A television series addressing polygamy and broadcast during Ramadan has sparked controversy in Tunisia, an Arab country that is a pioneer in women’s rights, where multiple unions have been banned for decades. Telling a rosary, Wannas, the main character of the series Baraa (Innocence), claims from the third episode to want to unite with a second wife. In front of his wife and children, he claims to have the right to the name of Sharia, Islamic law, which is, he says, “above all other laws”. Broadcast on the private channel El Hiwar Ettounsi after breaking the fast since the beginning of Ramadan, the holy month of Muslims, the series sparked controversy by addressing two practices prohibited by Tunisian law: polygamy and religious marriage. “orfi”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmB1CY12JHo
“There is no question of putting these questions back into discussion”since the Personal Status Code (CSP) promulgated on August 13, 1956 by former President Habib Bourguiba “decided on these practices”, denounced in a press release the Free Destourian Party (PDL), an anti-Islamist formation. The CSP, enacted five months after the country’s independence, is groundbreaking legislation that granted Tunisian women unprecedented rights in the Arab world. He abolished polygamy, prohibited repudiation and instituted judicial divorce. Only civil marriage is recognized by law. For the PDL, “these crimes” (polygamy and customary marriage, editor’s note) punishable by one year’s imprisonment have reappeared in Tunisian society since the coming to power in 2011 of the Islamist-inspired party Ennahdha. calls for dissolution, warns against “an attack on the dignity of women in the event that obscurantist forces are in decision-making positions”.
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“Social hypocrisy”
Polygamy and customary marriage are “forms of violence against women” and their evocation “normalizes the culture of impunity”, assures the organization Aswat Nissa (Voice of Women) on its Facebook page. This NGO requested the intervention of the High Authority for Tunisian Audiovisuals (Haica), a body that controls media content. The sociologist Mohamed Jouili wants to be reassuring: the series “is a work of dramatic art that does not systematically reflect Tunisian society”. It provides tools for discussing social issues, “talking about polygamy or orfi marriage”, but “does not in any way threaten the achievements of women”, he told AFP. In his eyes, the controversy rather illustrates “social hypocrisy”.
“We agree to discuss these phenomena in private, with friends, but we get indignant and angry when we talk about them in public. (It’s) a stupid instrumentalization to gain points on the political level”
Mohamed Jouili, sociologistat AFP
The reactions “exaggerated against this series aim to make people think that everything related to the Muslim religion is retrograde”, Nadia Abdelhak, a 28-year-old civil servant, told AFP.
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These questions, which are not usually addressed, remain taboo subjects, yet these are phenomena that exist in Tunisia, assures Foued Ghorbali, another sociologist.
“A dramatic art does not have the role of giving a good image of society, it exposes a point of view or social issues that can be a subject of debate”
Foued Ghorbali, sociologistat AFP
“In Tunisia, some are for concubinage and others approve of customary marriage”adds Foued Ghorbali, for whom this controversy reflects “an ideological conflict between conservatives and those who present themselves as progressives”.
After the rise of Islamist movements which followed the fall of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s regime, according to the expert, “religious marriage has become widespread in academic circles”, especially among students who use it to live as a couple with religious validation. The freedom of expression acquired after the 2011 Revolution even encouraged some to call for the return of polygamy, including a group of women who had organized a demonstration in early 2018.
According to statistics from the Tunisian Ministry of Justice, 1,718 religious marriage files were considered by courts across the country between 2015 and 2020.