Full Description
Tunisia has often been commended for its progressive stance on women's rights and viewed as a role model for family law reform in the Muslim world. Judging Women's Rights, Gender & Citizenship in Ben Ali's Tunisia weaves together intimate stories and theory to demystify claims that the progressive laws supported gender equality in practice. Through the eyes of citizens and legal professionals, it reveals how women and men experienced their rights under Ben Ali's repressive regime, tracing connections between gender, ethics and the law. This accessibly written book provides a vital backdrop for understanding contemporary debates in Tunisia where women's rights remain a hotly contested topic.
Contents
Acknowledgements
Part 1: Dark and Light
1 Prologue: Engendering Change
1 La vie en mauve: Documenting Women's Rights in the Time of Ben Ali
2 Encounters: Judging Citizenship
Interlude: the Bourguiba Institute of Modern Languages, April 2007
3 Law Lessons: Judging the Law
Interlude: Ministry of Statistics, May 2007
Interlude: Before and After: Marriage and Divorce
4 Before and After
1 Tradition or Innovation?
Interlude: Judging Divorce
5 Gendered Judgement
1 Ambiguous Spaces
2 Extraordinary Ethics
Interlude: Seeing beyond the Veil
6 Dislocation: Where Judging Begins
1 Dislocated Selves
2 Dislocated Places: Fields
3 Dislocated Judgement
4 Dislocated Morals
7 Listening to Silences
1 Encounters
2 Connections
3 Listening to Silences
4 Anthropologist or Spy?
5 Encounters in the Fields
6 Vulnerable Lives
Part 2: Family
Interlude: Knowing Whom to Trust
8 Becoming
1 The Safety Pin
2 Seeing the Invisible
3 Performing Identity
9 Creating Homes
10 Creating Friends
1 No Return
11 Marriage Is like a Watermelon
1 Consent
12 Creating Marriage
1 Mother and Daughter: Marriage across Two Generations
13 Good Wife; Ideal Husband
1 Good Wives
2 Ideal Husbands
Interlude: Finding the Ideal Husband?
14 Sex and the City
15 Making a Living
1 Shrinking Families
2 Increasing Living Costs
Interlude: the Hunter and Rim (Part 1)
16 Woman's Work
1 Real v Ideal
2 Dislocated Marriages
Interlude: Reciprocity
Interlude: the Unthinkable
17 Breaking Marriage: Those Who Can(not) Divorce
1 Those Who Did Not Divorce
2 The Stigma of Divorce
Part 3: Law
Interlude: in Between
18 Court House
1 Setting the Scene
2 Outside In
19 Inside Out: the Court Office
1 The Court Staff
2 From Morouj to the Court: the Story of Karima
3 On Marriage and Motherhood
4 'Family Atmosphere' and Neighbourhood Spirit
5 Attitudes to Divorce
Interlude: Judge and Justice
20 From Both Sides: Encountering the State
1 Navigating Legal Territories
2 Judging Ideal Husbands and Wives
21 Under the Spotlight: Public Hearings
Interlude: the Hunter and Rim (Part 2)
22 Seeing Like a Court
23 Behind the Scenes
1 Reconciliation?
2 Reconciliation Sessions: the Legal Framework
3 Defining 'Harm'
24 Reconciliation as Theatre
1 The Reconciliation Judge: 'I Must Make Them Feel I Am Not Judging Them'
2 Suspicion and Sympathy
3 Deconstructing the Ideal Husband
4 Deconstructing the Good Wife
Interlude: Maktoub (1)
25 Stepping Out of the Page
26 A File Is Born
1 Making Files
2 Making Evidence
3 Proof of 'Harm'
27 Maktoub: Documenting Divorce for Harm
1 Litigant Strategies
2 Documenting Bad Husbands: Not Maintaining the Family
3 Documenting Bad Wives: Leaving the Marital Home
4 A Tale of Two Contrasting Cases
5 Listening to Evidence
28 Maktoub: Poetic Justice in Divorce without Grounds
1 Customized Arguments
2 Writing Good Husbands and Wives
29 The Cost of Divorce
1 Battles for Compensation
2 Writing Morality and Legitimacy
30 Dislocated Families
1 The Real Cost of Divorce
2 Gendering Parental Duties: the Legal Framework
31 Making 'Bad' Mothers
1 Absent Mothers
2 Unfit Mothers
3 (The Loss of) Custody as a Cost of Divorce
4 Interest of the Child
32 Politics and Patriline
1 Breaking Families
Part 4: Judging Women's Rights
33 Towards a Relational Reading of Women's Rights
1 Women's Rights; Men's Wrongs
2 Recreating Gender and Citizenship
3 Relational Rights: Family Law Begins at Home
4 Performing Citizenship
5 Smoke and Mirrors: Judging Women's Rights
Afterword: Available Light
34 Reflections on Women's Rights in Post-revolutionary Tunisia and Beyond
1 Safeguarding the PSC
2 'Same, Same, but Different': Defining Gender Equality
3 Reforming Gender since the 2011 Revolution
Interlude: The Two Hajj
4 Seeking Authenticity: the 'Real' Tunisia?
5 Inspiration: Transposing Women's Rights
6 Listening to Men
7 Finding Light in Dark Places: Reading Women's Rights
8 Glimmers: the Joys of Fatherhood
Bibliography
