Zawaya

Promoting women's awareness about their rights

By: Mohamed Mohamedou Khattat

In our Arab and Muslim societies and in the Maghreb in particular, women have always been conditioned – with the help of religious interpretations – by our traditional behaviors that confined their role to guarding our traditional values, by being submissive housewives to their husbands, and keeping busy with procreation and educating the kids.

Consequently, women weren’t on equal footing with men who were the undisputed leaders of their families, the breadwinners, the power holders, and the ones in charge.

Tunisia has nonetheless been a pioneer in terms of liberating and empowering women on this front since 1956; i.e. long before the independence of most Maghreb countries, Tunisia gave women the same rights as men.

This trend reversal did not only affect Tunisian families that had undergone a revolution, but it also led to having emulators in the region. The infiltration of Western values and the social changes imposed by progress and modernity eventually shoved traditions even in the most conservative households.

Therefore, the country had to take “positive discrimination” measures in favor of women by democratizing education, setting up health programs for mother and child as well as family planning policies, etc. This is especially true for the Maghreb, since women make up half the population (52% in Mauritania, and about the same in Tunisia and Morocco), and thus cannot be pushed aside.

Hence, the proactive policies implemented by the authorities here and there with the “Code of Personal Status” and the “Moudawana”, diverse strategies promoting equality through the integration and implementation of the gender approach, and the promotion of women into senior positions (elective and nominative positions).

In Mauritania, the situation of women had improved markedly in 2001 with the adoption of a Code of Personal Status offering many emancipation opportunities to women, and leading to the emergence of a developing civil society in which women occupy a prominent place.

This had an impact mainly on primary education with the adoption by the National Assembly in 2002 of a law that made education compulsory for children, including girls aged from 6 to 14. This also had a direct impact on employment, political participation (a 20% quota is given to women on elective lists), and social commitment (many women are involved in civil society); and thanks to the Code of Personal Status, a judicial body specialized in family affairs had emerged.

Over the past two decades, the impact of these measures has been great on promoting the respect of women’s dignity through the respect of universally-recognized human rights.

Since discrimination against women curbs economic and social development in our Maghreb countries, we should catch up on this front by promoting women’s awareness about their rights and offering them all possible opportunities to participate actively – based on free personal decisions – in all kinds of human activities, outside the familial context, on equal footing with their male counterparts.