Will Political Moderate Islam Take The Lead in Post-Elections Tunisia? - Tunisia Live

 For fifty years and through two authoritarian regimes, Tunisian Islamists lived in repression. Both presidents tried to suppress political Islamism to gain the trust and support of Western forces. They also promoted secularism in Tunisia by pushing new laws and regulations to separate religion and state. After the collapse of Ben Ali’s regime following the popular uprising in Tunisia last year, Islamist forces have rediscovered the freedom to be more active on the public political stage. Ennahda, the Tunisian Islamist party, was granted the license to legally organize and operate in March 2011. Later, the party won a plurality – 89 seats -in the Constituent Assembly elections.

The party derives its support from its religious affiliation, Islam, which is the religion of the majority of Tunisians. Ennahda promotes an image of Islam that protects individual freedoms and promotes active citizenship. To attract more support, Ennahda even promises to not meddle with a strong Tunisian point of pride in the Arab Muslim region: the personal status code. The party promises to not amend the code and to firmly protect women’s rights. Rached Ghannouchi, the party’s leader, declared on several occasions, “We will not introduce polygamy.” Ghannouchi also claimed that “Ennahda will not ban alcohol or bikinis.”

On a local radio, Express FM, Samir Atig, one of the most prominent figures within the Ennahda Executive Bureau, reaffirmed Ennahda’s commitment to present itself as a political party. “Ennahda is not a religious party, even if its point of reference is Islam.”

Ennahda is still trying to convince the Tunisian people that it will only implement modern interpretations of Islam to improve both the political and economic situations in Tunisia. Yet, only a few days earlier, one of their female candidates labeled single mothers in Tunisia as a “disgrace” to the nation. Her comments regarding the situation of these mothers upset many Tunisian people, who expressed their anger through interactions on Facebook and other social networks.

Critics cite examples such as the above as evidence of the party’s double discourse, as they do not match Ennahda’s promises to protect the rights of all citizens and to not discriminate against them for religious reasons.

In the meantime, another more fundamentalist party, Ettahrir, is looking at obtaining a visa and being lawfully recognized in the Tunisian political arena.

Both parties, Ennahda and Ettahrir, originally founded by Islamist leaders, existed even before Ben Ali took power in 1987. Nowadays, they differ in the policy they’re using to cast people’s support, but also in their views on religious, political and social issues.

Ettahrir stands for a more radical interpretation of Islam. The party refutes democracy as a model for governance, and their ideology is closer to older and more traditional models such as that of caliphate.

The party argues that Islam and Sharia incorporate all the “modern” values that Tunisians seek, such as social justice, the abolition of corruption and the regulation of social and economic life, but as applied 14 centuries ago, explains Abdelmajid Hbibi to Express FM.

Ettahrir’s executive bureau president says that “positioning Islam between radical and moderate is meaningless because Allah’s words are clear and direct.”

Ennahda, who are determined to maintain their point of view, replied that applying a 14-century-old Islam to a modern Tunisian society does not make sense. Ennahda representatives have largely expressed the party’s commitment to protect Tunisia’s long ruling laws in regards to civil and women’s rights, thus reassuring both local and international communities. It is in fact partly thanks to its moderate discourse that the party managed to cast so many votes in the lastest elections.

Yet, the party is still the subject of much controversy. A recent article published by Lebanese news outlet “The Daily Star” actually brings up controversial details concerning the party’s leader Rached Ghannouchi.  The article, titled “Ennahda’s rise is good cause for alarm,” portrays Ghannouchi as pro-radical.

It seems many remain to be convinced as to Ennahda’s legitimacy to present itself as a moderate Islamic political party.

Women's Rights in Tunisia Elections - PRI's The World

 Election campaign panels are seen all around Tunis (Photo: Ezequiel Scagnetti/European Parliament/Flickr)

On Sunday, Tunisia will hold its first democratic elections, and the stakes are very high. This could pit secularists against Islamists, and women especially are worried that the most liberal laws in the region will be rolled back.

During his 23-year dictatorship over Tunisia, former president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was keen on the promotion of women’s rights and the strict repression of Islamists. Both practices were also part of his propaganda, which made him a tolerable tyrant with Western governments.

But since his regime was toppled in a popular revolution back in January, things for women and Islamists in Tunisia appear to be changing because Islamist parties appear poised to take control.

That’s playing a key role in political campaigns leading up to the country’s first democratic elections this coming Sunday. These elections are especially crucial because Tunisians will choose the assembly that writes the country’s new constitution and will set the tone for what kind of country Tunisia becomes.

