The Tunisian Women's Rights Movement by Jane D Tchaïcha Khedija Arfaoui

Author:Jane D Tchaïcha, Khedija Arfaoui [Jane D Tchaïcha, Khedija Arfaoui]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Ethnic Studies, American, African American & Black Studies, African Studies
ISBN: 9781351711814
Google: lAkqDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-07-14T02:47:17+00:00

Early signs of malaise for the feminist movement

Unlike the pioneer feminists of the 1960s and1970s, the subsequent generations of Tunisian women, whom we identify as contemporary feminists, came from a generation schooled within a new model of public primary and secondary education that provided greater exposure to Tunisian history and culture and more intense study of Arabic language than had been previously in place. Later on, these same school-age children who came of age at university experienced the growing political activism on campuses, and some even took part. Yet, the women of this generation seemed not to have made substantive connections with their pioneer counterparts. A human rights lawyer of that generation talked about those years and the reasons for the disconnection, and its consequences:

When speaking about the pioneer feminists, there was one aspect to their activism that was not well-done. They did not know how to transmit their work down to the next generations. There is very little written during that period by these women. Le Mort de l’Oubli by Neila Jrad is one of the few personal accounts of the movement. There are plenty of statistics but not about people’s thinking on the subject… perspectives and strategies. What we have now among feminists like those associated with AFTURD is stagnation… there is no development of new ideas, no new ways of thinking. And while all this is stagnating, fundamentalism is gaining ground in Tunisia. Feminism is present but it is doing nothing. We don’t have the courage to raise the questions about religion about veiling. We insist on saying we are secular, and because we are secular in our thinking, our discussion should not address religious topics.

(Monia)

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