Ayet Laouni is a member of Tunisia's senate and an owner of her own maritime business. She credits her success to the liberal approach to women's rights that the government has shown since independence, and to its investment in education. "I am very grateful to my country," she says. "I was born and grew up in a part of the world where life is supposed to be hard for most people, but harder for women. In fact, I come from two parts of the world, Africa and the Arab Muslim world."
She is not alone. In 2007, Tunisia was ranked the highest in North Africa by a "gender gap" index compiled by the World Economic Forum, headquartered in Switzerland. Examining women's school enrolment, access to jobs, earnings and other indicators around the world, the index also ranked women's status in Tunisia as the second highest among all Arab countries. However, on a global scale Tunisia was still near the bottom, ranking 102 out of 128 countries surveyed. Algeria came in at 108, Egypt at 120 and Morocco at 122.
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A number of sub-Saharan countries did notably better in terms of women's rights and social position, with Ghana ranked at 63 and Kenya at 83. While North African countries appear to be doing poorly in relation to the rest of Africa, they have in fact witnessed a decade of substantial reform, achieving some progress in improving the status of women.
Reforming family codes
Much of the reform has been in these countries' "family codes," sets of laws guiding the role and status of women in marriage, as well as their rights in divorce and custody matters. The family code has been an important focus for women's rights activists because its laws are "absolutely critical and fundamental in Muslim society," says Mounira Charrad, a Tunisian-born professor at the University of Texas who has researched women's issues in Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco.
Those laws, Ms. Charrad told Africa Renewal, "address issues that are at the core of social life." Successfully reforming them, she says, can improve women's marriage rights, access to divorce and ability to secure custody of their children.
In recent years women in Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia have secured more rights, greater access to education and a modest increase in their political representation.
Tunisia reformed its family code in 1957. However, it was only in 1993 in Tunisia (and a decade later in Algeria and Egypt) that a woman who married a foreigner could pass on her citizenship and nationality to her children. Prior to that, the children had to apply for residence permits just like any foreigner.
"When the present Tunisian government allowed a woman to pass on her citizenship to her children, this created a seismic cultural change in the society," Ms. Charrad told a panel convened in 2007 to mark the anniversary of the 1957 reforms. "Traditionally citizenship, as well as all other legal rights, was passed on through the father's side. By permitting citizenship to pass through the mother's line as well, the law challenged the entire patrilineal concept of the family."
Much of the credit for this progress lies with the emergence of dynamic and indigenous women's movements in North Africa during the 1980s and 1990s, explains Valentine M. Moghadam, head of the gender equality and development section of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Leila Rhiwi was the director of one such group in Morocco, Printemps de l'égalité (Spring of Equality). Women in North Africa today enjoy more rights and protections than 20 years ago, she told Africa Renewal. "Then it was very different. At that time women did not have any power over their own lives."
But progress has been halting and uneven. In 2005 Egypt granted women expanded divorce rights. But efforts to change the law to allow women to travel without the permission of a husband or father were dropped by the government for fear that they were too radical to pass.
Ms. Rhiwi, who is currently the women's rights coordinator for Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia (a region known as the Maghreb) for the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) observes that there have been different degrees of progress in Morocco compared with Algeria and in the Maghreb countries compared with Egypt. "What we have seen is a change in the law, not a change in society. However, changes in law allow for changes to occur in the society."
Between law and practice
Ms. Charrad agrees. "The law has made a difference in countries like Tunisia, where reforms happened in the 1950s. There we have had a length of time to see the changes. We know now that when the laws change, women are able to file for divorce more easily and custody is easier."
"What the law does not change is the social situation," she told Africa Renewal. "Socially, divorce remains very difficult. They [divorced women] suffer economically, and they find themselves treated as outcasts."
