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Doc. 9487
12 June 2002
Situation of Maghrebi women
Report
Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men
Rapporteur: Ms Yvette Roudy, France, Socialist Group
Summary:
Maghrebi women, namely Algerian and Moroccan, are still trapped in a legal ghetto that violates international conventions.
The Assembly is therefore concerned about the status of women, namely within immigrant families, a status which generates many conflicts as a result of different cultures and customs.
It therefore proposes that the governments of member states review the bilateral conventions in order to guarantee the principles included in the European Convention of Human Rights and that the countries of the Maghreb amend their Family Codes in order to establish genuine equality between women and men in conformity with international treaties and conventions in force and that consulates remind all Maghrebi nationals of the need to obey these laws, on pain of expulsion.
I. Draft resolution
1. Despite positive developments which have taken place in recent decades in Maghrebi countries, women are still trapped in a kind of legal ghetto that violates the international conventions ratified by these countries, in particular the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
2. Maghrebi societies are still a mixture of archaic habits and customs and modernity. In these societies, even in countries like Tunisia where women’s rights have developed considerably, women are still dependent upon men.
3. The Assembly strongly condemns the practices of repudiation and polygamy which violate the principle of human dignity. It also condemns the principle still applied in Algerian and Moroccan society, according to which for the whole of their lives women are classed as minors.
4. The Assembly stresses that women’s rights as laid down in international treaties and conventions must never be violated in the name of religious and cultural traditions and that religious movements must never place themselves above human rights.
5. It also deplores the flagrant contradictions between the family codes and the principles governing the European Convention of Human Rights.
6. It is particularly worrying that the illiteracy rate among Maghrebi women is still very high, and that adolescent women are systematically isolated in rural areas. It is also regrettable that a high proportion of women drop out of secondary schooling.
7. In Maghrebi countries, as in many other countries, the small percentage of women on the labour market stems from discrimination on the grounds of sex.
8. The Assembly considers that women must be able to control their own identities, independently of religions, traditions and cultures, and that their clothing, values, lifestyles and habits must be strictly a matter of personal preference.
9. The Assembly also considers that procreation should normally be a matter for decision between a couple and in case of disagreement between partners, the final decision will be for the woman. It also notes that women’s reproductive functions are unfortunately still often controlled by the family, domestic legislation and/or religious heads, and that furthermore the majority of people in positions of responsibility are men.
10. The Assembly considers that Maghrebi immigrants must be informed of the existing laws in the host country, in particular those that prohibit all forms of discrimination against women, and of the need to obey these laws, on pain of expulsion.
11. The Assembly considers it inconceivable that, from one day to the next, a woman who has shared a man’s life for many years can find herself repudiated and with no roof over her head.
12. The Assembly therefore asks governments of member states to:
i. revise the bilateral conventions in order to guarante the principles included in the European Convention of Human Rights;
ii. authorise consulates to draw up individual visas for women even if their passport has been drawn up for the whole family;
iii. grant individual residence permits for women;
iv. ensure equality of treatment in respect of applications for work and residence permits and improve immigrants’ legal status.
13. The Assembly invites the governments of the Maghreb countries to:
i. amend the family code in order to establish real equality between women and men and grant women their own genuine legal status and to make it in conformity with the international treaties and conventions which are in force;
ii. abolish the practices of repudiation and polygamy which are a violation of human dignity;
iii. enable women to acquire the same inheritance rights as men;
iv. grant women the same entitlement to file for divorce as men;
v. guarantee the right to work, the right to education, the right of access to decision-making bodies, and the right to perform public duties;
vi. apply international conventions guaranteeing equality of treatment between women and men;
vii. promote the role of women in economic and social life;
viii. ensure women have adequate access to vocational training;
ix. make it possible for women to reconcile family life with a career;
x. ensure that women have free access to financial instruments and borrowing facilities;
xi. ensure that women have access to reproductive health services and to introduce a family planning system;
xii. raise media awareness so that immigrants receive less adverse publicity.
14. The Assembly asks the national parliaments of member states to invite political parties to:
i. ensure that the immigrant population is represented in parliaments, making sure that women are equally represented;
ii. ensure gender-balanced representation of immigrant communities on municipal electoral lists.
