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Tunisian women find progress and parity in Islamist party

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Summary of story from The New York Times, October 26, 2011

Islamist feminists could drive through equality and economic regeneration in the new Tunisia, says writer Monica Marks.

She believes feminists have found a comfortable political home in the Islamist party Ennahda, which won approximately 40 per cent of the votes in the country’s first free elections held recently.

Ennahda, which was outlawed as a terrorist group under the old regime of dictator Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, supports the 1956 Code of Personal Status – which is arguably the most progressive piece of women’s rights legislation in the Arab world.

Ennahda fielded more female candidates than any other and as a result is sending the largest bloc of females to the new assembly.

According to Mounia Brahim and Farida Labidi, two of the 13 members of Ennahda’s Executive Council, the party welcomes strong, critical women in its ranks.

“Look at us,” Ms Brahim said. “We’re doctors, teachers, wives, mothers — sometimes our husbands agree with our politics, sometimes they don’t. But we’re here and we’re active.”

Grassroots support from women for Ennahda grew during the years of Ben Ali, who jailed men for attending morning prayers. With husbands, sons and fathers jailed, women became heads of households and found a political voice.

For them the election was as much about freedom of religious expression as anything, says Ms Marks.

So far Tunisian women have been more integrated into their country’s transitional institutions than women have been in other countries which are emerging from dictatorships.

And Ms Marks says Western pundits should put their fear-mongering and scepticism of an Islamist party aside and watch Ennahda’s progress.

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