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Fri, Mar

Africa News
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Tunisian authorities have abolished the law restraining Muslim women from marrying non-Muslims as part of efforts to promote equal rights for women in the country. The abolition of the law came one month after Tunisia President, Beji Caid Essebsi called for the ban to be lifted since the practice violates Tunisia's constitution adopted in 2014 in the wake of Arab Spring revolution. The law was put in place in 1973.

Until the ban was lifted, a non-Muslim man who wished to marry a Muslim Tunisian woman must convert to Islam and present a proof of such conversion by obtaining certificate of conversion before such marriages are consummated. However, a Muslim man under the law can marry a non-Muslim woman.

 

The spokeswoman to the President, Saidu Garrach who took to her Facebook page after the ban was lifted, congratulated all Women of Tunisia stressing that the new law would engender equality. She wrote "Congratulations to the women of Tunisia for the enshrinement of the right to the freedom to choose one's spouse."

 

Prior to the recent repeal, several Human Rights Groups had sustained agitations calling for the abolition of the law, insisting that it undermined the fundamental human right to choose one's spouse.

 

Meanwhile, mainstream Muslim Clerics who had opposed the planned abolition of the law have condemned the government for repealing it.

 

Apart from this law, Tunisia is reported to have inheritance inequality law which allows women to enjoy only half of the inheritance given to sons. Muslim clerics claim the law finds its root in the Quran.

 

 

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