Tunisia lifts ban on Muslim women marrying non-Muslims

Discussion in 'Middle East' started by Space_Time, Sep 15, 2017.

  1. Space_Time

    Space_Time Well-Known Member

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    Will this help to accelerate reform in the ME? Will everyone accept inheritance equality? Or will traditionalists push back enough to stop it?

    http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/...m-women-marrying-muslims-170914154657961.html

    NEWSTUNISIA14 HOURS AGO
    Tunisia lifts ban on Muslim women marrying non-Muslims
    President's initiative secures Tunisian women's right to choose spouse despite opposition from mainstream Muslim clerics
    Tunisia is viewed as being ahead of most Arab countries on women's rights [Fethi Belaid/AFP]
    Tunisia has abolished a decades-old ban on Muslim women marrying non-Muslims as the president seeks to secure equal rights for the country's female population.

    "Congratulations to the women of Tunisia for the enshrinement of the right to the freedom to choose one's spouse," presidency spokeswoman Saida Garrach wrote on Facebook on Thursday.

    The announcement came a month after President Beji Caid Essebsi called for the government to lift the ban dating back to 1973, arguing that existing practice violates Tunisia's constitution, adopted in 2014 in the wake of the Arab Spring revolution.


    EMPIRE: Tunisia - A revolutionary model?
    He created a commission, led by a female lawyer and rights activists, aimed at drafting revised rules.

    Until now a non-Muslim man who wished to marry a Muslim Tunisian woman had to convert to Islam and submit a certificate of his conversion as proof while a Muslim Tunisian man is allowed to marry a non-Muslim woman.

    Human rights groups in the North African country had campaigned for the ban's abolition, saying it undermined the fundamental human right to choose a spouse.

    Inheritance inequality

    Tunisia is viewed as being ahead of most Arab countries on women's rights, but there is still discrimination, particularly in matters of inheritance.

    Daughters are entitled to only half the inheritance given to sons.

    Mainstream Muslim clerics almost universally see the inheritance rules as enshrined in the Quran, Islam's holy book, and consider the rules on marriage to be equally unquestionable in Islamic law.

    The country's leading imams and theologians have issued a statement denouncing the president's proposals as a "flagrant violation of the precepts" of Islam.

    Some worry that such changes could stir up anger in a country that has already suffered deadly attacks.

    The first president of independent Tunisia, Habib Bourguiba, championed a landmark social code in 1956 that set a standard for the region by banning polygamy and granting new rights to women unheard of in the Arab world at the time. But even he didn't dare push for equal inheritance.
     
  2. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    But there was never any ban on muslim men marrying non-muslim women.

    There's all sorts of horror stories out there of European women marrying and having children with muslim men from North Africa and then finding out after it was too late that these muslim countries have very different laws than they could have ever imagined when it comes to women's rights and child custody. Typical story goes something like this: That "charming man" turns out later six months into the marriage to be a wife beater and tries to control her like a piece of property. When the woman files for divorce, the man takes the children back to his home country in North Africa and the woman never sees them again.

    Anyway, I don't think there are a lot of non-muslims marrying muslim women.

    Also it's not uncommon for these clueless European women to find out later, after the marriage, the man was in fact already married and she's his second wife.
     
    Last edited: Sep 17, 2017

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