Code of Personal Status (Tunisia) - Legal and Societal Difficulties

Legal and Societal Difficulties

The Code, nevertheless, has known many difficulties arising from Tunisian society. Thus, the dowry, although it does not constitute a cause for divorce in cases of default payment, still exists, the husband's home is the only one that may be considered the family residence and inheritance is completely unequal, as sharia grants to men a share double that of women (one of the rare cases where Islamic law is applied in Tunisia). Despite several efforts, Bourguiba could not imposee the equality of the two sexes in this area, due to the enormous strength of the resistance from the religious leaders. He was thus limited to introducing measures against abuses. Today,donations from living parents to daughters are considered a way to avoid the legal inequality of daughters to inherit. However, in perusing "the ways and means of permitting the promotion and strengthening the achievements of women without altering our Arab Muslim identity," Ben Ali on August 13, 1993, fixed the limits he considered impassable:

The Tunisian minister in charge of women and the family on February 9, 1994, affirmed for her part in the French senate and taking some liberties with history:

"When Bourguiba promulgated the Code, he did so in the name of Sharia and Islam."

He managed not to attack equality of the sexes concerning inheritance directly, the Code continuing to consider man the head of the family and expressing the fact that spouses must fulfil their conjugal duties "conforming to usage and custom" which were systematically to the advantage of the masculine interests. Besides, it is not always easy to apply laws in a rural milieu where girls are still restricted compared to boys.

In August 1994, during a seminar devoted to women and the family, ATFD denounced the ambiguity of power and the use of religion to regulate the condition of women in the country, criticizing chiefly "the patriarchal oppression of women. In the end, women striving to oppose official speech were quickly called to order, notably by a press rigorously controlled by the authorities. In this context, the film maker Moufida Tlatli, famous for her film "The Silences of the Palace" (1994) was heavily criticized in the magazine "Realities" for having shown her scepticism on the supposed feminism of Islam during a television broadcast in October 1994. On August 13, 2003, on the occasion of the 47th anniversary of the Code, the Tunisian League for Human Rights connected to the ATFD stated:

"We consider that the complete equality of women and men remains a basic right."