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Tunisia, the question of how gender operates in social movements and to what extent collective actions contribute to the social construction of gender must be mentioned, too. Since gender hierarchy is constructed through organizational practices both on the level of the political leadership and that of the society, it is important to approach the evolution of Tunisian feminism in the context of early representatives of the movement and see whether women were the first advocates of fostering broader rights and opportunities for women.
III�4�3� Circumstances leading to the formation of social movements ‒ the Tunisian example
Dissatisfaction and belief in the ability of carrying out changes
While Oberschall separately mentioned the necessary conditions leading to the formation of new social movements, the paper merges dissatisfaction with belief in the ability of carrying out changes as well as increased capacity to realize the aims with changes in opportunities. The logic behind this division and the discussion of these circumstances under two separate subchapters is explained by two
significant facts that arise out of each other. The colonial period went hand-in-hand with the adoption of certain elements of the Western culture, among them an increased belief in the ability of carrying out changes to improve the conditions of women. As a consequence of the Western impact and the actions taken by the forerunner of Tunisian feminists, such as Tahar Haddad (1899‒1935), a feeling of dissatisfaction infiltrated the early representatives of Tunisian women’s rights activists.
As it has already been highlighted above, contrary to Western feminist movements, up until gaining independence from France in March 1956, Tunisian feminism must be understood in the context of the colonial past of the North African country and its struggle for independence. In fact, this struggle was also a personal rivalry between Bourguiba and Salah Ben Youssef on the basis of the secular versus religious conservative values which further had a great impact on the Tunisian feminist discourse (Willis, m. j.
2014). Arfaoui distinguished three waves of the Tunisian feminist movement and indicated the period between the 1920’s and 1956 as the birth of Tunisian feminism (aRFaoui, K. 2007). In order to refer to the colonial context
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of the North African country, it must be mentioned that the first wave of Tunisian feminism was also interlocked with the greater participation of women in the nationalist movement for independence. Although the social activity of women at that time highly depended on the support of their male relatives, the first wave was significant from the point of raising women’s awareness for the socioeconomic problems that posed a serious obstacle to achieving equal conditions for women. The high rate of illiteracy (nine tenths of women were illiterate in the 1920’s) is a good example that carrying out radical changes was inevitable.
Starting from the 1920’s, upper-class women stepped up to demand broader opportunities for women to receive compulsory education and access to teaching jobs as a preliminary condition to ensuring greater chances for women in the labour market, participation in political life and in all spheres of the society. However, it is also indispensable to mention that the initial activities of women’s rights advocates not only took place with the approval of male relatives and their encouragement, but were also influenced by such great men like the reformist Tahar Haddad who openly raised his voice against the injustices women used to face
in the colonial period (aRFaoui, K. 2007). Similarly to Tunisia, the same process took place in Morocco where great supporters of women’s rights such as the Islamic scholar, Allal al-Fassi (1910‒1974) denounced the inferior position of women and called for general reforms that aimed at revising the traditional practices (polygamy, the obligation of wearing a veil (hijab), early marriage, etc.) deeply rooted in the religion (gRay, d. h. 2013).
Based on these facts, it can be said that while the traditional social patterns established a patriarchal society in Tunisia which could be seen through all government organizations and every aspect of life, men as forerunners of women empowerment played an important role in the reconstruction of gender roles in a rather conservative society. The general dissatisfaction as a result of unequal opportunities in education, the labour market and political participation raised awareness among women and resulted in upper-class women taking the role for the benefit of other female members of the society in the hope of achieving their emancipation following their independence. However, the initiatives coming from great reformer men proves that Tunisian feminism was in fact a
“masculinized” feminism.
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Increased capacity, changes in opportunities
In the forthcoming, the characteristics of the Tunisian society in light of the state-building process as well as the socioeconomic challenges following the country’s independence will be demonstrated.
First of all, it must be emphasized that in Tunisia, the centralization of power brought about a strong political leadership with President Bourguiba taking this role in 1957. Due to the poor indicators of human development, Bourguiba realized that a modernization process was inevitable to set the country on the path of development. Therefore, the ideology of liberation was replaced by the idea of state-building which compared with the initial aim of women’s rights activists, resulted in their reduced role (sadiqi, F. 2008).
