The democratic transition in Tunisia. A gender issue

Tunisia’s 1956 Code of Personal Status, groundbreaking legislation recognizing women’s rights in the North African country, undoubtedly holds an important distinction in that it resulted in social liberties that were tied to the process of women acquiring equal rights. Among the provisions of the law strongly endorsed by the first president of the Tunisian Republic Habib Bourguiba were the abolition of polygamy, the substitution of repudiation with the legal process of divorce, the elimination of a tutor or guardian’s consent for a woman to be married, the institution of 18 as the minimum age for marriage, and the introduction of mutual consent for a marriage to be recognized as legal.