II. Explanatory memorandum by Ms Roudy
Introduction
1. The Council of Europe must give attention to the changing status and the conditions of women in the Maghreb, because North Africa is very close to Europe and the large number of immigrants is creating integration problems for these communities. The fact is that we value the immigrant workforce and they, for their part, must accept and abide by our laws.
2. Although we have duties to immigrant communities and are willing to give them rights, there has to be an element of reciprocity. We cannot, in the name of respect for cultural traditions, separate the public from the private sphere and allow women of immigrant origin to be denied equal rights with men.
3. It is important to note that, in most cultures, women are used to be placed at the back by systems based on gender differentiation which assign very often men most of the social, economic, political and social privileges – in one word, the power. With women being limited to the “private” sphere (and by extension: education, health, social affairs), men reserve for themselves the noble “public” sphere of activities. This division is clearly manifested in Maghrebi countries.
4. Nonetheless, there has been some improvement in the situation of North African women in recent decades. Since they gained their independence in the 1960s, the North African countries have adopted legislation to improve women’s lot. Tunisian and Moroccan laws recognize equal rights to women and men and in these countries there is no legal discrimination between sexes. The Algerian Constitution of 1966 also grants equal rights to women and men. But even with the existence of these texts the reality is different.
5. The rapporteur visited the Maghreb from 9 to 13 March (cf. programme of the visit in Appendix 1), in order to gain a better insight into the situation. Unfortunately, the visit was too short to enable her to investigate all the issues, and to make a proper assessment of the gap between government rhetoric and the reality on the ground. She was able to see, however, that there are still huge disparities between the social classes, and that these are a source of discontent and distress.
6. In the course of her visit, the rapporteur observed that, despite government support for the advancement of women, religion is still a very powerful force on the status of women.
7. This report is intended as a first step, therefore, in the hope that there will be some kind of follow-up to gauge the progress made. The table in Appendix 2 should serve as a basis for the next stage.
8. During her visit, the rapporteur noted that North African women, particularly in Algeria and Morocco, are still confined by their respective family codes in a legal ghetto that is totally at odds with international conventions. It is possible to say that North African societies are torn between the modern world and age-old customs and this makes their attitudes towards women ambiguous. Women’s place in society and in people’s thinking remains an anachronism because the basic principle remains unchangeable that women depend on men. This has led to an alarming rise of a kind of schizophrenia among women, as observed by the rapporteur herself in various encounters.
9. Even in Tunisia and Morocco, where there have been considerable advances in women’s rights, through the impetus and encouragement of President Bourguiba, certain inequalities between men and women still apply. North African women inherit only half what a man is due and in Morocco and Algeria, repudiation and polygamy are still allowed.
10. In Algeria, despite the principle of equality between women and men included in the 1966 Constitution, the Family Code adopted in 1984 maintains their inferior position and institutionalises women’s, life-long legal minority.
11. During the last years, various Moroccan and Algerian governments have attempted to reform the Family Code but to no avail.
12. North African women living in Europe are no better off than those in their countries of origin because most Council of Europe member states have bilateral agreements under which foreigners retain the personal legal status they had in their country of origin by means of bilateral agreements. As a result Maghrebi women in Europe suffer unequal treatment.
13. Furthermore, the media portray immigrant communities not always in objective lights.
I. The situation in the countries of origin
A. Algeria
14. Algeria’s fundamental laws do not contain any discriminatory provisions based on gender. Article 29 of the Constitution of 1966 provides for equality of citizens before the law, “without discrimination based on birth, race, sex, opinion or any personal or social circumstance”. Algeria has also ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 18 December 1979.
15. Women have unrestricted access to health services, on an equal footing with men, as well as family planning advice. Abortion, on the other hand, is still severely punished by the law.
16. Article 53 of the Constitution also guarantees equal access for both sexes to free, compulsory education up to the age of 14. It is important to note that more and more young girls are staying on at school, but afterwards, most of them do not have a professional activity and stay at home to bring up their children but in a manner that is more modern and more open. In the past women have always been active in the background in opposing the fundamentalists who blocked their access to education and employment.
17. There are also differences between urban and rural areas, and in particular discrimination at school between young girls and young boys, as well as a very high level of illiteracy among adults, especially women. School attendance figures published in a survey carried out by the Ministry of Health and Population in the third quarter of 1996 confirmed this diagnosis. The survey revealed that only 72% of girls complete compulsory schooling (the “first cycle”) compared with 86% of boys. There is also more illiteracy among girls than boys. 37.8% of girls between the ages of 15 and 24 cannot read or write compared with 13.8% of boys. 53% of all women are illiterate compared with 28 to 30% of men.
