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Women in the National Constituent Assembly: Gendering the Tunisian Constitution
Abstract
The elections of 2011 and the resulting constitutional project in Tunisia after the uprisings represented the first major attempt at (re)defining Tunisian citizenship in a post-authoritarian democratic environment, a task that has always been the purview of the state. Ultimately, however, the definition of citizenship and access to it is mediated through the non-objective lens of social and political practice. In other words, the state constructs the parameters of citizenship, but individuals entering that structure are culturally and historically constituted. Gender, an identity marker that has historically mediated access to political, economic, and social rights, features heavily in the final 2014 constitution, after markedly evolving in the drafting process, including a constitutionalisation of electoral gender parity. This was due to the collaborative work of Le Groupe des Femmes, spearheaded by Mehrezia Labidi, the Nahdhawia Vice-President of the National Constituent Assembly, and Lobna Jribi, a prominent deputy from Ettakatol. Le Groupe des Femmes was an informal parliamentary working group made up of around thirty of the fifty-nine female deputies in the National Constituent Assembly. It represented a truly multi-partisan effort, with representation from the ruling coalition of Ennahdha, Ettakatol, CPR, the opposition blocs such as Bloc Démocrates, Transition Démocratique, Alliance Démocratique, and opposition parties such as Al Massar, Al Joumhouhri, and Nidaa Tounes. This paper interrogates the (re)making of the female citizen by female deputies, relying on over 250 hours qualitative, semi-structured interviews conducted by the author in April 2012 and September 2013-October 2014. It analyzes the highly specific discursive landscape of gendered constitutional language through its evolution in the constitutional project and the political strategies of Le Groupe des Femmes. This analysis reveals the ideological and structural barriers that continued to face female political actors within institutions and how these actors navigated, negotiated, and overcame these challenges to gender the constitution. More broadly, this analysis reveals the emergence of a new set of norms within the Tunisian political system, one that undermines the popular understanding of Tunisian politics as a binary between Islamism and secularism. The specific actions of Tunisian female deputies, in working together across political positions, reveal the fluidity and multiplicity of their subjectivity, as gendered identity took precedence over political identity in pursuit of a common goal.
Discipline
Political Science
Geographic Area
Tunisia
Sub Area
Gender/Women's Studies