![\"\"](\"https:\/\/archive.womennet.amwp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/tunis-4.jpg\")
Thousands of Tunisians have protested in the capital, Tunis, against moves by the Islamist-led government which they fear will reduce women’s rights.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Thousands of Tunisians have protested in the capital, Tunis, against moves by the Islamist-led government which they fear will reduce women’s rights.<\/p>\n
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The government has unveiled a draft constitution which refers to women as “complementary to men”.<\/p>\n
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The mostly women protesters held up placards which read: “Rise up women for your rights.”<\/p>\n
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Tunisia was one of the most secular Arab states before the Islamist Ennahda party won elections last year.<\/p>\n
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It took power following the mass uprising which led to the overthrow of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali’s regime in January 2011.<\/p>\n
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The 1956 constitution said that women and men were equal, banned polygamy and introduced civil divorce and marriage.<\/p>\n
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‘Open the door’<\/strong><\/p>\n Ennahda member Farida al-Obeidi, who chairs the constitutional assembly’s human rights and public freedoms panel, said the wording of the draft constitution was not a backward step for Tunisian women, Reuters reports.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Instead, the draft stipulates the “sharing of roles and does not mean that women are worth less than men”, she said.<\/p>\n But the chairperson of the Democratic Women’s Association, Ahlam Belhadj, condemned the clause.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n “Major retreats usually begin with one step,” she said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n “If we stay silent today, we will open the door to everything else and end up surprised by even more serious decisions.”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The protests began on Monday evening after the end of the daytime fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/archive.womennet.amwp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/tunis-2.jpg\")
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