TUNISIA Student’s Union 2013

Tunisian women have enjoyed better legal and political positions than their counterparts in the rest of the region, particularly secular rights. Under the rule of Habib Bourguiba for three decades, the country witnessed advancement in secular ideas which fuelled the women’semancipation movement.

This has been reflected in the prominent role women played during the revolution which ousted former President Zein El-Abidin Ben Ali in 2011and ushered in a turbulent period for the entire Arab world.

I arrived in the capital Tunis with the intention of showcasing the power of words used by highly educated, politically engaged women in the post-revolution scene.

I met with activist Fatma Riahi, known as Fatma Arabica, who was frequently arrested during the former regime. She introduced me to four remarkable women studying in different fields at public universities, with whom I spent three weeks.

These university students are politically active, not only within their university campuses, but in their day to day lives.

This took my work in Tunisia in a different direction, compared to the previous countries I visited. I moved out of the classroom to accompany these women in several aspects of their lives. I wanted to see how they hustled to retain their rights under the growing shadow of ultra-conservative Islamists.

 The women answered the question: “What message would you like to send to young women your age?”