18. The Family Code, adopted on 9 June 1984, put the married woman under her husband’s guardianship. Women may occupy some of the highest positions in the management of affairs of state but may have to endure polygamy and repudiation.
19. Women are trapped within their families by filiations. They are under the authority of their fathers, or else of their matrimonial guardians (brothers, uncles, etc.). Then, through marriage, they come under the authority of their husbands, who must see to their needs but have complete control over their lives. The wife’s duty to obey the husband, as set out in Article 39 of the Family Code, makes it possible, for example, for a husband to prevent his wife from working. Article 39 states that “a wife shall obey her husband and show him the respect due to the head of the family…”
20. Algerian women are not free at any age to agree on their own to marriage. Acceptance of a marriage proposal is subject to the consent of the woman’s matrimonial guardian – that is, her closest male relative. Furthermore, a Muslim woman is not allowed to marry a non-Muslim man although a Muslim man may marry a non-Muslim woman.
21. There is no concept of community of property between spouses, and separation of goods is de facto and de jure. In theory women can manage their property independently without interference from husband, father or brother. The civil code sets the age of civil liability at 19 years of age, from which point onwards young women are entitled to enter into civil or commercial contracts.
22. It is easy for the man to dissolve a marriage. He can repudiate his wife at any time, and is allowed to have up to four wives if he has the financial means. In contrast, it is difficult for women to obtain a divorce. They must provide detailed evidence of their husbands’ offences or buy their freedom by handing over a sum of money.
23. Divorce puts women in a disastrous position, financially and otherwise. This is where the Family Code is most harmful and unfair to women. The marital home goes to the man after a divorce even if the mother is given custody of the children. Women who try to go back to their father’s home with their children are generally rejected. If they have no other guardian to look after them, they have the right to a house provided by their former husband only if he can afford it. Very often the woman does not receive any maintenance allowance. She has no prospect of finding a job because she has no training or experience, a problem compounded by the fact that her right to education and employment is subject to the consent of her father or matrimonial guardian and then of her husband. This explains why, since 1984, thousands of women with children have found themselves on the streets with no roof over their heads, no income, and no way out of the situation.
24. Under Article 55 of the Algerian Constitution, everyone has the right to work. Numerous articles of Law 90-11 of 21 April 1990 on employment and the employment hierarchy prohibit discrimination in theory. The right to work, enshrined in the Constitution, is, however, undermined by husbands’ powers to prevent their wives from working and there is a striking difference between the number of men and women in employment. Of the several million women who are old enough to work, only about 610,000 are actually gainfully employed (13.2% of the potential female labour force). For economic as well as sociological reasons (the overall unemployment rate is approaching 30%), women account for less than 5% of the working population. In addition, female employment rates vary a great deal from region to region, with a very clear disparity between town and country.
25. Working women are mostly teachers (they occupy 38% of teaching posts), health care workers (44.5% of posts), administrative employees (18%) and, to a lesser degree, middle managers (11.8%) or senior managers (7.2%). There are very few women in industry (11%), agriculture (3.8%) or commerce (4.6%) and practically no women in the police and armed forces.
26. In addition, women employees are more at risk of dismissal because of biased interpretation of the legislation. The legislation sets out the following order of dismissal: first the oldest and least efficient workers, second the workers with the least dependants, third those workers with protected or priority jobs. Women often find themselves in the second category. If they are single they are dependent on their fathers and if they are married they are depending of their husbands, who are expected to see to their upkeep under Article 37 of the Family Code.
27. Article 8 of the Code deals with polygamy and states that if existing wives do not agree to the husband marrying again, they may ask for a divorce. The wives’ consent to a husband’s remarrying is not an absolute requirement. Husbands are merely required to inform their wives. Wives are protected from polygamy in theory but in practice they cannot prevent their husbands from marrying other women. Furthermore, in cases of polygamy, women often prefer to continue to live in the marital home no matter how their husband behaves, since poverty is the alternative.
