14 November 2009
Tunis — The Paris magazine "Madame Figaro" published an article under the title: " Mrs. Leila Ben Ali and the Causes of Arab Women" in which it highlights the strong will driving the First Lady and Chairwoman of the Arab Women Organisation to enhance women's position in the family and in different areas of economic activity.
In this November 14 issue, the magazine also publishes an interview with Mrs. Leila Ben Ali titled "Full-Fledged Partners to Men," at the beginning of which the First Lady of Tunisia underlines: " I am a Tunisian like others" and reviews the various aspects of her activities in Tunisia and in the Arab world.
Answering the magazine's question "what do you think of Tunisian women today?", Mrs. Ben Ali underlines that they "are tenacious, persevering, active and very attached to their rights. They have become full-fledged partners to men. More efforts are still needed to change attitudes and behaviours but the political will to promote them does exist. I do not think a reversal is possible."
Asked about her role as First Lady, Mrs. Ben Ali recalls that she chairs a number of charities, including Basma ("smile", in English), which seeks to integrate the disabled in society and invest in palliative care centres.
The French magazine also points to Mrs. Leila Ben Ali's Presidency of the Arab Women Organisation (AWO). The First Lady specifies, in this regard, that this organisation, which brings together fifteen first ladies under the aegis of the Arab League, is now preparing for the forthcoming meeting due to be held in October 2010 in Tunis and focus on : "Promoting Arab Women in the Sustainable Development Process."
"We have also called, she went on saying, for setting up an observatory of social and political legislation on women's condition and a convention on elimination of all forms of discrimination against them, in association with the Arab League and the United Nations."
To the question "How are you raising your son Mohamed, aged four and a half? Mrs. Leila Ben Ali said: "As I brought up my two daughters, Nesrine and Halima, and as I was raised myself. In compliance with the traditional values of Tunisia, the sense of effort, openness to others and simplicity. I come from a humble background and we were a large family of ten children."
In an introductory article of this interview, "Madame Figaro" underlines that the situation of Tunisian women is exceptional in the Arab and Muslim countries.
In the Twenties, it says, Women's emancipation movements already existed and now they are bankers, heads of businesses, doctors, psychoanalysts, lawyers, judges and this is not surprising anyone.
The magazine also recalls that the promulgation of the Personal Status Code, which was revolutionary at the time, has made Tunisian women full citizens, equal to men (abolition of polygamy and repudiation, introduction of judicial divorce, abolition of marriage guardian...).
All these measures, she adds, give a great impetus to the modernisation of the Tunisian society.
The magazine points out that President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali enacted new laws that strengthen the role of women in family and society, such as equal pay and parental equality, the regime of common property, the Alimony Guarantee Fund and positive discrimination in elected bodies.
All these measures, it notes, still make of Tunisia a laboratory for ideas to promote the right of women in the Arab and Muslim world.
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