Term for women provokes row in Tunisia

A row over a proposed constitutional description of women as complementary to men in family life has sharpened divisions in Tunisia between Islamists and a secular opposition that fought for years to make the north African nation a relative bastion of gender equality.

The description falls short of recognising women and men as equal, say activists, who fear a push by the country’s new Islamist leaders to introduce constitutional changes that could reverse decades of progress in what has traditionally been seen as one of the Arab world’s most liberal countries.

“Women of Tunisia are a woman and a half,” thousands of women chanted this week during a protest march along the capital’s main boulevard, Habib Bourghuiba. The road was named after the Tunisian republic’s first president, known as a champion of women’s rights. “We rebelled together. We will build Tunisia together.”

The draft constitution, formulated by a constituent assembly dominated by Islamists, is due to be ratified in a referendum next year. Talks between the Nahda-led government – elected after the overthrow of dictator Zein al-Abidine Ben Ali last year – and activists over the exact wording continue.

Article 28 assigns women “a complementary role inside the family”, which activists describe as gratuitous, humiliating and a threat to women’s rights. “It is demeaning and unfair to all women in Tunisia,” said Bouchra Belhaj, a lawyer and human rights activist in the capital. “They have placed women into a certain category, the category of the wife who is just ‘complementary’ to her husband and nothing more.”

Activists fear the wording could herald a gradual erosion of women’s rights. Tunisia, alone among Arab countries, permits abortion. Women of all classes play a prominent role in public life and the economy, including as bus drivers and police officers. Married women frequently make their own career and lifestyle decisions. Women marched on the front lines during the street protests that drove Mr Ben Ali from power last year and ushered in a new era of political liberty and uncertainty. Though Tunisians across the political spectrum rose up against Mr Ben Ali, Nahda dominated October elections for a parliament and a constituent assembly.

Nahda party officials reject the assertion that they are trying to roll back women’s rights in the name of Islam. The party recently acceded to secularists’ demands to exclude any reference to Islamic law or sharia from the constitution’s preamble. They note that two other clauses in the constitution refer to equality between men and women.

“Article 28 was never meant to rob women of their rights or freedoms,” said Farida el-Abidi, a Nahda party member of the constituent assembly. “The word ‘complementary’ wasn’t used to substitute the word ‘equality’. We as Nahda, we follow Islam and Islam is all about equality of men and women.”

At the same time, Nahda faces pressure from its own socially conservative political base as well as ultra-puritanical Salafist political parties challenging its Islamist credentials. There are other voices clamouring to be heard as well as secularists. Sixty women serve in the constituent assembly and “every one of them has different perceptions” about the proper role of women in Tunisian civic and family life, Nahda member Benjamina Zghulama noted in the newspaper el-Shorouk.

Suspicions between Islamists and activists run high. “Even if the constitutional panel’s intention was good, and God only knows if it is, we still can’t accept the text,” said Sanaa Balhoubsh, Association of Women’s Rights in Tunisia. “The fact is, this text demeans women and makes them unequal or incomplete without men.”

Rights activists fear Nahda’s unwillingness to bend on a mere wording issue bodes ill for the future. “I sat in on a meeting with the Nahda people and they absolutely refuse to change the wording,” said Ms Belhaj. “Why? Because they want to dominate the Tunisian people. They want to rob them of the freedom they have been fighting for for so long, and we can’t let that happen.”

Nahda’s Ms Abidi accused some activists of seeking to tarnish Nahda’s reputation. “It’s good to see people protesting and we encourage people to express themselves, especially after the revolution,” said Ms Abidi. “But what is not acceptable is to make a huge deal about such a minor issue, especially since the intention was never to degrade women.”

Additional reporting by Amina Ashraf