Sunday, May 10th, Sidi Bou Said, Tunisia

Greetings!

Today, we were treated after breakfast to talk from Faryal Grady Sharaf Aldin, Executive Director of CALAM, a non-governmental organization fighting for women's rights in Tunisia.  It stands for Coexistence with Alternative Language and Actions Movement, and has been instrumental in strengthening the legal rights of women.   She gave us the history of change in the rights women experienced in Tunisia, shortly after from independence in 1956, in 2011, 2017 and more rccently in the period after 2022. 

Since the December 2010 revolution in Tunisia and protests across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) began, Tunisian women have played an unprecedented part in the protests. Habib Bourguiba began instituting secular freedoms for women in 1956, such as access to higher education, the right to file for divorce, and certain job opportunities.  Women in Tunisia enjoy certain freedoms and rights that are denied to women in neighboring countries, although the social norms have shifted since 2011.

When Tunisia was still under French protectorate, the majority of Tunisian women were uneducated and performed the domestic duties required by husbands and fathers. However, with the onset of the country's independence movement, a voice for equality between men and women emerged. In fact, by the early 20th century, many urban families were educating their daughters. When Tunisia regained its independence in 1956, the republic's founder—Habib Bourguiba—discussed repeatedly the need to include all persons in Tunisian society. In 1956, The Code of Personal Status (Tunisia) was enacted—a document that has undergone heavy reform since its inception. This document abolished polygamy and repudiation, enabled women to ask for divorce, enacted a minimum age for marriage and ordered the consent of both spouses before marriage. Moreover, women earned the right to vote in 1957 and in 1959, women were able to seek office.  In 1959, women were able to access birth control. In 1965 a law was passed that allowed women to have abortions as part of a population control policy. Abortion on request was legalized in October 1973.

To mark the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the implementation of the Code of Personal Status (Tunisia), president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali announced two Bills that were adopted by the Chamber of Deputies of Tunisia on May 8, 2007. The first reinforces the legal housing rights of mothers having custody of children, and the second establishes a minimum age for marriage, at 18 years, for both sexes despite the fact that the actual average age at marriage had already surpassed 25 years for women and 30 years for men.

After her talk, we drove to the North African Cemetery and Memorial, where 2,833 headstones mark the graves of American soldiers fallen in World Wars I and II.  We walked through the Cemetery with a local guide, she sharing stories of particular graves.  She told us of Capt. Foy Draper, who ran on the 1936 Olympics Gold Medal relay team, led us to the grave of one of the 22 women killed in an air crash, and to the highlighted marker of Medal of Honor winner - Nicholas Minue.

Also displayed on a 342-foot wall are the names of 3,724 Allied Forces in North Africa missing in services on land, sea, and air in the region.  One of those was a possible distant family member of Pat's whose name was Stanley Kutasiewicz from Wisconsin.  Inside a special area are beautifully prepared maps of the entire North African War Campaign, with specific Allied initiatives identified.  

Afterward, we visited the Carthage Tophet, a hybrid of sanctuary and necropolis, which is the site of an extremely controversial number on children's tombs.  We then were shown the Punic Port of Carthage (commerical and military), the location of the third largest public baths in the Roman Empire, and we walked to the end of a 46-mile aqueduct feeding its waters.

To see all of the photos taken today, click on Sunday, May 10th, Sidi Bou Said, Tunisia