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Tunisia: Women
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Tunisia is a leader in the Arab world in promoting the legal and social status of women. A Personal Status Code was adopted shortly after independence in 1956, which, among other things, gave women full legal status (allowing them to run and own businesses, have bank accounts, and seek passports under their own authority). It ... for the first time in the Arab world, outlawed polygamy. The government required parents to send girls to school, and today more than 50% of university students are women. Rights of women and children were further enhanced by 1993 reforms, which included a provision to allow Tunisian women to transmit citizenship even if they are married to a foreigner and living abroad. The government has supported a remarkably successful family planning program that has reduced the population growth rate to just over 1% per annum, contributing to Tunisia's economic and social stability.
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Addressing the issue of domestic violence in Tunisia has been an important focus among women's rights activists, NGOs, and governmental women's affairs groups in Tunisia since the early 1990s, when it ... became a matter of international concern. In 1991, for example, the UNFT conducted a study including lawyers, doctors, social workers, and a national representative sample of 1,000 people to analyze marital violence. The Association Tunisienne des Femmes Democrates (ATFD) (Tunisian Association of Democratic Women), an NGO also known as les Femmes Democrates, has operated the Centre d'￉coute, a support center for victims of violence located in their main office in Tunis since 1993. This group also disseminated the results of a study conducted in 1998 of reported cases of spousal abuse and family violence.
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Tunisia's independence from France in 1956 ended a protectorate established in 1881. President Bourguiba, who had been the leader of the independence movement, declared Tunisia a republic in 1957, ending the nominal rule of the Ottoman Beys. In June 1959, Tunisia adopted a constitution modeled on the French system, which established the basic outline of the highly centralized presidential system that continues today. The military was given a defined defensive role, which excluded participation in politics. Starting from independence, President Bourguiba placed strong emphasis on economic and social development, especially education, the status of women, and the creation of jobs, policies that continued under the Ben Ali administration. The result was strong social progress--high literacy and school attendance rates, low population growth rates, and relatively low poverty rates--and generally steady economic growth.
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Women in Tunisia are vulnerable to poverty due to the gender gaps and the existing disparities in populations, particularly among older age groups and in rural areas. However, overall poverty for men and women in Tunisia has declined significantly over the past few decades; the poverty rate in the 1960s was 40 percent; this fell to 7 percent by the mid-1990s and to 4.2 percent in 2000. Poverty-alleviation programs include the work of government-sponsored agencies; local NGOs like the Tunisian Mothers' Association (ATM), which operates mainly in rural areas; international NGOs, such as Enda-Arab, which provides targeted transfers to poor households; public works programs; microcredit/microfinance programs; and social development funds. Some of these programs are specifically geared to alleviate unemployment among women and to raise the economic status of rural women and girls-necessary steps for the enjoyment of the rights and freedoms afforded them by Tunisia's legal frameworks.
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Tunisia signed the CEDAW in 1980 and ratified it in 1985 with a number of declarations and reservations. The general declaration states that Tunisia "declares that it shall not take any organisational or legislative decision in conformity with the requirements of this Convention where such a decision would conflict with the provisions of chapter I of the Tunisian Constitution" relating to general provisions as well as to fundamental rights and duties. Tunisia submitted the following reservations: the reservation to Article 9(2) states that the provision must not conflict with the provisions of chapter VI of the Tunisian Nationality Code; Tunisia ... does not consider itself bound by Article 16(c), (d), (f), (g) and (h) and that paragraphs (g) and (h) of that Article "must not conflict with the provisions of the Personal Status Code concerning the granting of family names to children and the acquisition of property through inheritance". Tunisia also submitted a declaration concerning Article 15(4), stating that requirements relating to women’s right to choice of residence and domicile "must not be interpreted in a manner which conflicts with the (relevant) provisions of the Personal Status Code… as set forth in chapters 23 and 61 of the Code".
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There are conservative standards of dress and behaviour in Tunisia and you should take care not to offend. If you are visiting religious sites and remote areas of Tunisia you should avoid wearing short-sleeved garments or shorts. Open displays of affection between members of the opposite sex may cause offence. Women may be harassed, particularly if they are unaccompanied.
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