Women MPs in Tunisia face uncertain future in parliament
Will the Tunisian parliament be a haven for women MPs or will new laws airbrush them out altogether?
A new electoral law introduced by Tunisian President Kais Saied in September eliminated the principle of gender parity in elected assemblies, a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report said earlier this week, according to the Middle East Monitor.
According to the report, claims the London based website, a majority of Tunisians however voted in favour of a new Constitution this summer, which gave the president far more powers, paving the way for a more authoritarian role of governance in the country once held in esteem by the West for its advanced ideas about democracy.
However, the new constitution clashes with the new law.
“The new law strips gender parity provisions from a previous electoral law that strove to ensure equal representation between men and women in Tunisia’s elected assemblies, although Tunisia’s new Constitution explicitly upholds this principle,” the report said.
