6 - Tunisia

Summary

This chapter looks at three waves of legislative reform to show how women participated in them. It shows how Tunisia’s authoritarian leaders used women’s rights as a means of creating an international image of the country as a modernizer and at the same time in an attempt to isolate Islamists, particularly extremists. The chapter describes the conflictual nature of the relationship between the secularists/feminists and Islamists and how it has evolved. It shows how the Ennahda Party has changed its position in order to maintain credibility and in response to push-back from women’s organizations and internal disputes.