Tunisian Parliament discusses bill to protect women

The Tunisian parliament has resumed discussing a bill that criminalizes all forms of violence against women, which includes prison sentences before it is approved this week, while cases of violence against women have increased significantly according to official Tunisian statistics.

The bill proposes a two-year prison sentence for sexual harassment and a fine of 5,000 dinars (about $ 2,000) for "anyone who harasses women in public places. Human rights and feminist organizations praised the bill, calling for an end to discrimination based on sex.

The most prominent chapters of the project is ending impunity in the rape of and underage girl, where the Tunisian law was allowing the rapist to escape legal proceedings if he marries his victim.

The head of rights and freedoms committee in the parliament, Emad Al Khemeiry, said that the bill aims primarily to develop a legal framework for the deterrence of all forms of violence against women in society, adding that they are in the process of reaching an agreement on the contentious points.

Al Khemeiry, a deputy of the Islamic Renaissance movement, said that there is a trend to reduce the punishment of harassment of women in public places from one year to a financial penalty, adding that the penalty of "incest" is 10 years imprisonment.

In the same context, a parliamentary committee held a meeting, Monday, with representatives of the government to reach an agreement between the parliamentary blocs on the controversial points in this project.

The deputies agreed to delete chapter 227 of the Penal Code, which concerns the termination of judicial consequences in case of marriage of an underage girl from her rapist. Tunisia withdrew its reservations on a number of paragraphs of the CEDAW Convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women two years ago, in particular the paragraphs that referred to full equality between women and men.

Tunisia has agreed on granting the same rights to men and women as to the law relating to the movement of persons and to the freedom to choose their place of residence, in addition to granting women equal rights with men with regard to the nationality of their children.

The Government of Tunisia has filed a general declaration stating that it would not take any organization or legislative decision in conformity with the requirements of the Convention where such a decision would conflict with the provisions of chapter 1 of the Tunisian Constitution, "which states that Islam is the religion of the state," which is rejected by feminist and secular parties.