Tunis_Tusnisia commemorates on August 13 the 70th anniversary of the promulgation of the Personal Status Code,which since 1956 has represented a landmark reform in family legislation,amid renewed calls to consolidate gains and develop the legal system.

The Tunisian Association of Democratic Women issued a statement stating:”We mark the 70th anniversary of the promulgation of the Personal Status Code, an occasion in which we recall one of the most important reform milestones in modern Tunisian history,and honor the struggles of generation of women and men who believed that building the modern nation-state could only be achieved on the basis of gender equality.”

The statement affirmed that the Personal Status Code,since its promulgation on August 13, 1956,constituted a signiflcant turning point that shook the legal system entrenched in women’s subordination,and established progressive principles that made Tunisia an exception in its Arab and Islamic context-by prohibiting polygamy,establishing judicial divorce, civil marriage, and reorganizing family relations on the basis of partnership and mutual respect.

The statement noted that the commemoration of this anniversary cannot be refuced to a symbolic celebration of the past,but must be an occasion to evaluate seven decades of reforms,and to affirm that the Personal Status Code is not rigid text but a liberating and modernist project open women,and the completion of the reform path to ensure full equality between citizens in line with universal human rights principles and the requirements of a democratic civil state.

The statement explained that Tunisian women, despite the legal gains achieved since independence and thanks to the struggles of democratic forces and the feminist movement, still face multiple forms of discrimination, exclusion, and marginalization—manifested in the precarious conditions of women workers, especially agricultural workers, the widening circle of poverty among marginalized and unemployed women, the persistence of gender-based violence in both private and public spheres, and the decline in participation in decision-making positions, alongside a number of laws and public policies that remain unable to guarantee actual equality, achieve full citizenship, and protect women from violence and femicide. This comes within a political, economic, and social context characterized by the decline of the climate of freedoms, the violation of rights, the rise in violence and femicide, the shrinking of civil space, and the growth of economic and social difficulties, expanding the circle of women's impoverishment and increasing unemployment rates among them, threatening the gains achieved over decades of struggle.

The Association affirmed in its statement that women's rights are not a sectoral demand, but a measure of the state's respect for human rights and the nature of the modernizing and civil societal project. Any regression in democracy, the rule of law, judicial independence, freedom of expression, and organization necessarily reflects on women's conditions. Likewise, every violation of the rights and freedoms enshrined in the two International Covenants compounds their vulnerability, deepens discrimination, and undermines their citizenship and dignity. "We reaffirm our full adherence to the Personal Status Code as one of the most important pillars of the civil state, and we reject all attempts to undermine its gains."

The statement called for a review of the Personal Status Code and the completion of legal reforms to entrench full gender equality in all rights and duties. It also called for aligning national legislation with international human rights conventions, particularly the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and for providing public policies that ensure social and economic justice, decent work, social protection, safe transport for agricultural workers, and the right to health, education, and basic services, as indispensable conditions for achieving actual equality.

The statement emphasized the necessity of strict implementation of the protective provisions set out in Fundamental Law No. 58 of 2017 on the elimination of violence against women, and providing the means to ensure its application, as well as the importance of guaranteeing the full and equal participation of women in political and civic life and in decision-making positions, as a democratic right and not merely a mechanism of representation.

According to the statement, the battle for equality is no less important than the battle for individual and collective freedoms; rather, these are necessary battles for establishing a democracy based on human values and full and effective citizenship. Genuine equality cannot be discussed in the absence of a state based on law and institutions, nor can democracy and effective citizenship be discussed while discrimination, exclusion, and violence against women persist. "Democracy is not merely electoral mechanisms; it is an integrated system based on respect for individual and collective rights and freedoms, on ensuring judicial independence, freedom of opinion, expression, and organization, accountability and transparency, and equal participation in public affairs. Equality is not a legal slogan; it is a daily practice that guarantees women the right to full citizenship, economic independence, social justice, and dignified living."

On the 70th anniversary of the Personal Status Code, the Association renewed in its statement its commitment to continuing the struggle, alongside all democratic and progressive forces, to complete the path of legal and institutional reform, and to build a democratic civil state that guarantees freedom, human dignity, social justice, and full equality among all citizens. "We reaffirm that the national project on which the modern state was founded was not only a project of national liberation, but also a project of human liberation and the building of a state of citizenship and rights. True fidelity to this reformist legacy lies not merely in invoking its symbols, but in completing what the pioneers of reform and the national movement began—by removing all forms of discrimination, entrenching actual gender equality, strengthening economic and social rights, safeguarding public and individual freedoms, and building independent and accountable democratic institutions."

The statement noted that Tunisia's democratic future necessarily passes through the recognition and guarantee of women's rights, as they are the foundation for measuring society's progress and development. Every diminution of women's freedom is a diminution of society's freedom as a whole, and every regression in equality is a regression in the values of the republic and the civil state. "We denounce the rise of populist, reactionary, and anti-rights discourse, and the statements issued by some parliamentarians that undermine the principles of equality and women's rights and reproduce discriminatory perceptions of women and the family, in contradiction with the values of the civil state and the gains of the Personal Status Code. We also reject the opening of state platforms and religious platforms to sheikhs and reactionary discourses that entrench discrimination, return women to traditional roles, and attack the principle of equality. Turning state institutions, councils, and platforms into spaces for normalizing anti-rights discourse constitutes a dangerous regression, and cannot be treated merely as a difference of opinion. The state is responsible for protecting rights and for not granting institutional legitimacy to discourses that diminish women's dignity and their full citizenship."

The statement affirmed that confronting this reactionary and populist tide is an integral part of the battle to defend democracy and the civil state, and that any regression in women's rights is a regression in the values of democracy and citizenship. "We call for the completion of the path of legal and institutional reform, and for launching a national dialogue that leads to the building of a democratic civil state founded on full citizenship, the rule of law, social justice, and human dignity—making equality a lived reality, and fulfilling the aspirations of Tunisian women and men for a homeland where freedom is integrated with justice, democracy with equality, and development with human rights."