TUNIS,
November 12 (IslamOnline.net) - Some 100 Tunisian politicians, lawyers
and human rights activists signed a petition urging President Zine
El-Abidine Ben Ali to put an end to the incessant harassments against
women wearing hijab.
The
petition, a copy of which was obtained by IslamOnline.net, said that
veiled Tunisian women have been denied access to universities and
institutes since the beginning of this year.
It
said that security personnel scold them for wearing hijab and had the
gall to remove their head scarves and coerce them into making a
written pledge not to wear hijab.
The
widely-circulated plea, which was distributed Monday, November 10,
called for an immediate halt to such "serious human rights and
civil liberties violations, which run counter to all international
conventions."
The
petitioners strongly condemned Tunisian police for harassing women,
saying that they were supposed to respect law and protect citizens and
not to terrify them or intrude into their freedom of choice.
Inking
the petition were Shawki Al-Tayyib, the head of the Arab association
of junior lawyers, Abdal Raouf Al-Eiadi, member of the national body
for lawyers, Najib Husni, the spokesman for the national council for
liberties, Youssef Al-Rizki, head of Tunisia's association of junior
lawyers and women rights activist Saida Al-Akrami.
Rising
Harassments
In
a press release, which was e-mailed to IsamOnline.net, the league said
that the ministry of education issued a note ordering all schools and
institutes to rigidly implement rules that ban women from wearing
clothes of religious character, in an implicit hint to the Muslim
headscarf.
"It
(the note) is null and void and violates the enshrined rights of
freedom to education and choice of clothes," the league charged.
Health
Minister Habib Mubarak also issued a similar note at the beginning of
the holy fasting month of Ramadan, demanding all hospitals and medical
centers to prevent nurses wearing hijab and doctors growing beards
from entering the buildings.
The
league called on Tunisian authorities to annul the aforesaid notes
because "they represent a serious intrusion into private
lives."
Add
to that, the national council for liberties said in a statement that
Tunisian authorities have launched an organized campaign against
veiled women in streets, public transport, educational institutions,
courts and hospitals.
"This
frantic and unjustifiable campaign, which deprive Tunisian women of
their rights of education and work, must be stopped," the
council's spokesman, Najib Husni told IOL.
"The
Tunisian society can no longer tolerate such violations at the hands
of authorities," he added.
Ahlam
Al-Dani, 45, told IOL that she was kidnapped by Tunisian police in
plain clothes, who forced her to take off her hijab, adding that she
was completely traumatized by the horrible incident.
Basma
Al-Ghozi, 23, said she was referred to a disciplinary committee at her
faculty and had to temporarily take off her hijab, otherwise she will
be kicked out of university.
"The
notes issued by the ministry of higher education have done great
injustice to veiled women, which is unmatched by any western
country," she said.
In
1981, Algerian President Habib Bourguiba (1956-1987) ratified law no.
108, which banned Tunisian women from wearing hijab in state offices.
In
1929, a young man, lashed out at a woman for calling for the
liberation of women, urging that hijab made the Tunisian identity and
rejected the call for taking it off.
The
young man started defending his "case" by publishing a
number of articles in Tunisian and French newspaper on hijab.
Ironically enough, that young man was Habib Bourguiba.
