Women’s Movements and the Recognition of Gender Equality in the Constitution-Making Process in Morocco and Tunisia (2011-2014)

Equality between women and men has been the objective of women’s movements in post-colonial Morocco and Tunisia, and it manifested as one of the emancipatory priorities in the Moroccan and Tunisian uprisings in 2010-2011. Today, the principle of gender equality is explicitly recognised in the Moroccan Constitution of 2011 (Article 19), and in the Tunisian Constitution of 2014 (Article 21). What compromises, confrontations and resistances between central power, transitional institutions and the different forces of civil society helped bring this about? In order to answer this question, two dimensions of analysis are applied in this chapter. In the first part, on a theoretical level, the centrality of the connection between Islam, patriarchy and citizenship is problematised in the systems of power and in the normativity of both countries. In addition, from a historical perspective, it traces the main steps of women’s movements’ struggles for gender equality, demanding the deconstruction of this strict relationship, through the years. In the second and most empirical part, the chapter analyses the ways in which the constitution-making process has been carried out in Morocco and Tunisia. In-depth interviews conducted during multiple fieldwork trips to Rabat and Tunis, in 2011, 2014 and 2016, shed light on the different approaches and stages of the writing process of the constitution, exploring if – and how – it was negotiated with the most representative actors of civil society. Furthermore, the different strategies and political praxis of women’s movements in achieving gender equality are explored. Concerning the Moroccan case, I problematise the debate about gender equality and complementarity that was developed within the ‘20 February Movement’ in relation to the ability of the central power to balance the demands of civil society by recognising gender equality in the new Constitution of 2011. Concerning the Tunisian case, attention is focused on the capability of the historical feminist organisations to influence the constitution-making process during the phase of the ‘transition to democracy’ 2011-2014. Despite the differences between the two cases, women’s movements have proved their importance as social actors in the post-uprising political scenario, and in the bottom-up definition of gender policies that affects the entire society from a political, juridical, economic and social perspective. In both countries, the central power used the narrative of gender equality for political objectives, mainly to advertise its democratic nature. Women’s rights and gender equality remain socially contested, indeed, at the heart of the process of building a collective egalitarian consciousness and a new citizenship based on an egalitarian paradigm.