Judging Women’s Rights, Gender & Citizenship In Ben Ali’s Tunisia

By (author) Grosso, Sarah
Short description/annotation:
An intimate ethnography of marriage and divorce, Judging Women’s Rights explores gender and citizenship in Ben Ali’s Tunisia. Revealing how women and men experienced their rights under this repressive regime, it demystifies claims that the progressive laws supported gender equality.
Description:
Tunisia has often been commended for its progressive stance on women’s rights and viewed as a role model for family law reform in the Muslim world. Judging Women’s Rights, Gender & Citizenship in Ben Ali''s Tunisia weaves together intimate stories and theory to demystify claims that the progressive laws supported gender equality in practice. Through the eyes of citizens and legal professionals, it reveals how women and men experienced their rights under Ben Ali’s repressive regime, tracing connections between gender, ethics and the law. This accessibly written book provides a vital backdrop for understanding contemporary debates in Tunisia where women’s rights remain a hotly contested topic.
Table of contents:
Acknowledgements Part 1: Dark and Light 1 Prologue: Engendering Change  1 La vie en mauve: Documenting Women’s Rights in the Time of Ben Ali 2 Encounters: Judging Citizenship  Interlude: the Bourguiba Institute of Modern Languages, April 2007 3 Law Lessons: Judging the Law  Interlude: Ministry of Statistics, May 2007  Interlude: Before and After: Marriage and Divorce 4 Before and After  1 Tradition or Innovation?  Interlude: Judging Divorce 5 Gendered Judgement  1 Ambiguous Spaces  2 Extraordinary Ethics  Interlude: Seeing beyond the Veil 6 Dislocation: Where Judging Begins  1 Dislocated Selves  2 Dislocated Places: Fields  3 Dislocated Judgement  4 Dislocated Morals 7 Listening to Silences  1 Encounters  2 Connections  3 Listening to Silences  4 Anthropologist or Spy?  5 Encounters in the Fields  6 Vulnerable Lives Part 2: Family  Interlude: Knowing Whom to Trust 8 Becoming  1 The Safety Pin  2 Seeing the Invisible  3 Performing Identity 9 Creating Homes 10 Creating Friends  1 No Return 11 Marriage Is like a Watermelon  1 Consent 12 Creating Marriage  1 Mother and Daughter: Marriage across Two Generations 13 Good Wife; Ideal Husband  1 Good Wives  2 Ideal Husbands  Interlude: Finding the Ideal Husband? 14 Sex and the City 15 Making a Living  1 Shrinking Families  2 Increasing Living Costs  Interlude: the Hunter and Rim (Part 1) 16 Woman’s Work  1 Real v Ideal  2 Dislocated Marriages  Interlude: Reciprocity  Interlude: the Unthinkable 17 Breaking Marriage: Those Who Can(not) Divorce  1 Those Who Did Not Divorce  2 The Stigma of Divorce Part 3: Law  Interlude: in Between 18 Court House  1 Setting the Scene  2 Outside In 19 Inside Out: the Court Office  1 The Court Staff  2 From Morouj to the Court: the Story of Karima  3 On Marriage and Motherhood  4 ‘Family Atmosphere’ and Neighbourhood Spirit  5 Attitudes to Divorce  Interlude: Judge and Justice 20 From Both Sides: Encountering the State  1 Navigating Legal Territories  2 Judging Ideal Husbands and Wives 21 Under the Spotlight: Public Hearings  Interlude: the Hunter and Rim (Part 2) 22 Seeing Like a Court 23 Behind the Scenes  1 Reconciliation?  2 Reconciliation Sessions: the Legal Framework  3 Defining ‘Harm’ 24 Reconciliation as Theatre  1 The Reconciliation Judge: ‘I Must Make Them Feel I Am Not Judging Them’  2 Suspicion and Sympathy  3 Deconstructing the Ideal Husband  4 Deconstructing the Good Wife  Interlude: Maktoub (1) 25 Stepping Out of the Page 26 A File Is Born  1 Making Files  2 Making Evidence  3 Proof of ‘Harm’ 27 Maktoub: Documenting Divorce for Harm  1 Litigant Strategies  2 Documenting Bad Husbands: Not Maintaining the Family  3 Documenting Bad Wives: Leaving the Marital Home  4 A Tale of Two Contras