Women in Tunisia fight to maintain their rights

Women in Tunisia are lobbying to defend their rights, after the electoral victory of the Islamist Ennahda Party in the country’s first elections since the ousting of former President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali last January. Over 90 percent of Tunisia’s 4.1 million registered voters cast their ballot to elect a 217-person constitutional assembly that will work to reestablish a Tunisian government and constitution. Women won 22 percent of seats in the elections; however, the Ennahda Party won almost every female seat in the assembly. Of the 49 women elected, 42 were of the Ennahda Party. This has raised fears among some women that a 1956 law that granted women full equality with men could be compromised by the assembly, in a push to return to Islamic tradition. According to a Tunisian Personal Code, women have equal rights in marriage, divorce, and child rearing—something Tunisian women want to fight to protect. Observers of events in Tunis have reported that radical factions have harassed women to dress more traditionally. About 500 women gathered in the capital to protest these developments, and were granted a meeting with Prime Minster Beji Caid Essebi to raise their demands. Ennahda has vowed to maintain the rights of women in Tunisia, which is heralded by many as the freest country for women in the Arab world.  Regardless, the protests are set to continue, as women report that they are not confident that this promise is guaranteed. “We are definitely concerned at the rise of the conservatives in the country, but hopefully they will not have enough power to enact too conservative constitutional laws and Tunisia will remain Tunisia,” said Mona Ibrahim, a 28-year-old mother of two and government worker. “We are an educated country and believe in the rights of women, and I don’t think that even if conservatives win they would be able to change the Tunisian identity that created the revolutions elsewhere,” she added. President Zine el-Abadine Ben Ali was overthrown last January after a month-long protest against his regime, organized by Tunisians angry over rampant unemployment and corruption in the country. Some observers argue that the Tunisian Revolution helped to presage the Arab Spring popular uprisings that subsequently flared up across the region.