28. Fathers have sole guardianship of children. Guardianship can only be exercised by the mother if the father dies. Even in the event of divorce and, even if custody of the children is granted to the mother, it is still the father who is their legal guardian. As we shall see later, this provision can have dramatic consequences if the father disappears without trace.
29. When a husband dies and there are descendants, widows are entitled only to an eighth of what their husbands leave whereas widowers are entitled to a quarter of their wife’s estate. The inheritances rule is that a male heir’s share of the estate is double a female heir’s.
30. Rather than protecting women, the Family Code subjects them to every possible form of uncertainty. It is entirely at odds with the Algerian Constitution, which guarantees equal rights to women and men, and with the fundamental rights guaranteed in international instruments. Women’s rights are at total variance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination towards Women, which Algeria signed and ratified in 1996.
31. Many women associations are fighting for the abrogation of the Family Code. An important personality said to the rapporteur that only an order decided by the President could abrogate this Code as decided in 1944 in France by General de Gaulle concerning the vote of the French women.
32. Women have never had anything more than an symbolic role in Algeria’s governments. Although they played an active part in the struggle for liberation, women were often relegated to second plan if they were influential and to domestic tasks if they were not. As a result they have not been able to take any direct action at government level in order to have the Family Code amended. As can be seen from the table in the appendix, there are no women in the government.
33. It is a reason why women’s associations are actively militating for the repeal of the Family Code. In the social and cultural sphere, they are pressing, among other things, for compulsory education for girls to be extended to 18 years of age, for schools to be made co-educational, for the marriage age to be raised, for abortion to be legalised, for women to have equal employment rights and pay, for the situation of rural women to be improved and for legal assistance to be available to women in distress (women who have been repudiated, physically abused, etc.).
34. Not only are women discriminated against in law, their situation has deteriorated since the outbreak of armed conflict in the country in 1992. The fundamentalists have declared war on women and they use all the means at their disposal including intimidation, beatings, vitriol attacks and house-burning.
35. Algerian women are also the chief victims of terrorism. In the last nine years, armed groups acting under all manner of names have been guilty of huge violations of fundamental human rights including murder, indiscriminate attacks, abduction and rape of women, and massacres of civilian families or even whole villages. Some 3,500 girls and women have been raped by terrorist groups.
36. Another problem that has been highlighted recently is that of the wives of men who have disappeared. The National Association of Families of “the Disappeared” (ANFD) has recorded more than 3,500 cases of people who have been taken away forcibly and have never reappeared. The hundreds of eye-witness reports by families leave no doubt as to the scale of the disappearances and the involvement of the various security forces and militia groups in the abductions and arrests of people who have vanished without trace. The women suffer not only because of the disappearance of loved ones but also because of the Family Code.
37. In Algeria, thousands of women are in the cruelly paradoxical predicament of being, legally, still married but de facto widowed – however clearly each of the two statuses that the wives of the disappeared may claim is defined in law. Disappearances like those suffered by the Algerian women who belong to the ANFD have dramatic consequences not only for the wives but also for their children. For the wives, obtaining a death certificate is a long and costly process which may take up to four years in times of war or exceptional circumstances. During peace time, judges are authorised to set another waiting period after the four years have expired. It is extremely difficult for the wives of the disappeared to obtain a death certificate because the authorities, who can be presumed to be to blame for their husbands’ disappearances, deny all responsibility and refuse to issue any certificate of disappearance. These women officialdom refuses to recognise as widows have to fight for years for their elementary rights.
38. Throughout this period women are unable to claim divorcee status despite suffering all its disadvantages, among them being denied their share of the husband’s estate (since an estate cannot pass to the heirs until the spouse is proved to be dead), being denied guardianship of under-age children and being prohibited de facto from divorcing. This legal deprivation of rights adversely affects the care, education and upkeep of the children, which require large amounts of money which most of the wives do not have. They cannot legally stand in for their children’s father when it comes to giving permission for them to be sent abroad for health care or education.
39. Algerian girls and women living in Europe, including those with the nationality of a European country, may nevertheless be subject to the Algerian Family Code.
