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by Tommaso Virgili • August 2,
2018 at 5:00 am
- A crucial
recommendation of the report by Tunisia's Individual Freedoms
and Equality Committee (COLIBE) is a call explicitly to define
the country's vague criminal clauses that refer to 'public
order' and 'morals.'
- The calls to
decriminalize homosexuality and blasphemy, and to equalize the
inheritance rights of women with men, are opposed by political
parties that claim to be post-Islamist but in practice kowtow
to Islamic fundamentalists.
- Now it is time for
hesitant secular forces in Tunisia's parliament to embrace and
implement COLIBE's recommendations.
- And in the rest of
the Muslim world?
Tunisian
President Béji Caïd Essebsi established the Individual Freedoms and
Equality Committee in August 2017 to prepare a project of reforms
that are unprecedented in the Arab world. (Photo by Sean
Gallup/Getty Images)
As the world begins to understand what happened in
the 'Arab Spring' that began in December 2010—and its ramifications
today—the place where it was sparked is both a map and compass.
Where did the movement come from and where is it going?
Of all the countries that took part in the Arab
Spring, Tunisia is the one that most deserves the appellation
'free.'
But it is not quite there yet. This North African
nation still has a long way to go. Its entrenched cultural and
religious taboos are making the transition to true freedom a
complicated process.
One indication of the challenges faced by the
inheritors of Arab Spring is a recent report by the Individual
Freedoms and Equality Committee, known by the acronym COLIBE.
Established in August 2017 by Tunisian President
Béji Caïd Essebsi, the purpose of COLIBE is "the preparation
of a reform project in accordance with the requirements of the
Tunisian Constitution of 2014 and international human rights
standards".
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