Prise De Conscience
It was not until leaving 1989, once that the connection with Islamists was broken, that a new modernist discourse took its place. Women were then called upon to characterize this change: official receptions have been mixed since 1992 and ministers and senior civil servants were encouraged to attend accompanied by their spouses. the new First Lady, Layla Ben Ali, made more and more public appearances, and, as a spokesperson for her husband, gave regular speeches on the role of women in the country. Putting this change into practice could equally be illustrated by the creation in 1991 of the Centre for Research, Studies, Documentation and Information on Woman and setting up at the ministerial level a national commission "Women and Development," charged with studying the role of women in development in the context of the preparation for the Eighth Economic Plan (1992–1996). In 1991 a law made compulsory the education of all children.
On August 13, 1992, on the occasion of National Woman's Day, Ben Ali gave a speech renewing Bourguiba's modernism in which he stated: "The rehabilitation of woman, the recognition of her gains and the consecration of her rights in the context of religious values to which our people are proud to adhere." The reference to Islam, become almost ritual, even if there was also added the memory of the ancient Carthaginian past of the country in insisting on its cultural diversity, becomes more subdued by referring to speeches given between 1987 and 1989. returning to this speech, three major ideas dominate: praise of achieved and irreversible modernity, recognition of known societal advances, such as the passing of the extended family for the nuclear family, and the necessity to put into practice the advances in legal texts. Declaring that he was "convinced of the aptitude of women to assume the highest duties in the heart of the state and society," he announced the creation of a state secretariat charged with women and the family and the nomination of a number of superior women to cabinet. He recognized on this occasion that the equality of the sexes did not yet fully exist and foresaw future improvements.
"We reaffirm here our support for these achievements and our determination to protect them and to enhance them."
Read more about this topic: Code Of Personal Status (Tunisia)
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“The conscience of the world is so guilty that it always assumes that people who investigate heresies must be heretics; just as if a doctor who studies leprosy must be a leper. Indeed, it is only recently that science has been allowed to study anything without reproach.”
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