Women’s Rights In Transitional Tunisia
By Melek Saral
January 31, 2025

Women’s rights have long been a critical component of Tunisia’s political agenda. The country’s portrayal as a secular, Western-leaning nation with advanced women’s rights helped it gain support from Western countries. Therefore, initiatives that increased women’s rights in Tunisia were preferred by both Bourguiba and Ben Ali. The Tunisian Personal Status Code, enacted in 1956, abolished polygamy, required mutual consent for marriage, and prohibited civil divorce. Women’s rights were further improved under Ben Ali’s reforms, which included giving women custody of children upon divorce and eliminating a provision forcing women to submit to their husbands. Consequently, women in Tunisia enjoy greater rights than those in the majority of other countries in the region.
The portrayal of Tunisia as a champion of women’s rights often overshadows the nuanced reality shaped by decades of “state feminism.” Under Habib Bourguiba’s direction, the advancement of women’s rights and Tunisia’s modernisation were intimately linked. However, this progress was firmly rooted in a strategy that demanded women’s support for more general political objectives, particularly in the anti-Islamist struggle. Bourguiba’s administration replaced existing grassroots women’s organizations, the Tunisian Union of Muslim Women (UMFT) and the Union of Tunisian Women (UFT) with the state-controlled National Union of Tunisian Women (UNFT). Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, maintained this top-down approach, continuing policies that primarily favored urban, educated, and secular women while neglecting or actively repressing rural and religious women. Borg notes that Islamist women, in particular, faced harsh repression under the authoritarian regime, including bans on wearing the hijab in public institutions like schools, universities, and government offices. They were excluded from political participation and often harassed by security forces.
2011 Uprisings: An Avenue for Women’s Rights or A Battle Field
Research shows that Tunisian women played a significant role in the 2011 uprisings, which provided an opportunity for them to advocate for their rights. Significant obstacles nevertheless existed in spite of Tunisia’s progressive views on women’s issues, especially with regard to inheritance rights and family law. The uprisings offered an opportunity for the women’s organisations to address these longstanding discriminatory practices while also allowing long-oppressed, religious women to find a place in the public sphere and fight for the rights of women.
As noted by Gray, Tunisia’s women’s movement saw tremendous expansion and diversification after the 2011 revolution, when stringent governmental limitations were lifted. Numerous women’s organisations, including those that support women’s rights within an Islamic context, were able to form as a result of the new freedoms of organisation. This marked a departure from the state-imposed feminist narrative that had dominated Tunisia’s public sphere under successive authoritarian regimes. Groups such as Nisa Tounsiyat and Tounissiet provided platforms for women to challenge both patriarchal norms and the long-standing marginalization they had endured under authoritarian rule. The majority of these Islamist women’s groups aligned mainly with Ennahda emerging as competitors to secular women’s rights organizations like the Association Tunisienne des Femmes Démocrates (ATFD) and the related Association des Femmes Tunisiennes pour la Recherche sur le Development (AFTURD). One should note that even if ideological differences hindered cooperation, many of these organisations are organised around common issues such gender-based violence, political engagement, and inheritance reform. The three main causes that many of these groups concentrate on are women’s political involvement, inheritance reform, and gender-based violence. As Debuysere notes, established secular organizations like the ATFD and the AFTURD were often sceptical of Islamist groups, accusing them of aligning too closely with political agendas, particularly those of the Ennahda party.
Following the revolution, the division between Islamist and secularist factions of the Tunisian society increased significantly, and the status of women became one of the most contentious topics. In that regard a central issue during Tunisia’s post-revolutionary constitutional debates was the role of women in society and their legal status, where Islamist and secular women’s rights groups were fighting to protect their respective interests during the post uprising period. Secular women’s rights groups argued for the term “equal” to describe the relationship between men and women, while Islamists preferred the term “complementary.” After significant debate and pressure from women’s rights activists, “complementarity” was replaced with “equality” in the final version of the constitution guaranteeing gender equality in Tunisia. Article 46 of the 2014 constitution states that “[a]ll citizens, male and female, are equal before the law” and commits the state to “protect women’s accrued rights and work to strengthen and develop those rights” which can be regarded as one of the main gains of the post-revolutionary Tunisian women movements.
