How Women were Treated in Tunisia under the rule of Ben Ali

When General Zine Al Abidine Ben Ali seized power over Tunisia in 1987, he began his rule by attempting to show he held the rights of women at heart, by adopting various policies related to women. Over the years a host of laws, seeking to push Islam out of the Tunisian woman’s life and making the woman more equal to the man were brought in. Abolishing the duty of the wife to obey her husband, abolishing polygamy as well as amending child custody laws, are a few examples.

However it was clear Ben Ali’s drive to ‘elevate’ the woman was not out of his concern for them. It was out of his need to ensure his dictatorial position in Tunisia faced no challenge. When Tunisia’s legislative elections highlighted a desire for Islam, Ben Ali realised that the only way to wipe this opposition out was to accuse Islam of trampling over women’s rights and to set the Tunisian Government as the only body who could champion women’s rights and defeat the ‘enemies’, the ‘Islamists’. This resulted in a zero-tolerance approach towards living by Islam in a country whose population is 98% Muslim. The banning of the hijab (headscarf) in public buildings is one such example.

Today in Tunisia close to 100% of women are literate, 60% of university students are women, several government ministers were women, and there have been women judges, senior party officials and a provincial governor. Even the US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton has praised the nation for their view towards women on her visit there. However these statistics are in no way a reflection of the real status and well-being of women in the country. Although they may on paper have access to jobs and education, they have been forced to live by a secular iron mould shaped by Ben Ali.

The oppression which faced the women, who sought to live by Islam in Tunisia, was single to none. The ban upon the hijab meant that women were harassed routinely for simply choosing to dress in the manner Allah SWT (God) ordained for them.

Girls and women were routinely expelled from schools and universities for wearing hijab. Police regularly patrolled a prominent market place forcing women to uncover their heads and sign forms promising they would not cover their heads again. Those perceived as being Islamic activists, or even being related to an activist, were subject to incessant harassment, house arrests, even torture and sexual abuse. Women such as Widad Lagha and Radhia Awididi (the wife and fiancé respectively of Islamic activists) suffered intense persecution at the hands of the regime including being filmed in the nude and being accused publically for loss of virginity.

Finally the Tunisian society like many others across the region, has been infiltrated by an amalgamation of secularism, tribal culture and tradition, which has meant women in general have been subjugated by the oppression that these values have brought. For instance, sexual and domestic violence is a deeply entrenched problem in the country.

The recent people’s revolution in Tunisia which has thrown Ben Ali from the throne which he so thought was cemented over his people, has proved to the world that such a repressive hand over a people, will not be accepted forever. Despite the fear and harassment Ben Ali created, the Ummah of Muhammad SAW have strength in their hearts, and as a result boldly spoke out what was the truth, not fearing the consequences. The question which now lies for the women of Tunisia, is that although they have as good as rid themselves of dictator Ben Ali, what should they call for now?

Ben Ali fled his seat of power on the 14th January 2011 and no more than seven days later, scores of Muslim women wasted no time and mobilised, filling the streets in demonstration for Islam and the right to wear hijab. This has proved that the Muslim women of today are women of thinking, and understand that it is not simply the removal of Ben Ali, nor even the removal of his Government which will ensure them liberation. It is the removal of the entire rotten system which has been propped up by Western democracies for all these years, which will ensure real change. A change in face in Government will only allow oppression to occur under someone else’s name.

Muslim women have witnessed what Western secular liberalism has done for the woman. The view of the woman only being valued as a sexual commodity through secular liberalism, the burden women have had to take on of looking after herself and her family, having no one to depend upon through the gender equality of secular liberalism; have more than proved this ideology which has been perceived as the only way to liberate the woman, surely does not do so at all. Rather the Muslim women of today reject this, and desire the Islamic Khilafah system which enshrines the rights, protection and value of the woman by the Creator of mankind and women, Allah azza wajal, not the whims of dictatorial rulers.

The only system to liberate the woman

It is thus the Khilafah system which will allow the woman to be valued. It is this Khilafah which will ensure the woman is seen across every single element of society, as an honour to be protected by the people and state. It is this Khilafah which will allow the woman to engage actively in public life without hindrance, account her ruler openly without fear of retribution, and where all her rights of citizenship as enshrined within the Islamic texts will be safeguarded. It is a state that will truly transform the talk of 'women's rights' from rhetoric into reality.

The 2006 Gallup poll surveyed Muslim women across eight different Muslim countries and although did not survey women in Tunisia, the poll still highlights the wave of public opinion of Muslim women in the Muslim world. In all but one of the eight nations, the vast majority of women chose Shariah as either the only or a source of legislation for rule. However regardless of the numbers, the women of Tunisia must realise that it is only a ruler who rules by the Deen of Allah, who can provide the women of this Ummah with the justice and protection they need:

Muslim narrated on the authority of al-A'araj, on the authority of Abu Hurayrah, that the Prophet (saw) said: "Behold, the Imam is but a shield from behind whom the people fight and by whom they protect themselves."