Friends of Tunisia
Newsletter / January 2004
(an affiliate of the National Peace Corps Association)
P.O. Box 25245
Washington, DC 20027
Tel. 202-526-0897
fotrpcv@yahoo.com

PRESIDENT BEN ALI TO VISIT THE US IN FEBRUARY.

In early December, Secretary of State Colin Powell took a fast trip through North Africa and the Middle East. In Tunisia he met with President Ben Ali to thank him for Tunisia's anti-terrorism policies and to invite Ben Ali to visit Washington. The date set for a luncheon meeting with President Bush is Tuesday, February 17. The rest of Ben Ali's schedule is not yet known. In Powell's public statement after meeting with Ben Ali, he mentioned human rights in Tunisia as a subject of discussion, but then specified the reasons why "we are great admirers of Tunisia": "one of the highest literacy rates in the world, openness in the society to participation of women, and its political and economic performance."

WOMEN'S DIFFERING STATUS IN TUNISIA, ALGERIA, AND MOROCCO.

A recent book by Tunisian-born author Mounira M. Charrad, "States and Women's Rights: The Making of Postcolonial Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco," attempts to explain the large difference in the legal status of women in the three countries by examining each country's pre-colonial, colonial, and post-independence political history.

According to Charrad, Morocco adopted very traditional Islamic family law in 1957, the year after it gained independence from France, because tradition-bound tribes had played a huge role throughout Morocco's history, including its drive for independence.
Therefore, Morocco's family law - the "mudawwana" - preserves male rights that are common to Arab and Berber cultures. (A law recently proposed by King Mohammed VI may change that.) In Algeria, a similar conservative result was reached, but it took much longer. The bitter war with France, ending with independence in 1962, left so many rival factions in Algeria that no consensus on family law could be reached until 1984 when a growing fundamentalist movement pushed Algeria into establishing a set of family laws that adopted virtually all the various traditional Arab and Berber practices throughout the country.

Tunisia was - and remains - different. In August, 1956, only five months after independence from France, Tunisia adopted the Personal Status Code (in Arabic, the "majalla") that radically changed the legal status of Tunisian women. Even more remarkable, no women's movement existed at the time to press for such changes.

The pre-condition for Tunisia's changes, writes Charrad, was a long history of centralized governmental control over the entire country. By the 1950s, tradition-bound rural tribes were already so weak that their resistance to social reforms, led by a cleric at the Zitouna mosque named Ben Youssef, was easily defeated by Habib Bourguiba and other progressives within the Neo-Destour Party. As soon as independence was achieved, the reformers had leeway to act boldly. Yet Charrad maintains they did so only to create a modern country rather than simply change women's status. Bourguiba, she says, represented Tunisia's professional class, unions, and coastal cities, all of which wanted a "modern Tunisia" and a "modern Islam."

In recounting this story, Charrad makes an interesting observation. She claims that traditional Middle Eastern and North African cultures are the only ones in the world that favor marriage within an extended family, often among first cousins. All other cultures, she maintains, recognize the danger of "kin endogamy" and try to avoid it. In contrast, as much as a third of marriages in some Arab and Berber regions are kin-endogamous. In Tunis, the rate was about 15%; in the Tunisian countryside 25%.) The reason for this practice is Islam's requirement that, upon a man's death, a certain amount of his possessions can be inherited by wives and daughters.

Therefore, in a traditional Arab or Berber family, which is an "agnatic" group of blood-related males - sons, brothers, fathers, uncles, and male cousins - the men can keep all the money in the family by marrying women within the family. Bourguiba, however, sharply opposed this practice. In a 1965 speech, he pointed out that "these marriages, which are made with the greedy objective of preserving the patrimony of the kin group from strangers, produce in the long run children who are deformed and retarded. It is necessary to revive the line by marrying outsiders."

After 1956, the Tunisian Personal Status Code established the nuclear family of a man and a woman as the fundamental unit of Tunisian life, undermining the traditional "ayla," the extended structure of blood-related males. This, according to Charad, had an immense impact on women's lives. Beyond the legalities, marriage became a strong bond instead of a "fragile contract" easily repudiated by a husband and not conducive to intense emotional commitment from either the husband or the wife. Published by the University of California Press in 2001, Charad's book presents a good, if somewhat academic, overview of family practices and family law in the Maghreb as well as the political history that produced dramatic legal changes in Tunisia and failed to produce them in Morocco and Algeria.

A FOT MEMBER'S NEW BOOK FOR - AND ABOUT - WOMEN.

FOT member Rachael Freed (whom Peace Corps volunteers in the mid-1960s may remember as Rhoda Levin) has just written a book, published by Fairview Press, entitled "Women's Lives,Women's Legacies." In this new work, Rachael urges all women to write a "spiritual-ethical will" for their loved ones and future generations.

Such wills, she explains, should include accounts of the lives and thoughts of the women-authors as well as what they know of their feminine ancestors. "Writing a legacy," she writes, "is one part self-discovery and one part sharing that discovery with those who matter most....A spiritual-ethical will is a record of who you are - your values, your wisdom, your blessings, your life accomplishments, and how you hope to be remembered." She encourages interested women to create "legacy circles" of 4-12 women to stimulate the process and gain "wonderful ideas" from each other.

