Women, Revolution and Biopolitical Control in Tunisia
What was at stake from the very beginning of the January 2011 Tunisian Revolution involved the management of life on which the future model of society ultimately depends. The « Islamists » realized more than the « Modernists » what they were about when they got involved not only in the political scene but in the control of the body as well. A certain conception of Islam now operates like a biopolitical mechanism that deals with the population as a « problem of power ». The rules and regulations promoted in the name of th respect for Islam are literally penetrating the entire society, infiltrating its most delicate anatomy. Woman runs through most of this mechanism. Indeed, she is one of the central stakes. In order to understand these new modes of subjectivation and individuation, this paper focuses on the islamist biopolitics as a project fighting against the model inherited from Bourguiba’s time and Ben Ali’s dictatorship, whose pivot was the Code du statut personnel (Code on Personal Status), at the origin of the profound change in the Tunisian women’s status. This new Code, which was enacted in 1956, is considered by its opponents as a piece imported from abroad and regarded as a heresy violating the Islamic religious identity of the country. As a result of these attacks, vigorous and intense social protests broke out, led by many actor/actress, especially feminists, who struggled to defend and promote women’s rights in accordance with the legacy of Bourguiba and the Revolution credo : equality, liberty, justice. The claim of this paper is based on empirical observations carried out mainly through the first four years of the Revolution and on an historical reflection on prior periods.