Tunisia takes a revolutionary step, proposes radical reform in marriage

Last month, President Bay Said Essebs announced his intention to allow women to marry persons who do not necessarily belong to Islam and grant them equal rights according to inheritance.

Currently, a Muslim woman is not allowed to marry a non-mysliman.

Men are allowed to marry women of any faith that need not be converted.

Under Islamic law, men usually receive double the legacy that a woman, the Guardian” reported, broadcasts Periscopi.

Citing the country's 2014 constitution, considered one of the most progressive in the region, the president said: “The state is obliged to achieve full equality between women and men and to ensure equal opportunities for all responsibilities they have”.

Tunisia has already passed a law ending violence against women, including removing a tighten in the penal code that allowed female rapists to marry them afterwards.

Speaking on a local radio shortly after the announcement, Rym Mahjoub, an MP with the liberal party “Afek Tounes”, said the move was <x2-progressors and revolutionary. ”

She added: “As a woman I am proud that this issue will now be discussed... this does not mean that we do not have any other social and economic problems and cancel the discussion of other important issues... but we can see that some women are deprived of their right to inheritance as defined in the religious text. ”

Academy and feminist Dalenda Bruche from Tunisia's Manuba University said the country's president's initiative was strategic for the kind of state she hoped Tunisia would take place in the future.

Why can a [unitian] man marry a non-Muslim woman, but he's not worth a Tunisian woman? As for the issue of heredity, I am personally pleased that the president made the decision to push ahead with all measures towards advancing equality”, she said.

“No taboo today. With this new Tunisia, we are an example to the Arab world and an example to other women and Muslim countries. If we were able to establish a progressive constitution, it was thanks to Sunnisan women”, she added.

However, the move has faced strong resistance from the president's opponents and several international religious bodies./Periscopi/