Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, March 2007, pages 42-43

Special Report

Tunisia’s Personal Status Code and “Modernity, Development and Human Rights”

By Jane Adas

“WHAT INCREDIBLE foresight!” exclaimed Etta Tadesse, representing the African Union at the final session of a two-day conference on “Modernity, Development and Human Rights” held in Tunis Dec. 12 and 13. She was referring to Tunisia’s Personal Status Code, enacted 50 years ago as the first law of newly independent Tunisia, preceding Tunisia’s Constitution by three years. The first of its kind in the Arab world, the Code guarantees that women are full citizens with full rights.

Mohamed Habib Cherif, minister of justice and human rights, observed that the Personal Status Code is deeply anchored in Tunisian society, where women have been an important presence since Queen Dido founded Carthage. The godfather of the Personal Status Code was Tunisian reformist scholar Tahar Haddad, who in 1930 published Our Women in Religion and Society. Elements of the code were promulgated in a 1939 draft based on Islamic canon law under the Ottoman Bey, when Tunisia was still under French control. The 1956 Code, Cherif said, erased discriminatory traditions, such as customary marriage and secret divorce, and reformed the judiciary by replacing the Islamic, Christian and Jewish courts with a uniform, secular system.

The code also bans polygamy and women wearing the hijab (headscarf with or without a veil), issues that remain controversial in the Muslim world. Islam allows a man up to four wives, provided there is absolute equality among them and their children. According to Cherif, a modern reading of the Qur’an based on ijtihad (interpretive reasoning) assumes that such equality is impossible.

Judge Jaouida Guiga explained that it is permissible to cover the hair as long as it is in a traditional, Tunisian style. What is banned, she said, is imported head covering with political, sectarian implications. She further clarified that non-traditional head covering is illegal only in public places. When asked about the penalty for violating the law, however, the judge replied, “Oh, there is no penalty.”

Tunisia’s Personal Status Code continues to evolve. When Zine El Abidine Ben Ali became president in 1987, he established a committee to review the code. In 1992 amendments went into effect that extended the notion of women’s rights beyond family issues, and changed the goals for women from equality to full partnership with men. Today women are present in all aspects of public life: females outnumber males in both secondary (53 percent) and higher (58 percent) education; more than 18,000 women are entrepreneurs; 27 percent of judges, 42 percent of the medical profession and 34 percent of journalists are women. Further measures have been enacted to make it easier to balance work and family. As of 2006, for example, women with small children can work part-time for two-thirds of their salary, while retaining their social security and retirement benefits.

Two official positions established to strengthen the connection between Tunisians and their government, and to further promote women’s status, are a national ombudsman and the minister of the affairs of women, family, children, and the elderly, whose office sponsored the symposium. The purpose of the ombudsman is to hear complaints from citizens against the government at any level. Today this position is held by Alifa Farouk, who explained that her office handles over 3,000 cases a year. Nearly all of them are resolved, she noted, with almost 80 percent decided in favor of the citizen.

In response to a question about whether Tunisia has gone too far in imposing modernity, Minister Saloua Ayachi Labbene replied that people have rallied behind the Personal Status Code and subsequent measures because they see them as being in line with Islamic values based on the dignity of the individual and equality of opportunity for all. Tunisia, she added, has chosen to work on changing mentalities, especially through education, to promote a critical spirit toward demagogical discourse—something she hopes will inspire other Arab countries.

Dr. Wadouda Badrane is director general of the Organization of Arab Women, which was inspired by the Arab League conference in 2000 to establish an institutional framework for women’s rights. So far 15 of 23 Arab countries have joined. The organization set up a Judicial Committee to compare legislation regarding women’s status in all Arab countries with international agreements, to look for gaps between the two, as well as between legislation and implementation, and to ensure that everything is consistent with Islamic law. Acknowledging there are many social constraints for Arab women, Badrane recommended adopting flexible legislation to allow for a gradual change in attitudes toward the position of women.

Tunisia’s National Solidarity Fund

Many conference speakers pointed out that the biggest enemy of women is poverty, and virtually all of them praised Tunisia’s National Solidarity Fund. This was established in 1993, after President Ben Ali visited remote areas of the country that lacked any kind of infrastructure. His trips were well publicized, to raise the public’s awareness of the desperate need of these “shadow areas” that had missed out on the country’s modernization. The fund is financed by voluntary donations from individuals and enterprises, with less than 5 percent coming from foreign donations. There were 180,000 donations the first year on Dec. 8, “National Solidarity Day.” This past year saw 4 million donations—meaning that nearly every household contributes. Because the funding comes from citizens who have a right to know how their money is spent, a detailed statement is published each year outlining the cost of each project.

The results are impressive. More than a million people have benefitted from the fund’s intervention. Tunisia’s poverty level has been reduced to under 4 percent, and the level of sub-standard housing to less than 1 percent. Following the symposium, foreign journalists were taken to visit a project in Nabeul funded by the National Solidarity Fund. What was once a shantytown has been transformed into a housing project, medical center and school. The infirmary provides free vaccinations, maternal and newborn follow-up, and long-term care for chronic illnesses. The majority of the 272 students in the pre- and elementary schools are bused in from rural areas and given a free noon meal. The school has seven computers and will soon have Internet access. The Fund trains two teachers in each school on computers so that they can teach the students.

In 1997, two other mechanisms—the National Solidarity Bank and the National Employment Fund—were added to make an integrated system of solidarity. The National Solidarity Bank exists to help people who cannot deal with the normal banking system become self-sustaining by giving small loans, without guarantees and at very low interest. It operates on a capital fund of 50 million Tunisian dinars, half provided by the state and half by private shareholders at 10 dinars a share. The only dividend shareholders receive is pride in national unity, explained Lamine Hafsawi, president of the National Solidarity Bank. “We sell the dream.”

We were fortunate to be able to accompany Hafsawi on his visits to some of the project sites in the Nabeul area. They represented a surprising variety, ranging from a traditional ceramics workshop that now employs 15 people; a radiology center in a female doctor’s office; a room in a home that has been turned into an underwear production enterprise for retail shops; bathroom and kitchen cabinetry production; and even a snail farm. With a loan of 28,000 dinars, Mohamed Hidriss has been able to export nine tons of snails annually to Europe. Like all the other loan recipients we met, he plans to expand with a further loan.

In response to a question about whether a national solidarity project would work in the U.S., a Tunisian reporter replied that it is perhaps too innocent for America. The idea was adopted by the United Nations, however. In 1999, President Ben Ali called for the establishment of a World Solidarity Fund, which was approved by General Assembly resolution in 2002. Since 2004, Tunisia has contributed 10 percent of its National Solidarity Fund to the U.N.’s World Solidarity Fund.

Americans and the world have much to learn from the remarkable social initiatives Tunisia is undertaking.

Jane Adas is a free-lance writer based in the New York City metropolitan area.

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