The process of state-building under President Bourguiba and the measures that he took to set the country on the path of modernization cannot be understood without having a general knowledge about the socioeconomic challenges the country had to face following the obtainment of its independence in 1956. Moreover, these socioeconomic challenges also raised awareness among women to
take actions for achieving equality in opportunities. Between 1911 and 1956 the North African country saw a duplication of its own population under the age of 35. This meant that by 1956 the total population reached 3 782 000 with an approximate annual growth of 75 000 people (de lemps, a. h. 1958) and while between 1911 and 1921 the annual growth only reached 8%, this rate increased to 25% between 1936 and 1946 (tlatli, s. e. 1957). As a result of this rapid population growth, a change took place in the structure of the population: 41.8%
of Tunisians were under the age of 14 and 9% between the age of 14 and 19. This also meant that in total half of the Tunisian population was under the age of 20 in contrast to the age group above 60 where this rate only reached 6.7% (de lemps, a. h. 1958). The rapid population growth was closely connected with challenges in schooling: the data indicates that in 1956 the literacy rate only reached 15% and only one child in thirty received a high-school education. Owing to the educational reforms Bourguiba introduced in 1958, women and people living in rural areas could also benefit from schooling.
Thus during the first decade of independence the number of those pupils who attended primary school rose from 15% to 90%. Moreover,
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the number of university students also demonstrated a significant growth, from 2000 to 10 000 students being enrolled in academic studies (Tessler, m. a. ‒ Keppel, m. e. 1976). However, despite the aforementioned socioeconomic challenges, the economic growth showed a steady increase: the GDP reached 2.37% between 1938‒1950, 3.41% between 1950‒1960 and further rose to 6.92% between the period of 1970 and 1980. This continuous growth would only be abated between 1980 and 1990 with a GDP growth rate of 3.56% (avaKov, a. v. 2010). As a consequence, the rejuvenation of the population posed a serious challenge to the economy of the newly independent country both from the point of view of schooling and production. Therefore, only two solutions were left for the newly independent Tunisia: to rely on foreign aid or take immediate steps to slow down the rapid population growth.
Bourguiba chose the latter option and started an economic development program which meant that everything, including female participation in the labour market, was subordinated to the political direction of Habib Bourguiba who saw female participation as compatible with the traditional roles of women. One crucial point
in understanding the formation of social movements and the role women’s rights activists played in ameliorating the situation of Tunisian women following its independence is through the CSP in which President Bourguiba abolished polygamy, provided women the right to divorce and to child custody and set a minimum age for marriage. Taking into account the low literacy rates at the time of Tunisia’s independence and the burden that the rapid population growth posed on the economic growth of the country, it can be said that immediate measures were necessary to ameliorate the situation of the people, namely, achieving gender equality which could ensure a privileged position for women in the society. Referring back to the social movement approach of Oberschall, it is important to highlight that with a president who started a modernization process with the aim of setting the country on the Western model of development, the political environment was quite favourable for carrying out changes.
The growing dissatisfaction coming from the direction of sub-state actors was also present. In this regard, it must be seen whether carrying out these reforms was the result of the pressure from those women’s rights activists and reformers who were mentioned above, or whether the
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initiatives of President Bourguiba were taken to set an example for other Arab countries in the region.
Jomier argued that there was no pressure from women’s rights organizations on the government to introduce the CSP, therefore this decision was a natural outcome of the measures of the government to improve the situation of women in Tunisia and to ensure their privileged position in the society (jomieR, a. 2011). Charrad also reinforced the argument of Jomier and pointed out that the CSP was introduced right after Tunisia gained its independence from France, so at that time there were no grassroots organizations present who could push the government to accept the CSP (Tchaicha, J. D. ‒ arfaoui, K.
2017). While the CSP could be seen as a progressive measure from the government to abolish inequalities between men and women and to establish the basis of a secular state, Arfaoui concluded that in fact, the absence of women in participating in the promulgation of the CSP demonstrated the weakness of women’s rights organizations in taking important decisions (aRFaoui, K. 2007). Based on these findings, the CSP can be seen as a crucial point that established a dominant role for the government in taking unilateral decisions and thus determined the limited role
of women’s rights organizations in the future. Even though Tunisia disposes of all those elements that constitute a convenient environment (e.g. heterogeneous society, educated youth capable of triggering change, absence of the intervention of the military in state affairs) for the proliferation of civil societies, women’s movements were deeply affected by the political leadership of the country. Therefore, the changes following the Arab Spring must be understood in the context of the political direction the previous regimes of the country decided to choose. Moreover, the aforementioned context is the reason the post-Arab Spring period is seen as a starting point of a wide debate on the gender question and an increased role of women’s rights organizations in social and political affairs, namely, the drafting of the new constitution between 2011 and 2014.