP in
1988, but nothing more. During 1989 election campaign, candidates of the ruling
party tried to attract votes through an Islamic discourse.
But in 1990, following the conflict of the state with
Islamists, the president reconnected with a state feminism without breaking up
with the Arab-Muslim identity.
So in 1991, the Center for Research, Studies,
Documentation and Information on Women (Credif) was founded and a national
commission "Woman and development » was established ; the
President even announced the creation of a State Secretariat for Women and
Family and Women got appointed to ministerial offices. In addition, in 1993 some changes are made on
the CSP without responding to all the wishes of the feminist movement, who
advocates for a clear recognition of gender equality, they are nonetheless not
negligible and tend to change paternal authority towards shared parental authority
between the two spouses and the consent of the mother becomes mandatory for the
marriage of a minor girl. Legislative innovations were made since 1995 in the
distribution of property within the couple following the demands of feminist
activists and mechanism to facilitate donations
during lifetime aiming to mitigate the effects girls' inequality in inheritance
were studied.
The cause of the woman was used to promote
the regime but the regime wan’t ready to grant the equality of inheritance
under the pretext of respecting the Arab-Muslim identity
After the revolution, many events took place, the one
with the most strong symbolism when it comes to women emancipation was that the two tombs of Tahar Haddad and
Bourguiba were desecrated by Islamic extremists.
Several feminist NGOs were created, aiming
for the fight for parity, women empowerment and insuring the mobilization of
civil society whenever the ruling party seemed to be slipping.
These NGOs had a common struggle: the inclusion in the
Constitution of the principle of total equality, the separation of politics and
religion and the universal dimension of human rights and women's rights in
particular so discussions
about modifying the CSP impulsed strikes in 2014.
Feminist NGOs have been also active in
lifting the reservations to the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms
of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
Since
then feminist NGO worked on the eleboration of a law proposal against gender based
violence that has been lately discussed in the national assembly.
After this overview of the history of feminism in
Tunisia,it seems obvious that Machismo is a bias and it distorts history and science;
since history is written by the
strongest when it comes to civilizations, It is mostly written by men all the
time which implies the constant minimization of the role of women; Even in
science, the veracity of purely scientific data is sometimes doubtful because,
without being aware of it, the scientists having a machos bias, cannot stand
feminine figures being more represented than masculine and tend to give
explanations, create classifications… aiming the promotion of masculinity; like the famous story of the
fastest, strongest spermatozoide that isn’t right at all since the ovocyte is
the one who chooses the spermatozoide and aspire it
Sometimes we just have to stop and observe
how much the patriarch can harm women by this self-destruction that he
maintains; Oedipus
kills his father and becomes his own father (Capitalisme et schizophrénie –
Gilles Deleuze et Felix Gattari) ; it’s a destructive
narcissistic dynamic that makes women often a collateral damage;
Things are quite the same when it
comes to medical practice and more specifically in sexual and reproductive
health services since services for women are always criminalized based on a
religious approach ; not accessing health services is a violence
This is a truth in the general population; but the most affected people when it comes to
unsatisfied health needs, are women belonging to vulnerable populations; they
sum up being a woman and other specific barriers to each population.
Indeed, Women with Handicap do not access to the most basic human rights neither information since they lack autonomy and have a
permanent need for assistance they cannot have confidentiality mainly within the absence of adapted services.
This group of women have a significant experience of violence and rape
and at the same time they suffer a denied sexuality by society that is an
unspoken non-right to sexuality and imposed infertility and / or maternity.
The second group are Migrant women that
suffer Perceived barriers to health services due to Stigma and Fear of being incarcerated if migrating
illegally and Real barriers being Financial
(no social security), Administrative (no identity document) or Non access to information and total ignorance of the health system and
rights . Migrants do not access the same services as citizens in many
countries.
Within this group,
some are also Victims
of human trafficking which is a the modern slavery.
I think that there is a specific group that is the most
affected by barriers to sexual and reproductive health services: Women
drug users. Indeed, they suffer intense stigma. In addition, there is a huge lack of adapted services in
the public sector when it comes to drug use in general ; Nonetheless,
there are some services offered by NGOs that are statistically insufficient in number
for the general drug users popultaion and in gender approach due to lac of
funds but also Punitive Law (article 52).
Many of those women sum up several risky behaviors and some of them are victims of criminal
organisation and human trafficking.
Nature hates the void, the planet needs a
ground feminism to respond to the needs and services beyond which, these needs
will be phagocyted by the patriarch since the lack of services makes
verbalization of needs much easier to eliminate; while the provision creates an
airway that acts as a protection for the services that exist and a basis to
build on.
There is a necessity of a popular feminism approach that
will be able to reach for all women from different social classes and
backgrounds, in addition to the feminism carried out by the intellectuals;
Feminism should aim the empowering of women with little or no education and those belonging to
vulnerable populations; it should step out its intellectual sphere and become
easier to be adopted by all women regardless education, financial status…
That's what I would call Basic
Feminism : a way to assert feminism in society, to protect women's achievements
and to continue fighting for more.
Access to sexual and reproductive health
services is an outcome, several factors intervene in the behavior of seeking
care: culture, financial means, perceptions, morality ...
In order to have an impact, a holistic approach that
integrates education, women's empowerment, financial independence must be
though about.
A government should provide the services and insure
the protection of its citizens and stop playing moralizing father; the patriarch is weak, it tries to compensate
for this impotence by giving itself the impression of controlling the intimate
life of the citizens using absurd laws; Feminism have to set the record
straight.
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