Tunisia slowly becoming a model for other Muslim nations?

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If gender equality is enshrined in the constitution of Tunisia, then the nation must strive to deliver it in every area of human endeavor.

Times of Ahmad | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source/Credit: Toronto Sun
By Farzana Hassan | September 21, 2017

Tunisian president Beji Caid Essebsi must be congratulated on lifting a forty-year ban on a basic human right of Tunisian women.

Last week the country’s progressive president finally allowed women to marry non-Muslim men.

It was a brave move, given that most clerics opposed the president’s initiative, stating it was a “flagrant violation” of Islamic precept. However, that is a puzzling conclusion considering that two of the prophet Mohammad’s daughters were married to non-Muslim men.

The president supported his decision by stating that the ban violated the new constitution of Tunisia, adopted after the so-called Arab Spring.

The constitution gives women a number of theoretical rights, including the right to participate fully in the political life of the country. But discrimination remains on a number of issues, notably the right to inherit equally. That is the next step Tunisia must take toward delivering equality to Muslim women.

That may be considered a bigger hurdle in Islamic circles than Essebsi’s marriage concession. Little in the holy literature makes the suggestion that the state should dictate who a woman marries, but the Quran does prescribe inheritance rights in specific detail.

What orthodox Muslims often ignore is the spirit behind these Quranic prescriptions. They were a progressive move for the time, giving limited inheritance rights to women when they had largely been considered chattel.

The spirit was one of progress from an even more hostile world for women. That principle should underpin any new laws in keeping with the reality of our times, where a woman is now often her family’s sole breadwinner.

While Tunisia has made several other progressive moves on women’s rights - notably by banning polygamy in 1956 - it continues to uphold these laws, which can only be seen as discriminatory in the modern world.

If gender equality is enshrined in the constitution of Tunisia, then the nation must strive to deliver it in every area of human endeavor.

It is easier for Tunisia to carve out some progress for Muslim women than for some other Islamic countries, especially Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Tunisia is a religiously homogeneous state, with most people professing moderate Sunni Islam. It is perhaps the only state where the Islamists, who form a small minority, have sufficiently respected the political system not to impose their obscurantist version of Islam.

In Pakistan, for example, almost no progressive initiatives have been passed since the establishment of sharia rule because of the religious lobby’s influence and obstinacy in repudiating liberal and humane values.

Christian Asia Bibi is still being held in prison on charges of blasphemy, rape is still considered “adultery under duress” and women still face discrimination when it comes to bearing witness in courts of law.

By contrast, Tunisia is in an advantageous position. It is a country where fundamentalist forces exist, but they have been marginalized to the point where they are ineffectual – a condition which liberals in more restrictive countries like Pakistan can only dream about.

Change will come if the clerics themselves recognize the importance of the rule of law and the principles of humane justice and society.

Meanwhile the president of Tunisia ought to be applauded for his step in delivering some equality to his nation’s women. Tunisia can be a model for other Muslim countries.

http://www.torontosun.com/2017/09/21/tunisia-slowly-becoming-a-model-for-other-muslim-nations

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