Despite this advancement in gender equality and constitutional guarantees for women’s rights, debates over women’s rights in the private sphere, particularly in family law and inheritance, persisted and remained unsolved to date.
Women’s Rights between Progress, Repression and Instrumentalisation
Over the next decade, Tunisian women made considerable progress in securing more rights and increasing their political representation. Key achievements included the 2017 law passed by the Tunisian parliament, for which Tunisian women’s rights organizations have campaigned for decades. The law criminalized marital rape, domestic violence, sexual harassment in public spaces, and wage inequality. Another major development in the same year was the lifting of the 44-year ban that prohibited Muslim women from marrying non-Muslims.
The timing of the lifting of this ban was criticized for instrumentalizing women’s rights to distract from debates over a highly controversial reconciliation bill that aimed to pardon officials from the Ben Ali era accused of bribery. Meanwhile, the law on ending violence against women has been hindered by a lack of adequate funding and political will to fully implement it and eliminate discrimination.
Advances in Tunisian women’s rights were further shadowed following the dissolution of the 2014 constitution under the post-July 25 political system which posed significant challenges to women’s rights. While women secured 47 per cent of seats in the 2018 local elections and Najla Bouden was appointed as Tunisia’s first female prime minister in 2021, the subsequent moves to dissolve parliament in July 2021 and rule by decree have been viewed as setbacks for democratic governance. Critics argue that the promotion of gender equality after the post-July 25 political developments, including the appointment of women to prominent government positions, serves as a political distraction from the consolidation of power.
In the post-July 25 Tunisia, reforms have been blocked that would address the ongoing challenges women face, including equal inheritance and improved socio-economic protections. The issue of inheritance equality came to the forefront during President Essebsi’s term in 2018, sparking heated national debates that continued after he died in 2019. However, as already noted, the issue stayed unsolved to date, and during President Essebsi’s term it experienced a deadlock. Kenza Ben Azouz states that restrictions on women’s inheritance violate their economic and social rights and increase their likelihood of being a target of domestic violence.
Many experts, including Tunisian gender analyst Emna Semmari, argue that post-July 25 political system’s focus on women’s rights is a strategy to appease international observers while consolidating power domestically. As Semmari notes, “When a weak democracy is descending into an authoritarian regime, the instrumentalization of women’s rights is a way for leaders to extinguish the anger of the West.”
In response to the setbacks after July 25, Tunisian women have remained active within civil society, using grassroots organizations to advocate for their rights and challenge restrictions. Despite governmental limitations on political freedoms, women’s organizations and activists have continued mobilizing, especially around issues such as gender-based violence, economic equality, and inheritance rights. Women’s rights organisations have facilitated community dialogues, legal aid, and public campaigns to ensure that women’s rights remain part of Tunisia’s evolving political landscape. Through these efforts, women’s organizations are not only continuing to contribute to the advancement of gender equality but are also laying the groundwork for a more inclusive, resilient democracy.
Melek Saral is an Associate Professor at the Social Sciences University of Ankara and a Professorial Research Associate at SOAS University of London. She holds an academic background in Political Science, Law, and History, having studied at Ludwig Maximilians University, the University of Bradford, and the European University Institute. Dr. Saral earned her Ph.D. from Ludwig Maximilians University Munich. Prior to her current position, she held academic appointments at Munich Bundeswehr University, Zurich University, SOAS University of London, and İstanbul Sabahattin Zaim University. Her research primarily focuses on human rights, international law, and transitional justice. Dr Saral has published in renowned international journals, including the International Journal of Human Rights, International Politics, and the Muslim World Journal of Human Rights.
The views expressed or implied in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Demos Tunisia-Democratic Sustainability Forum.