Since her days of teaching English in Tunis, Rachael has raised two children and worked for over 30 years as a therapist in Minneapolis. She also founded a hospital-based program for families of the dying and has become a public speaker at events around the country. Her latest book is available on Amazon.com or from the publisher at 1-800-544-8207. A 20% discount is available from the publisher if you mention the Peace Corps connection. More information can be found on the website www.womenslegacies.com.

VASQUEZ CHANGES HIS MIND.

Gaddi Vasquez who resigned as director of the Peace Corps in November, has changed his mind. At the time of his resignation, rumors circulated in Washington that Vasquez was returning to California to be eligible for a position in Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration. However, when no offer appeared, Vasquez suddenly decided to remain in Washington - at least for a while. Hmmm!

CHENEY'S DAUGHTER STEPS DOWN AS HEAD OF "MEPI" PROGRAM

In the last FOT newsletter, it was noted that the US plans to open a "MEPI" office in Tunis in 2004. MEPI stands for Middle East Partnership Initiative, a State Department program to promote democracy throughout the Middle East. It turns out that Elizabeth Cheney, the vice-president's daughter as well as the deputy assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, headed this program until she resigned in mid-November to work for the Bush- Cheney re-election campaign. In 2003, the MEPI program spent $129 million, and its budget has increased in 2004. Critics, however, contend that MEPI avoids any real confrontation with authoritarian regimes and provides absolutely no funding to Arab activists who are genuinely trying to promote democracy and political pluralism. Cheney, however, has her supporters who praise her handling of an explosive issue throughout the entire Middle East and North Africa.

TUNISIAN EVENT HELD IN ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA

On November 30, an evening of Tunisian music was held at the Hilton Hotel in Alexandria, Virginia. The event's coordinator, Khaled Beldi, estimates that about 300 Tunisians, many with children, showed up. Tunisian ambassador Hatem Atallah attended and made a short speech before the music started. FOTmember Brynn Hammarstrom and his daughter Emma came all the way from central Pennsylvania - a four-hour drive! Anyone interested in contacting Beldi should e-mail tounescarthage@yahoo.com or call 703-575-7786.

FRANCE MAY ORDER SCHOOLS TO OBSERVE MOSLEM AND JEWISH HOLIDAYS.

The French government may adopt a proposal by a special French commission that both the Moslem holiday El-Fitr and the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur be made official school holidays. If implemented, this will be a first in Europe. More controversial, however, is a second proposal that would ban not only Moslem veils from public school grounds, but also Jewish skull caps and large Christian crosses. Small religious symbols would be allowed. Moslems have protested.

***NEWS OF TUNISIA**TUNISIAN NEWS***NEWS OF TUNISIA***

- In early December, the chiefs of state of ten countries in the western Mediterranean basin met in Tunis for the first "5-plus-5 dialogue" between countries from the northern and southern sides of the Mediterranean. The ten countries are: Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania, Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, and Malta. The objective of these dialogues is to facilitate economic cooperation and integration, security and stability, and the peaceful negotiation of issues. Yet just after the meeting French president Jacques Chirac charged that Libya will remain isolated in the world until it accepts responsibility for downing a French airliner in Africa over ten years ago. That, however, became questionable when, in late December, Libya abandoned its weapons of mass destruction program. Earlier in 2003, Khadaffi obtained the lifting of UN sanctions by paying $10 million to each of the families of all 270 victims of Pan Am flight 103, downed in Lockerbie, Scotland. Now it remains to be seen whether the US and the international community will stand by France. American oil companies, according to the Washington Post, are eager to return to Libyan oil fields they were forced to abandon 17 years ago when President Reagan imposed sanctions after a bombing of a disco in Berlin killed American soldiers. At present, the legislation creating the US sanctions is still in effect. Will it continue in place? Stay tuned.

- When Saddam Hussein was captured, the Tunisian foreign ministry issued a statement calling for the re-establishment of Iraqi sovereignty "at the earliest possible [time] so as to secure the conditions for a dignified life and safeguard the unity and the integrity of [Iraqi] territory."

- In Cairo, at the 20th meeting of Arab Ministers of Habitat and Urbanization, Tunisia was awarded a prize for the best "social habitat" project for Bahi Ladgham, a "modest income" housing development in Ariana, just outside Tunis.

- A week after the visit of American Secretary of State Powell, the Tunisian parliament adopted an anti-terrorism bill that increases punishment for acts of terrorism while also forbidding financial or other forms of support to terrorist activities. Six members abstained on the vote to make incitement to commit acts of hate and bigotry a crime.

- President Ben Ali went to Geneva on December 10 to address the "first phase" of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). He invited all participants to attend the "second phase," which will be held in Tunis November 16-18, 2005. The Swiss Federation hosted the first phase, which was attended by representatives of governments, international and regional organizations, and the private sector. Ben Ali expressed his hope that new information technologies will help improve conditions in less developed countries and reduce the digital divide.

MEMBERSHIP: For FOT-only, send $15 to address at the head of newsletter. For combined NPCA and FOT membership, send $50 to NPCA, Suite 205, 1900 L Street, Washington, DC 20036. Specify your desired affiliation as Friends of Tunisia, not just "FOT."