Source: Ansamed
Tunisia's Constitution prior to the revolution was far ''better'' for women than the one being voted on article by article in the country right now, the young Tunisian entrepreneur Soumaya Chouikha told ANSAmed. And this despite the fact that equality between the sexes has been enshrined in Articles 20 and 45 in the new one. "Now we have to struggle for any single right", she said.

Chouikha is in Rome for a meeting of female entrepreneurs from both the northern and southern Mediterranean with her two Moroccan counterparts. The businesswomen's visit began Monday and will continue through January 18, with several institutional and other meetings. It was organized by the Corrente Rosa association in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Network Globale, Gender Interuniversitary Observatory and the Roma Tre university.

Being a female entrepreneur was also easier prior to 2010, she said. The young woman was selected in the 'Business Wednesdays' held by the Chamber of Commerce and the Agency for Industrial Politics, she said, but this opportunity no longer exists ''due to political instability''. And the fact that she does not wear a headscarf, she noted, would have undoubtedly hampered her activities had she had to start out during the government led by Ennahdha, the Islamic party that recently handed over the position of prime minister of the new transitional government to former independent minister Mehdi Jomaa. Her business, Laboratoires Zahra Nature, deals in natural medicine and has just marked its one-year anniversary of activity. ?'We provide jobs for six people, but we hope to raise this number to 30,'' she said, ''and we buy all the raw materials in Tunisia.'' The Moroccan Nadia Mabrouk, founder and general manager of the Salvema Maroc Gourmet company, operates in the food sector.

She said that she had had to wait for two years, from 2006 to 2008, to be granted financing from local banks, which never gave written responses to her requests for credit despite her meeting all the requisites. She was only able to develop her business after getting 280,000 dollars in financing from USAID to buy Italian machinery with, enabling her to quadruple production.

She now exports her Moroccan foodstuffs to the US, France, and Canada.

Based in Agadir, it was easier for her to enter into contact with USAID since it works both in Rabat and elsewhere in the country, and gives preference to female entrepreneurs. She now employs 25, 24 of whom women. Another Moroccan businesswoman visiting Rome, Aaicha Benarfa, focuses on cosmetics and the valuable characteristics of argan oil. Following other experiences in the world of work, she is now focusing on her qualifications as pharmacist and biologist in her new company Formazen to launch a product that is composed of 90% argan, a much higher percentage than is usually found. She is channeling her energy into exports, but not towards the already saturated markets such as Italy, Spain and France. ''I am looking towards the US, Japan, Russia and Latin America,'' she said.

• Tunisia