Today, even in America, women still fight for equality. For example, in 2013, female full-time workers earned only 78 cents to every dollar earned by men: a 22% gender wage gap. Yet this is not just an issue within the U.S. Worldwide, women’s equality (or rather inequality) issues are prevalent and should be a pressing concern to all global citizens.
Although Tunisia is known as perhaps the most liberal Arab nation when it comes to progressive gender legislation, the country still has progress to make. Starting in 1957, with leaders Bourguiba and Ben Ali, reforms outlawed polygamy, specified women’s rights to abortion, divorce, and establishment of business, and allowed women to open bank accounts without spousal consent. Wearing headscarves in public was even banned in the hopes of curbing extremism (and thus terrorism) associated with Islam. As Tunisia works to elevate itself, it has embraced many of the traits of Western cultures, attempting to equalize gender disparities. However, as of 2009, only 38% of Tunisian women were employed, whereas 51% of Tunisian men held jobs.
After Arab Spring and the Tunisian revolution, the Ennahda Party took over: “a moderate brand of Islam” that supports women’s freedoms and has many female members. Yet women are by no means equals in society. They continue to fight sexual harassment and domestic violence and an article to the Tunisian constitution proposed in 2012 defined the role of women as “complementary” instead of “equal” to the role of a man.
Still, Tunisia is making strides. The constitutional charter adopted in 2014 now reads, “All male and female citizens have the same rights and duties. They are equal before the law without discrimination.”
As of 2014, the World Economic Forum ranks Tunisia 123 out of 142 countries in their Gender Gap Ranking Index. Although they have an even male/female population ration, the statistics are shocking. In 2014, the estimated earned income for females is $4,690 and $17,003 for men. There were 15 women in the field of legislators, senior officials and managers for every 85 men. 28 women held positions in parliament to 72 men, 4 women held ministerial positions to 96 men, and there has never been a female head of state.
As previously mentioned, the workplace is not the only context in which women experience inequality. A 2012 survey reported that 1 in 5 Tunisian women are victims of domestic violence. It cited physical violence as the most frequent type of violence and said that the private sphere was the place in which women were most likely to be exposed to violence. It is not surprising that discrimination is not necessarily public, but nevertheless present, in a society that is attempting to reform.
Especially since the revolution, labor and sex trafficking are issues in Tunisia. According to a 2014 Trafficking in Persons Report released by the U.S. Department of State, women, primarily between the ages of 15 and 18, have been forced into prostitution under false promises of work. A 2013 NSNBC International article explores the trafficking of young Tunisian girls through Turkey for “Sex Jihad” in Syria – forced prostitution to terrorists. In addition to the psychological trauma, many who return bring back sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV.
Sarah Mendelson’s 2014 publication Born Free addresses the issue of human trafficking and calls for global attention to one of the largest, but least-discussed problems in today’s world. Mendelson urges readers to support organizations like Walk Free, a global movement to end slavery that focuses on making it a priority for governments and businesses to invest in the solutions of prevention, protection and prosecution. The goal starts as simply as raising awareness of the widely overlooked problem of slavery through social media and technology and online campaigns. It can be as simple as an everyday conversation about the issue with friends and family, a conversation that, one-day, with the work of citizens all over the planet, I hope there will be no need for.
MENA-PERSPECTIVES 