Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06TUNIS2565
2006-10-13 15:17:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Tunis
Cable title:  

TUNISIAN GOVERNMENT CRACKS DOWN ON HIJAB

Tags:  PHUM PREL KPAO TS 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXYZ0010
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHTU #2565/01 2861517
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 131517Z OCT 06
FM AMEMBASSY TUNIS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 2031
INFO RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
C O N F I D E N T I A L TUNIS 002565 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

NEA/MAG FOR HARRIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/02/2016
TAGS: PHUM PREL KPAO TS
SUBJECT: TUNISIAN GOVERNMENT CRACKS DOWN ON HIJAB

Classified By: CDA David Ballard for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)

C O N F I D E N T I A L TUNIS 002565

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

NEA/MAG FOR HARRIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/02/2016
TAGS: PHUM PREL KPAO TS
SUBJECT: TUNISIAN GOVERNMENT CRACKS DOWN ON HIJAB

Classified By: CDA David Ballard for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) Summary: By all accounts, the number of women wearing
the hijab or adopting some Islamic-inspired headdress in
Tunisia has skyrocketed in recent years. In response, the
GOT's periodic campaign of words and actions against Tunisian
women wearing the hijab has increased in intensity. A 1981
regulation banning the wearing of "sectarian dress" in public
offices and schools, previously arbitrarily applied to
prevent women from wearing hijab, is reportedly being
enforced with more regularity. Some women have been stopped
in public, non-official places, detained and forced to remove
their hijab by police. GOT and ruling party RCD officials
have described the hijab as a potential threat to women's
rights, and labeled the garment as "sectarian dress" and
un-Tunisian. The GOT, which has long feared an Islamist
political and security threat, undoubtedly views the rise in
the number of hijab-wearers as a potential indication of
Islamist sympathy on the part of the Tunisian public.
However, many interlocutors feel that the GOT campaign to
limit the hijab has the opposite effect of contributing to
the phenomenon. Anecdotal evidence suggests that young women
have put on, or been influenced by their husbands or
boyfriends to wear, the garment not just for religious
reasons, but in quiet political protest to a perceived threat
to their religious beliefs and in solidarity with like-minded
Tunisians and Muslims. End Summary.

--------------
Hijab Wearing Increases
--------------


2. (C) By all accounts, the number of women wearing the
Islamic headscarf, known as hijab, in Tunisia has skyrocketed
in recent years. Although there have been no official
surveys, walking or driving through any city in Tunisia one
will notice a large percentage of women wearing the garment.
Visitors who have returned to Tunisia after several years
away often remark that the large increase in women wearing
the hijab is among the first changes they noticed.
Hijab-wearers range from teenagers to the elderly, and are
seen in rural and urban areas alike. While many
hijab-wearers themselves speak with pride about their choice

to wear the garment as a reflection of their religious
conviction, non-hijab wearers often remark that women wearing
hijab do so either because it is "a la mode," or to make a
political statement. They do not believe that the phenomenon
necessarily reflects a growing religiosity among the
populace. Others say, however, that more Tunisians are
actively practicing Islam, pointing not only to the growing
number of hijabs, but to packed mosques and prayer sessions
at private residences. Contacts across the board point to
the influence of pan-Arab media as the most significant
factor explaining the rising numbers of hijabs on the
Tunisian streets. An Embassy FSN also reported that two
stores specializing in headscarves have opened in the Tunis
suburbs.

--------------
GOT Cracks Down on Hijab
--------------


3. (C) In 1981 the GOT passed Regulation no. 108, banning
public employees, students and teachers from wearing what was
described as "sectarian dress." In the years since, this
regulation has been applied arbitrarily to prevent students
and public officials from wearing hijab in their places of
study or employment. At times, female students have been
forced to remove their hijab before entering class, while at
other times, no such rule has been applied. In recent
months, however, the GOT's campaign of words and actions
against Tunisian women wearing the hijab has increased in
intensity as Regulation no. 108 is being applied with
increased regularity. University and high school students
are reportedly targeted more frequently and made to remove
the hijab before attending class. Poloff interviewed one
student on a university campus during a career day in April.
She and some other students attending the
university-sponsored event were wearing hijab without
problem, and said they were able to attend class in hijab.
However with the beginning of the 2006/2007 school year in
September, students reported more instances of being forced
to remove their hijab. Opposition paper Al Mawkif reported
that the Governor of Manouba, a suburb of Tunis, accompanied
by security officials, visited high schools, gathering all
students wearing hijab, threatening them and forcing them to
sign documents committing them to not wear hijab. According
to the article, some students were suspended. Similar
actions have been taken against young men wearing "Islamic
style" beards. Beard-wearing students have reportedly been
told to shave before being allowed to attend class, and other
bearded men have allegedly been detained and forced to shave
before being released.