It was unimaginable under Ben Ali to see thousands of Islamists calling for the establishment of an Islamic state in Tunisia.

But that’s just what happened at demonstrations last week.

Islamists were brutally repressed under the Ben Ali regime. So this resurgence of religious fervor has raised tensions, especially ahead of this Sunday’s election.

Islamists like 30 year-old Slim, know exactly what they want Tunisia to be.

“Everyone wants to see the Islamic religion in all the regions, in the state, in clothing and in the judiciary,” he said.

Slim, who wouldn’t give his family name, is sitting in one of the many cafes of Cité Ettadhamen, a poor suburb of Tunis, which has become known as an Islamist stronghold.

“We are Muslims. We like being Muslim with our own clothing, our own prayers and all the forms of Islam. Women have a special clothing for themselves,” he said.

It’s this kind of talk that spooks the secular parties in Tunisia. They are wary of the new political currents.

Souad Rejeb, a committee member of the Tunisian Association of Democratic Women, says while Tunisia’s civil society has flourished since the revolution, she’s worried about the effects the shifting political landscape could have on women’s rights.

“We just hope there will be enough progressive people in the Constituent Assembly that there won’t be an erosion of the Personal Status Code,” Rejeb said.

The Personal Status Code is the backbone of women’s rights legislation in Tunisia. It’s a law that was passed in 1956, and gave women the right to vote, to be elected to parliament, to earn equal wages, and to initiate divorce.

Polygamy was outlawed by the code and then, in 1961, abortion rights were granted. Women’s rights here are more advanced than anywhere in the Arab world and the secular parties say they will fight to maintain that unique status.

“There are retrograde forces in the country,” said Abdelaziz Messaoudi, a member of the political committee of the center-left Ettajdid party.

Ettajdid is one of the main opponents of Al Nahdha, Tunisia’s most prominent Islamist party. Al Nahdha was established in 1989 but banned under Ben Ali. Since the revolution, it’s bounced back with gusto.

Polls predict it could take around 20 percent of seats in the Constituent Assembly. Messaoudi is not happy about that possibility.

“If Al Nahdha wins a big part of the election and if it is well represented in the next Constituent Assembly, it could call back into question a certain number of gains in women’s rights. That’s a real threat,” Messaoudi said.

Al Nahdha says the secular parties are using women’s rights and Ben Ali-style anti-Islamist propaganda to stir up fears and win votes. Yusra Ghannouchi, the daughter of Al Nahdha leader Rachid Ghannouchi, and a spokesperson for the party, says the party’s platform on women’s rights is unambiguous.

“It’s clear on women’s issues, that it respects women’s rights to equality, to education, to work. It does not believe in a theocracy,” Ghannouchi said. “It does not believe in a system that will impose a particular believe or lifestyle on people. It believes in equality, regardless of race, faith, sex or color.

But the country’s secularist parties and women’s activists, like the Tunisian Association of Democratic Women’s Souad Rejeb, accuse Al Nahdha of sending out a double message.

“They have what we call a duplicity of discourse,” said Souhad Rejeb of the Tunisian Association of Democratic Women. “They have two lines: on TV they say ‘We are for equality, we won’t touch woman’s rights,’ but in the mosques or abroad, they say ‘the Personal Status Code is not in the Koran.’”

And it is this perceived inconsistency that brought many women out on the streets last Sunday in defense of freedom of speech and equality.

Faced with such demonstrations, Yusra Ghannouchi of Al Nahdha says that actions and not words are the only things that can be really judged in politics.

“What will guarantee respect of these freedoms and rights is not be anyone’s word for it, but to have a system that ensures that there will be checks and that there will be institutions that ensure that politicians keep their promises and that should apply to secularists and Islamists,” Ghannouchi said.

In the 10 months since the fall of Ben Ali, Tunisia has been furiously building the hardware of democratic politics – institutions and procedures to cradle and protect its democracy regardless of who’s in charge of the government.

"God" film Angers Tunisia Islam-Reuters

Religious tensions after six months of the revolt of Tunis, Tunisia (Reuters)-Islamic Arab secularism in the Liberal Party's dominance of the citadel at once what the challenge is to increase the limits of the freedom of expression through.

Last week, several dozen men were French ' Ni Dieu, Ni openly attack ' was a movie titled the cinema advertising (no God, no master) from the Tunis Tunisia-France Director Nadia El Fani, an outspoken critic of political Islam by that.

