Violence Against Women
Source: Tunisia Live
In what advocates say is an increasingly hostile social environment for women following the 2011 revolution, the Tunisian government signed on this week to a United Nations (UN) initiative that counters violence against women.
The UN’s COMMIT initiative calls on governments to prevent and end violence against women through prevention, protection and justice, more effective laws and national strategies, stronger prosecutions in cases of violence, and advocacy campaigns.
Tunisia’s Center for Research, Study, and Documentation of Information on Women (CREDIF) launched an advocacy campaign this past November and December to raise awareness about violence against women, particularly in the public sphere. CREDIF chose the slogan “I see, hear, and speak” to encourage women to break taboos and counter prejudice that affects both their personal and social lives, according to Khaoula Matri, a research assistant on the project of violence against women in the public sphere.
She referenced the recent dismissal of diplomat Zohra Ladgham from her post in Finland as an example of discrimination against women. Ladgham claimed her drivers tried to implicate her in a drunk driving scandal because they were Salafists and did not want to work for a woman. Matri also cited a case from August 2012 wherein a meeting of female Nidaa Tounes supporters in Sfax was disrupted by the Leagues for the Protection of the Revolution.
Men and woman both may use religion to justify discrimination, Matri added, and women often internalize beliefs that they are weaker and less important.
A significant “percentage of violence nowadays is linked to the Salafist current and social practices related to preserving traditions,” Matri added.
She said that the ruling Ennahdha party is not adequately protecting women and their rights; for example, Amal Azouz, a National Constituent Assembly member affiliated with Ennahdha, recently stated in the New Arab Debates that “it is not clear” whether the woman, who accused two police officers of rape in a high-profile 2012 case, had indeed been raped.
“The government is not only helpless on this issue, but they also cripple us and the whole society from doing what is needed,” said Maryam Zghidi, a spokesperson for the Tunisian Association for Democratic Women. She added that her organization has been advocating that the new constitution provide for protection of women against all forms of violence.
According to the National Survey on Violence Against Women — conducted in 2010, before the revolution — 47% of women between the ages of 18 and 64 said that they had been subject to some form of violence during the course of their lives; 31.7% reported physical violence, 28.9% reported psychological violence, and 15.7% reported sexual abuse.
Protesters come out in support on October 2, 2012 for the woman, who accused two policemen of rape