4. (C) Although the official regulation banning hijab applies
only to public officials, teachers and students, in recent
weeks there have been reports of police stopping private
individuals wearing hijab as well, forcing them to remove
their head covering, and even detaining some. The wife of an
Embassy FSN was picked up on October 9 by security officials
while shopping on the street, detained for questioning, and
criticized for wearing her headscarf. While detained, she
said she saw other hijab-clad women being slapped by police,
and a pile of discarded hijabs. Other reliable sources have
reported seeing women and high-school aged girls stopped
while shopping and told to remove their head-coverings.
Another FSN saw a women shopping in a mall in Tunis' wealthy
northern suburbs stopped by security officials and given the
choice either to remove the hijab or leave.

--------------
Hijab-Wearing Fulla Doll Removed from Shelves
--------------


5. (SBU) In mid-September, according to on-line reports,
security forces began demanding stores remove Fulla Dolls
from their shelves. Full, a cultural phenomenon in the Arab
world, is a doll created by a Syrian manufacturer and
marketed to children of Islamic and Middle-Eastern countries
as a culturally appropriate alternative to Barbie. One of
the Fulla's prominent characteristics is her hijab. According
to local merchants, this was the reason they were forced to
remove the doll from shelves. Poloff spoke with an employee
at a large shopping mall in Tunis who confirmed that the
store was "forbidden by police" to sell the doll. However,
some street vendors have reportedly continued to sell the
doll.

--------------
GOT Speech Campaign Against Hijab Heats Up
--------------


6. (U) GOT officials have taken the anti-hijab campaign to
the public in several high-profile speeches. The Minister of
Religious Affairs has repeatedly characterized the hijab as
"sectarian dress," and not representative of Tunisia. In a
Ramadan event hosted by the ruling party RCD, party Secretary
General M'henni, pointing to the prevalence of hijab as a
threat to women's rights, reportedly said, "If today we
accept the hijab, tomorrow we'll accept that women's rights
to work and vote and receive an education be banned, and
they'll be seen as just a tool for reproduction an
housework... It is necessary to struggle against such a
scourge to defend Islam and the rights of existing and future
Tunisians." M'henni's comments were carried by the official
Tunisian Press Agency. In the past few days, the GOT has
engaged in a full-fledged press blitz, with presidential
advisor Abdelaziz Ben Dhia, Religious Affairs Minister
Boubaker El-Akhzouri and university professors railing
against the garment, sentiments echoed on the front pages and
in numerous editorials in every daily newspaper.


7. (SBU) However, there have been some mixed and confusing
signals from the GOT on hijab. In a meeting with PolOff, the
Director General of the Ministry of Religious Affairs spoke
at great length about "acceptable headscarfs" worn
traditionally in Tunisia (similar to loosely-tied head
scarves traditionally associated with Russian peasant women)
and the unacceptable hijab (fully covers the head and hair,
is tighter to the face, and held in place with a pin). In a
recent front page photo accompanying a story of a Ramadan
Iftar dinner hosted by Ben Ali, all female invitees seated
near the President and his wife were wearing headscarfs.
Although two of the headscarves seemed to be what GOT
interlocutors have referred to as Tunisian-style
headcovering, one of the women in the photo appeared to be
wearing the style of headscarf normally referred to as hijab.
Online commentators have noted that female relatives of
President Ben Ali publicly wore hijab while traveling to and
from Mecca for the Hajj.

