European Journal of Social Sciences Studies ISSN: 2501-8590 ISSN-L: 2501-8590 Available on-line at: www.oapub.org/soc Volume 2 │ Issue 6 │ 2017 doi: 10.5281/zenodo.841335 THE JASMINE REVOLUTION AND ITS IMPACT ON WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT IN TUNISIA Saifuzzamani Research scholar, Department of West Asian Studies and North African Studies, AMU, Aligarh, India Abstract: On Saturday December 17, 2016, Tunisia celebrated the six year anniversary of the Jasmine Revolution which was sparked off by the self-immolation of Bouazizi that started in Sidi Bouzid, a small town in the center of the country. The revolution in Tunisia led to a regional wave of uprisings spreading rapidly to Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Yemen, Jordan and Syria. For over half a century, Tunisia lived under a dictatorial regime with a single powerful political party. The other parties, allowed in-between, had no power, being restricted in their movements and actions and only served to make the world believe that Tunisia was indeed democratic, as daily reported by ‛en ‚li s media. Since the independence of their country from colonial rule in 1956 Tunisia sustained major progress in relation to women s access to health and education services and the labor market; maternal mortality and fertility rates were halved, girls enrolment in secondary school more than doubled and women were increasingly in paid employment. Moreover, despite the limited democratic space, the number of women in government grew significantly and women s organizations began to play a role in shaping social and political transformation. This paper argues that women s empowerment in Tunisia is largely rooted in the particular features of the elite postindependence bargain, early political choices regarding state–society relations and the associated policies in the areas of education, health and labor, which increased women s access to resources. It also highlights the interaction between changes in law, policies promoting gender equality and women s capacity to mobilize. Women s increasing individual and collective agency in both the public and private spheres explains the existence of opportunities to consolidate women s empowerment in contemporary Tunisia. Cumulative change in different spheres has been mutually Copyright © The Author(s). All Rights Reserved. © 2015 – 2017 Open Access Publishing Group 226 Saifuzzaman THE JASMINE REVOLUTION AND ITS IMPACT ON WOMEN S EMPOWERMENT IN TUNISI‚ reinforcing, and may also have created resilience regarding potential reversals associated with the political changes brought about by the ‚rab Spring . Tunisia s progress in women s empowerment provides valuable lessons on how women can obtain access to new resources and the way in which politics and power, and the struggles, dynamics and contestation that these generate can be used to challenge gender and social power relations. It demonstrates the importance of locating political paths of change – such as processes of women s empowerment – in the context of wider political settlements. Keywords: Jasmine Revolution, dictatorial regime, democracy, education, women empowerment Introduction The Republic of Tunisia (in Arabic al jumhuriyyah at-Tunisiyyah) is the smallest country in the Maghreb region of North Africa, with more than 3,000 years of history and rich cultural heritage, a country with deep rooted traditions of openness, peace and progress. It today covers a territory of 163,610 square kilometers. Its population in 2014 was estimated to be 11 million; most of them are Muslim (98 per cent), with small Christian and Jewish minorities.i (Azouz, 2016) In 2011 Tunisian National Institute of Statistics Report, the male to female ratio Tunisia is almost50/50. Tunisia gained independence from French rule in 20 March, 1956. Since that time of Republic (25 July 1957) Tunisia has actively promoted equality for their citizens, regardless of gender faith. (Lack, 2011)ii From independent to 2011, Tunisia was governed by a secular party, Constitutional Democratic Rally RCD under Habib ‛ourguiba and Zine-el-Abidine ben Ali. Habib Bourguiba established a strict one-party state, dominated the country for 31 years, repressing Islamic fundamentalism and establishing rights for women unmatched by any other Arab nation. Ben Ali took over as president after a bladeless coup on November 7, 1987, against the country s founder president, Habib ‛ourguiba after having he had Bourguiba declared senile by his own doctors. Since then, Ben Ali ruled one of the best organized and surprising prosperous police states in the world. Having once headed the country s intelligence, he presided over one of the most efficient intelligence systems, where citizens were closely watched and any criticism of the regime suppressed. (Farasat, 2013)iii Ben Ali was forced out of power, on January 14, 2011, the day he had fled to the Saudi Arabia, his 23 year rule toppled by 29 days of a popular uprising, a real revolution for a change. (Eltahawy, 2012)iv The popular unrest that started in Tunisia on December 18, 2010, as a popular uprising triggered by the self-immolation of street vendor, Mohamed Bouazizi, a protesting against the Country s corrupt and autocratic regime. What is eventually led European Journal of Social Sciences Studies - Volume 2 │ Issue 6 │ 2017 227 Saifuzzaman THE JASMINE REVOLUTION AND ITS IMPACT ON WOMEN S EMPOWERMENT IN TUNISI‚ to be a chain of revolutionary uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), toppling dictatorial governments in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Yemen. Monarchies in Morocco, Jordan and Bahrain enacted reforms to varying degrees in attempts to stave off wider scale protests. Tragically, Syria descended into a vicious civil war. Popularly known as the ‚rab spring and sometimes as the ‚rab spring and winter , ‚rab ‚wakening or ‚rab Uprisings and quite a few ‚rabs also calling it the Tunisian intifada and we also call this the revolution of Mohamed ‛ouazizi. ‚chcar, 2014)v Like their counterparts in Libya, Egypt, Yemen and elsewhere, Tunisian women were present everywhere in that which was later known as the Jasmine Revolution. The term originated from American journalist Andy Carvin and by the western media it called the jasmine Revolution or jasmine spring, after Tunisia s national flower and in keeping with the geopolitical terminology of color revolution . (Fishman, 2015)vi In the Arab world, women have a long antiquity of fighting along with their male counterparts against colonial and autocrat rulers. Hence, since the beginning of Arabo spring, they are playing a significant role in bringing down the entrenched tyrants of the region. The Arab women were an integral part of the protest movements in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen and others countries. They participated in the demonstrations demanding social and political change, calling for justice and fighting for human and social rights. For downloading the full article, please access the following link: http://oapub.org/soc/index.php/EJSSS/article/view/165 European Journal of Social Sciences Studies - Volume 2 │ Issue 6 │ 2017 228