A recent article written by the BBC, has highlighted the issue of women’s rights in terms of the Tunisian revolution. It first meets a young, educated Tunisian woman who is celebrating her new right to wear her niqab, (which was outlawed pre-revolution) she tells the journalist; “I feel like a princess when I walk down the street wearing this,”.

Her joy is quickly contrasted with reports of the recent protests calling for a more secular state, now that the Islamist Ennahda party dominates the new government. These protests were led by women that feel their rights were under threat from the new regime, stressed by the topless protest of a nineteen year-old girl, who posted a picture of herself with the words, ‘my body is mine, not somebody’s honour’ written in Arabic across her naked chest on the internet. The Ennahda’s political bureau’s response to this was that they ‘protect her rights, but we also protect the rights of women to wear the niqab’.

This seems to be a very promising sign for Tunisia’s future in terms of women’s rights, it would appear as if the Islamist party are recognising that women should have the choice over their bodies, and will make different decisions.

However this is not necessarily an interpretation shared by all, as Amna Guellali, director of the human rights watch in Tunisia shares her thoughts that, ‘big changes are happening deep in society…so-called Salafist groups who tend to impose their own vision of society and religion – I think this might have a very strong effect on women’.

The article then revisits the at the beginning, and describes her modernity through her use of her smart phone, her studies and her love story with her fiancée. Maybe the revolution will be an opportunity for a new framework for women to express themselves within an Arab society how they wish, only time will tell.

Full article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-21925753