--------------
Human Rights Organizations Respond
--------------


8. (SBU) Human rights activists and organizations, including
the Tunisian Human Rights League and Saida Akremi of the
International Association for the Support of Political
Prisoners (AISPP) have refuted the GOT's assertion that a ban
on hijab would protect human rights, saying that by banning
hijab the GOT has infringed on free expression. Amidst the
dialectical debate between human rights activists and the
GOT, Akremi, in February, reportedly filed a lawsuit seeking
to revoke the 1981 regulation banning hijab in state-run
institutions. In an interview in Islam Online, reprinted on
the website "Protect Hijab" (www.prohijab.net),Saida Akremi
highlighted what many Tunisians feel is a growing
contradiction between the GOT's promotion of Islam on one
hand, and its restriction on hijab on the other: "The
implementation of this law (Regulation no. 108) sharply
conflicts with the Tunisian Constitution, which stipulates
that Tunisia is an Islamic Country."


9. (C) On the other side of the debate, the secular Tunisian
Association of Democratic Women (ATFD),a prominent,
independent women's rights organization that has long taken a
public stance against political Islam, views the hijab as
symbolic of the threat that Islamist groups would pose to
women's rights in Tunisia. According to Saida Garrache,
Secretary General of the ATFD, the GOT, which has a long

SIPDIS
history of blocking ATFD meetings and harassing its activists
due to their outspoken political opposition, recently invited
the ATFD to appear on Tunisian television to speak out
against the hijab. Garrache told PolOff that although the
ATFD happens to agree with the GOT on the issue, they would
not speak out on behalf of the government.


10. (C) An Embassy FSN (protect) active in the Tunisian Boy
Scouts Association reported that he was informed by the
association's head that all board members were invited to a
meeting on October 18 with other civil society organizations
to discuss the issue of hijab The meeting is reportedly to
be hosted at RCD headquarters by Secretary General M'henni.
The FSN predicted that M'henni will give instructions to
pro-GOT civil society organizations on how to combat the
prevalence of hijab.

--------------
Comment
--------------


11. (C) A quick drive around any Tunisian city demonstrates
that the GOT is losing the war against hijab. The number of
hijab wearers continues to increase, and although students
are forbidden to wear the garment on campus, young women
leaving school can be seen putting their headscarves back on
as soon as they are outside. While Tunisian officials
publicly lament the hijab as a potential threat to women's
rights, or as inconsistent with Tunisian tradition and
culture, in fact the GOT is much more concerned about the
potential political implications of a more fervently
religious Tunisian population. The only significant
political threat to the ruling party RCD in past decades was
the Islamist Party An-Nahdha, which in 1989 elections won,
according to various sources, between 15 and 30 percent of
the vote in legislative elections, before being effectively
eradicated by the GOT in the early nineties. It is not
unimaginable that RCD party heavyweights driving around Tunis
see each scarved head as a potential vote of support for an
Islamist party. Ironically, Tunisian women, who were the
bulwark against Islamic extremism under former President
Bourguiba are now defying the Bourguiba legacy by donning
hijab.


12. (C) The GOT thus faces the unenviable task of trying to
gain the support of a population that increasingly associates
with Islamic practices common elsewhere in the Arab world,
but which have only recently gained prominence in Tunisia,
while at the same time confronting the potential political
threat such practices might pose to a secular government.
Traditionally, President Ben Ali has maintained the balance
by publicly associating himself with Islam, whether by
hosting Ramadan dinners, building mosques, or traveling to
Mecca. However, many Tunisians who see the hijab as an
essential expression of their dedication to Islam, and who
are reinforced in such belief by the increasingly dominant
pan-Arab media, are questioning how the GOT can promote Islam
and ban hijab. The juxtaposition is even greater as the GOT
has chosen the holy month of Ramadan for its latest
anti-hijab campaign. (Similar campaigns occurred under
Bourguiba and early in Ben Ali's administration.) Thus, the
GOT's increased pressure on hijab-wearers may be in fact
contributing to the phenomenon, as young woman sport the
garment not just for religious reasons, but as an emblem of
political protest. As one Tunisian activist quipped: "The
more the GOT cracks down, the more hijabs in the street."
BALLARD