Panafrican News Agency

Injustices persisit against women in Tunisian society

Tunis Tunisia (PANA) - Injustices against Tunisian women persist despite the existence of a legal instrument that was proclaimed soon after independence in 1956 to safeguard women's rights.

The Code on Personal Status contains a set of laws in favour of women's rights but until now Tunisian women are regarded as inferior to men in several aspects, observers pointed out on Tuesday during celebration of the Women's National Day in conjunction with the proclamation of the Code on 13 August 1956.

The Tunisian woman has benefited from many gains thanks to the Code which  prohibits polygamy, spelt out a legal process for divorce, requires the couple's consent to be legally married and gives women the right to represent their children in court and guarantees the nationality of their children in the same way as men.

Tunisia's second constitution, adopted in 2014, gave new rights to women, including establishing total equality between men and women and gives women political gains, the most significant of which relates to better representation in Parliament and in municipal councils.

The status of women was further strengthened after the adoption on 26 July 2017 of the Basic Law on the Elimination of Violence against Women.

Tunisia's first president, Habib Bourguiba, to whom Tunisian women owe all these advances, failed to put an end to blatant injustice against women regrading the right to succession, observers said.

The late Tunisian president, Béji Caïd Essebsi, also tried in 2017, to institute equality between women and men in inheritance, but his effort did not yield results besides sparking a wide debate within the Tunisian society.

While the presidential initiative has been well received and supported by so-called modern forces and women's associations, it has been strongly denounced by religious conservatives who see it as a disobedience to Koranic texts.

Other realities masking the inferiority of the Tunisian  woman include the inhumane treatment of working women and the disparity in wages based on gender.

-0- PANA YY/IN/TBM/BBA/AR 14Aug2019