National Women's Day () is celebrated in Tunisia every year on August 13. It commemorates the day of adoption of the Code of Personal Status in Tunisia, the 13th of August in 1956, the year of independence in

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

. The code enacted laws for the family that contain fundamental changes, the most important of which is the prohibition of

polygamy Polygamy (from Late Greek , "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marriage, marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, it is called polygyny. When a woman is married to more tha ...

, the withdrawal of guardianship from men and the making of divorce by the court instead of men. In 2017, President

Beji Caid Essebsi Beji Caid Essebsi (or es-Sebsi; , ; 29 November 1926 – 25 July 2019) was a Tunisian politician who served as the fourth president of Tunisia from 31 December 2014 until his death on 25 July 2019. Previously, he served as minister of foreign af ...

announced on National Women's Day that he intended to remove gender bias from Tunisian

inheritance law Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Offici ...

, sparking much controversy both from leftist groups who saw it as a political move and conservative groups that saw it as contrary to

Sharia law Sharia, Sharī'ah, Shari'a, or Shariah () is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition based on scriptures of Islam, particularly the Qur'an and hadith. In Islamic terminology ''sharīʿah'' refers to immutable, inta ...

References

Women's rights in Tunisia August observances Remembrance days Culture of Tunisia Society of Tunisia {{Tunisia-stub