Tunisians irked by slow progress on civil liberties

TUNIS: Tunisian activists say they are frustrated by the slow progress on reforms to improve civil liberties six years after an uprising calling for more freedoms in the North African country.

The 2011 revolution that toppled longtime dictator Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali ushered in a new era of freedom of expression and the creation of dozens of civil society groups and political parties.

But activists say the law still contains “oppressive” and “backward” provisions inconsistent with a 2014 constitution guaranteeing freedom of conscience, protection of privacy, and equality between men and women.

Since the uprising, Amna Guellali of Human Rights Watch says, Tunisian civil society has more openly been tackling issues that were previously taboo such as drugs.

But they have made limited headway in terms of legal reform, as they face “a huge amount of resistance” from politicians and parts of the population, she says.

“We feel like we’re going round in circles... It’s frustrating,” Guellali says. Discrimination against women remains rife, particularly in matters of inheritance, despite Tunisia being viewed as a regional pioneer in women’s rights.

In December, the government said it wanted to amend a law that allows men who carry out sexual acts with girls under the age of 15 to avoid prosecution if they marry their victims. But Parliament has yet to do so, or to approve a wider law to curb violence against women.

And in recent years hundreds of young Tunisians have been jailed for smoking cannabis under a law from Ben Ali’s era imposing a mandatory one-year prison sentence for narcotics use.