“I decided to freeze my eggs” : this announcement by the singer Nermine Sfar, Tunisian star of social networks, triggered a debate in the country where women are demanding the liberalization of this practice outside medical indications. Nermine Sfar, 31, advises single people busy with studies or their professional careers to preserve their fertility so that one day “they realize their dream of being a mother”. In Tunisia, the legislation authorizes the use of this technique only for married women or single women. “submitted to treatment or who are preparing to undergo an act that may affect their ability to procreate”, including chemotherapy. This is not the case of the singer.
The operation involves removing the oocytes, freezing them and storing them in liquid nitrogen for later pregnancy. In Tunisia, storage is set by law at five years, renewable after written request from patients. The singer’s statement sparked a debate on social media and in the media about the need for broader law enforcement. Internet users considered this file secondary in a country in political and economic crisis, but others underlined its importance in a pioneering nation in the Arab world in terms of women’s rights. “In Tunisia, there are unfortunately frozen brains and laws”, protests a user. For feminist Yosra Frawes, Nermine Sfar has “democratized a subject rarely discussed in Tunisia in the past, because civil society was preoccupied with other issues”.
For two years, Nayma Chermiti, 40, a local TV columnist and director of the Arabesque news site, has wanted to freeze her eggs.
“I find no logic in this frustrating law which excludes the single woman, in good health, but who has professional responsibilities and financial constraints which push her to delay her marriage and pregnancy plans”
Nayma Chermiti, columnistat AFP
The journalist also regrets the“absence of mobilization of civil society to push the legislator to revise this law promulgated 21 years ago, which does not correspond to the evolution of women and their responsibilities”.
“There is a pressing demand for young single women, almost every day”, confirms to AFP doctor Fethi Zhiwa, head of the in vitro fertilization unit at the Aziza Othmana hospital in Tunis, specializing in the freezing of gametes. This application “has accelerated in the last five years due to the evolution of Tunisian society where the average age of marriage among women is 33 years old”, he explains.
“Societal freezing (i.e. without medical reason) arises (…) because there is a discrepancy between the biological age which controls the age of reproduction and the societal age which controls the evolution of careers “
Fethi Zhiwa, Head of In Vitro Fertilization Unit at Othmana Hospitalat AFP
“This is 15% of our activity, which is not negligible. Since 2014, nearly a thousand patients have frozen their oocytes, more than 80% of whom are single”, says Fethi Zhiwa.
The revision of the law governing this practice would be “tohute simple. There has to be a political will, especially since we have the backing of the religious. (…) Their only concern is to ensure that there will be no exchange or donation of gametes”, he said. Fethi Zhiwa, who helped draft the text, finds the 2001 law to be “victim of its precocity”. At the time, it was far ahead, particularly in relation to neighboring countries.
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It was only in 2019 that a law on medically assisted procreation for married people was adopted in Morocco. The freezing of oocytes in single people is permitted there in the event of a pathology such as cancer, says Professor Jamal Fikri, vice-president of the Moroccan Fertility College. But for the “societal preservation” fertility, “people who have the means go abroad, as for egg or sperm donation”, he believes. In Algeria, no law regulates a practice authorized only to married women, subject to the signing of a contract with the clinic. In Libya, the preservation of the fertility of single women does not exist, according to several doctors.