Police later arrested a 26-man, but return to the ways of the early Muslims out of the Salafists-advocates gathered by political Islam Justice two days later, within the purist trend-their data requirements, leading to scuffles with an attorney.

Security forces to stop protests heavily deployed at the Central Tunis after Friday prayers last week by the Salafists.

Secular press and intellectuals under the age of tough police reaction to the alarm, Tunisia-secularism at freedom magazine from a bastion of 23 Al-Abidine Ben Ali-Islamic politics by the rules and alerts across the spectrum are at risk of being lost if you do not stop.

"This is what the company for the disciples of these wizards do not measure anything since they will stop at the hotel, nightclubs, or if the attack is a taste of sitting in a restaurant waiting for us ordinary people," wrote the French-language monthly Realites Zahar Taieb.

Tunisia was forced from power in January and the Middle East and North Africa since Ben Ali pro-democracy protest movement spread throughout the Launchpad for.

A democratic system is causing the slow transition tension. The temporary President and the Cabinet at a later stage to allow Congress and the President to write to a new Constitution for the survey for the Special Assembly, the elections will not be held until October.

' No ', says Muslim Tunisia secular

Abdelmajid Habibie, the leader of the party preparing to attack a police Salafist Tahrir condemnation, the arts community to stimulate cinema Salafists Habib Bourguiba was trying to imagine the modern State, but more conservative than the general atmosphere of Tunisia with his father who misjudging.

"Especially in situations where a country or has undergone Tunisia now with this name does not need to display a movie like this. This is a deliberate attempt to provoke the people, "he said, the movie's Arabic title ' La Allah, pointing to a y S d i y la ' (no God, no master) said that there is no God.

-Prohibition of polygamy, divorce, and wear the veil-women's Liberation women's access to relief-carved out of actively promoting government policies since independence from France despite Islamic conservatism was strong in Tunisia, he said.

"Yes, people do not live in a Muslim way to Tunisia, but they are not secular. Those who do not appear on television (talkshows) society. They have no popular, Tunisia, the ethnic groups have "Habibie said.

"Tunisia is almost all Muslims. The Islamic people's mentality, "he said, was" a victim of agent systems of colonialism, "the secular, additional

Politics of Egypt who was forced from Office in February, a Muslim Arab leaders such as Ben Ali Mubarak try to shut down the forces arts community, such as increasing the liberal elites in Arab social conservatism of defence against began to check the status of the line.

Today, many in Tunisia's cultural elite political and cultural models, many of the film director France, Tunisia and France, their funding are often feted.

Post-Ben, Ali Fani's documentary, Tunisia calls for the protection of secularism, "like a war and want to tell them about the Declaration of the people," said, Habibie added.

Director of atheist rights to defend the

An avowed atheist who named Islam and the Constitution of Tunisia Fani articles to remove the load State for the lightning in the movement for the Islamic religion. She is the right of other people, Jews, Christians, atheists, and says it by.

"There are people who understand better if we are to protect freedom from the dictator, all offices must protect the freedom we fight now," she said, speaking from France.

"Obviously there are a lot of people who want to live as they want religion to that. Do not believe in God, I do not have today in Tunisia say right. "

Had to change the title of the documentary, she said, ' it's Fani at Cannes after France Agency showed in favour of Laicite Insh'Allah (God willing secularism).

She said that Tunisia is almost entirely Muslim, but acknowledged that many whether they need fast during Ramadan or women's rights, the freedom to choose the dress as they wish.

Leading Islamic party Ennahda was away from them at the same time benefit from the behavior of the Salafists standing show she said.

"Islam is not the right one, and they take us to how people lived before 1400, you will want to. You must continue in modern Tunisia. We must understand the elements of progress secularism, "she said.

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, with it connected to the Ennahda, do not agree with the view to the use of force or aggression, but that other artistic output movies for Islamic values, "fixed principles" should be respected.

The party was banned by Ben Ali, but has emerged as the most powerful single force in politics, as brothers, as after the success of the protest. Authorities at the base of the party's program license through explicit religious Tahrir had refused.

Tunisia is in the hands of secular intellectuals, political commentator, said Rashid Kchena, Islam was playing and try to force flex their muscles before the election.

"These secular intellectuals, is a very small minority, they do not reflect the attitude of society Tunisia," he said. "But the Salafis in their own way is trying to impose a community by surprise."

A r a b/Muslim identity of Tunisia-advance survey pointed out other works Kchena Fani. "She did not agree with, but it is her right to say what she thinks. These issues concern future generations, so we have to discuss everything, "he said.

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