52nd Annual "National Woman's Day" -Tunis

[Tunisia216 2]

‘We have always placed stakes on the role of Tunisian women in anchoring modernity’, says President Ben Ali

Tunis, August, 12, 2008- In a message to Mrs Aziza Htira, the Chairwoman of the National Union of Tunisian Women (UNFT), on the occasion of the celebration of the 52nd anniversary of National Woman’s Day, President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali said that Tunisia has “always placed stakes on the role of its women in anchoring modernity and bolstering comprehensive development” .

President Ben Ali added that the recent Democratic Constitutional Rally’s (RCD) 5th Congress , “provided an excellent opportunity to raise the level of representation of women within the central committee to 37,9% of the members of this committee”.

“We are also convinced that Tunisian women are fully aware of the nobility of their mission, and of the importance of the next stages, and that they are determined to exert further efforts to rise up to the expectations placed in them, as well as remaining an active element and a beacon in Tunisia’s bright image”, he added.

The anniversary of the 52 nd anniversary of National Woman’s Day comes in commemoration of the anniversary of Tunisia’s adoption of the code of personal Status on August 13, 1956.

The code which was voted by Tunisia’s parliament a few months after the country’s independence, abolished polygamy and repudiation, giving Tunisian women the legal pre-requisites for equality.

More than half a century later, Tunisian women occupy 72% of the pharmaceutical sector, 48% are secondary school teachers, 46,2% primary education teachers, 40% are university professors, 57% university students, 44% journalists, 22,7% are members of the Chamber of deputies, 15,2% are part of the Chamber of Advisors, 27,4% have been elected as part of municipal councils and 37% work in the sector of services. There are also 18,000 women entrepreneurs in Tunisia.