Tunisia Archives – Women's eNews

School Smocks Reek of Scarlet Letters for Female Tunisian Teens

By Tharwa Boulifi ● Teen Voices ● June 26, 2017

The school dress code rules in Tunisia are discriminatory, these girls say. “Why can boys feel comfortable in their casual clothes while we girls have to wear this smock?” one says.

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Viral Video Exposes Cultural Response to Rape in Tunisia

By Tharwa Boulifi ● Teen Voices ● March 20, 2017

A high school theater piece in Tunisia reveals what girls there consider the double victimization of rape. “I think it’s time for the Tunisian society to understand that a shotgun marriage will never be the solution for rape,” one girl says.

Girls in Cosmopolitan Tunis Take Harassment Statistics Personally

By Tharwa Boulifi ● Teen Voices ● August 2, 2016

One girl didn’t want to change out of her shorts to leave her house in Tunisia when she went to buy chips. “I felt like a cultural prisoner,” she says.

U.S. Fights Campus Assault; More Nigerian Girls Gone

By WeNews Staff ● Uncategorized ● May 2, 2014

The White House announced a two-part approach to campus sexual assault, offering assistance to the victims and making public the colleges under investigation. Also this week, in Nigeria, the number of girls kidnapped continues to rise.

Femen Activists Detained as Tunis Trial Adjourns

By Hajer Naili ● Uncategorized ● June 5, 2013

Three European activists face up to six months of prison for staging a topless protest in Tunis to demonstrate support for a Tunisian ally, Amina Sboui, who is facing legal problems of her own.

Islamic Extremists Alarm Secular Women in Tunisia

By Hajer Naili ● Uncategorized ● April 4, 2013

Tensions are rising between secular Tunisian women and political Islam. “There is no room for the opposition and women to participate in building the country we want,” says one critic.

Arab Women Say Time for Saying ‘Spring’ Is Over

By Hajer Naili ● Uncategorized ● March 14, 2013

In sideline panel events at the 57th Commission on the Status of Women, talk was of working for further transformation in everything from the Egyptian constitution to the safety of women throughout the uprisings.

Tunisia Marks Belated First in Sheltering Women

By Camille Lafrance ● Commentary ● March 1, 2013

For the country that glows like a beacon of women’s progress in North Africa, the government’s first shelter for survivors of domestic violence finds it lagging far behind neighboring Morocco.

Two Years Later, Arab Women Weigh Ongoing Risks

By Hajer Naili ● Uncategorized ● December 14, 2012

Two years after the start of the Arab Spring, Hajer Naili interviews three post-revolutionary women about the increasingly radical Islamist forces that are smothering their hopes. “I don’t even know what their aims are,” says one woman.

Tunisia Loses Ground on Safe, Affordable Abortion

By Hajer Naili ● Uncategorized ● December 12, 2012

The new Islamist government isn’t shoring up abortion access, but a women’s rights activist says the loss of access to public abortion began five years ago, when the Ben Ali regime began cutting social costs and privatizing services.