The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought

Tunisia

In March 1956, both Morocco and Tunisia were granted independence as France focused its colonial efforts in North Africa on keeping a firm grip over Algeria. The first 30 years of independent Tunisia were marked by the leadership of Habib Bourguiba (1903–2000), a French-educated lawyer referred to as al-mujāhid al-akbar (the Supreme Combatant), who became the dominant figure in the Tunisian nationalist movement and the architect of modern Tunisia. His philosophy of state building rested on a reformist platform. Although Tunisia was often viewed in the Western media as a secular state, Bourguiba insisted that he was a proponent of a reformist, progressive, and rational Islam, and Article 1 of the 1959 Tunisian constitution stated the Islamic identity of Tunisia.

Bourguiba’s views on religion were first reflected in the country’s adoption of a code in August 1956 that outlawed polygamy and gave women rights not accorded in traditional Islamic law. Tunisian women had the right to vote and to be candidates in municipal and general elections. The one major exception to this feminist trend was the adherence (with minor amendments) to Islamic law in matters of inheritance because of clear Qur’anic texts relevant to the issue. Bourguiba focused on the establishment of a modernist educational system and the extension of health care to the rural areas. Religious endowments (known as ḥubūs) were dissolved and the traditional religious schooling system was abandoned. Centers of family planning were created in the early 1960s. Until his removal in 1987, Bourguiba was the undisputed ruler of Tunisia and his party, the Neo-Destour (renamed in 1964 the Socialist Destourian Party), the overwhelming political force with no distinction between the authority of the state and the party. On July 25, 1957, Tunisia was declared a republic, thus ending the rule of the Husayni dynasty (1705–1957). The Tunisian constitution reflects a powerful presidential system tailored to Bourguiba’s stature. He was the head of state, the leader of the ruling party, the social reformer, and the modern-day reformist theologian. The position of mufti of the Republic, theoretically the highest religious position in Tunisia, was kept but was hollowed of any authority. This became evident in the early 1960s when the mufti was dismissed because he did not adhere to Bourguiba’s view that Tunisia was in the midst of a national jihad to overcome underdevelopment. During the same period, orders were issued for businesses and institutions to operate during the month of Ramadan according to the same schedule as the rest of the year. In the 1980s and following the success of the Iranian Revolution (1978–79), the Bourguiba regime took repressive measures to curb the influence of religiously oriented movements. This perceived threat, together with Bourguiba’s advanced age and poor health, led to an atmosphere of court intrigue and competition over who would succeed Bourguiba. On November 7, 1987, Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, then prime minister, staged a bloodless coup by declaring Bourguiba medically unfit to continue as head of state. Article 57 of the Tunisian constitution made the prime minister the automatic successor to the presidency in case of vacancy. Bourguiba ended his days under virtual house arrest in his native town of Monastir, where he died on April 6, 2000.

Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali’s professional background was rooted in the military and civilian security services. During his 23 years in power, Ben Ali continued Bourguiba’s social policy, granting further legal rights to women: creation of family judgeships, premarital agreements allowing joint property, and other benefits for women with children in cases of divorce. His rule, dubbed as the period of Taghyīr (Change), made an effort to erase Bourguiba from Tunisian collective memory, starting with, in 1988, changing the name of the Socialist Destourian Party into the Constitutional Democratic Rally. Any manifestation of political Islam was harshly repressed, and the movement leaders faced either exile or long jail sentences. This trend reached its height after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack in the United States and the subsequent passage of Tunisia’s antiterrorist laws. Ben Ali’s regime was increasingly viewed as having reduced the country to a repressive police state, and some dubbed it a kleptocracy for its rampant corruption. High unemployment rates, especially among university graduates, added to the general discontent. Ben Ali and his family fled to Saudi Arabia on January 14, 2011, as a result of a revolution sparked by the self-immolation of a street vendor in the town of Sidi Bouzid on December 17, 2010.

See also Egypt; nation-state; North Africa