Tunisian President refers the gender equality inheritance law to parliament

Tunisian President, Beji Caid Essebsi, forwarded the COLIBE law reform proposal to the Tunisian Parliament.  The said proposal includes a number of relatively controversial clauses namely equality in inheritance rights as well as individual freedoms.  Simultaneously, feminist and secular movements demonstrated and called for full gender equality and for the ratification of the reformed family law bill.  According to Al Hayat newspaper, President Essebsi made a public statement from Carthage palace yesterday, in commemoration of Tunisian Women’s National Day and the 62nd anniversary of the drafting of the Tunisian Personal status law.  In his address, Essebsi confirmed that the requested reforms do not go against the will of those individuals who wish to apply Islamic Sharia law.  Essebsi further indicated that gender equality in inheritance is in line with the provisions of the Tunisian Constitution as well as the characteristics of a civil state.  Essebsi added that the “report issued by COLIBE is not a law per se but rather an intellectual, ethical and technical effort which can be used as a reference”.  To be noted that these developments brought back divisions in the public space where feminist and secular demonstrators took to the street in response to the actions of those against gender equality in inheritance laws and who had demonstrated last Saturday in front of the parliament”. (Al Hayat, August 14th 2018)
 

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