40. It must be pointed out in this context, however, that according to the results of a survey conducted at the request of “Collectif 95 – Maghreb Egalité” in November 2000 among a representative sample of the Algerian population in order to determine the extent of support for the principle of equality between women and men, women are regarded as strong rivals on the labour market. Nevertheless, the vast majority of the population would still be willing to elect a woman mayor or member of parliament, although they would be more reluctant to elect a women president. The survey findings also showed that an overwhelming majority of the population would be in favour of allowing a divorced woman to remain in the marital home with her children. Concerning the question of who has custody of the children after divorce, however, 4 out of 10 Algerians think both parents should have equal custody whereas 6 out of 10 think mothers who remarry should retain custody of their children.
B. Morocco
41. The position and role of women in Moroccan society have been an issue for decades. Recently, however, this problem has become so topical and has taken on such proportions that it is a matter of concern for not only the public authorities but also all political bodies and civil society. It is a case of balancing authenticity and modernity.
42. Moroccan women suffer various forms of discrimination, both legal and cultural, because their legal status is governed by the Mudawana or Personal Status Code, which is based on Muslim law. The determining factor in this personal status is not the nationality but rather the religion of the individual concerned.
43. On the occasion of the 51st anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, His Majesty King Mohammed VI declared that he was committed to focusing on the promotion of women as a key issue. This move, which is the result of intensive campaigning by women, should be an advantage for the implementation of a strategy in favour of women’s integration.
44. In the course of her visit, the rapporteur was informed about a bill to increase the number of women in parliament. This bill, which is the first of its kind, proposes drawing up a parallel list composed mainly of female candidates, and would increase the proportion of women in Parliament to 10%. It is still being debated and if adopted, would constitute a major step forward for the political representation of women in Morocco.
45. It is to be noted in this context that in 1998, a year after the left-wing opposition party came to power, a strategy was proposed for including women in the development process. The proposal included a revision of the Mudawana, the Family Code based on Islamic Sharia law. The intention was to ban polygamy, raise the marriageable age for women from 15 to 18 and do away with repudiation. The hostile reaction of some government members and conservatives forced the government to abandon this project.
46. Following this Declaration, a special committee was set up to consider making possible changes to the law. The action plan (“Khouta”) launched to that end contains 215 paragraphs, which focus on four main themes:
- schooling and combatting illiteracy in rural areas
- reproductive health
- combatting poverty and stepping up the role of women as an economic factor
- improving women’s legal and political status.
47. 14 of the 215 paragraphs are concerned with amending articles of the Family Code (Mudawana), ie:
- raising the minimum age for marriage from 15 to 18, in accordance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child ratified by Morocco in June 1993;
- making it possible for girls who have reached their majority to choose their husband and marry without the consent of their matrimonial tutor;
- legalising divorce and prohibiting repudiation;
- prohibiting on polygamy.
48. However, although it had been thought that the international instruments ratified by Morocco might trigger a series of reforms, no developments have been recorded since the committee was set up.
49. The rapporteur realised from various interviews that most of the women she spoke to had serious doubts about the effectiveness of the committee’s work and believed that only strong action, in the form of a statutory instrument, for example, could bring about an improvement in the situation.
50. Promotion of women’s rights calls for not only legislative and regulatory measures but also action in the education sphere. Accordingly, one priority should be to combat illiteracy since the first major achievement would be to eradicate ignorance even if the literacy rate of the Moroccan women passed from 16% to 31% between 1980 and 1995.
51. There are encouraging signs, however, that attitudes towards polygamy are changing. The rate of polygamy itself is declining, not, however, as a result of changing attitudes but largely due to the state of the economy, insofar as the Koran explicitly states that men may have more than one wife only providing they are able to provide, financially, for all their wives equally, which in fact is practically impossible.
52. Concerning divorce, which is one of the areas where there are calls for change, the situation at present is that divorce may take one of three forms: repudiation, at the husband’s request, divorce, which may be requested by the woman but is rarely granted, and divorce with compensation, in which case a woman is able to “buy back” her freedom in return for a certain sum of money.
53. In Morocco, the law punishes adultery while recognising extenuating circumstances for any wronged husbands who decide to take the law into their own hands. If a husband kills his unfaithful wife, for example, his sentence will be reduced to 1 to 5 years’ imprisonment. No such arrangement applies to a woman who kills her unfaithful husband, however.
54. As regards abortion, this is a serious offence, punishable by 6 months’ to 2 years’ imprisonment and a fine ranging from 120 to 500 dirhams.
55. Another contradiction arises from the fact that a Muslim woman is not allowed to marry a non-Muslim man, whereas there is nothing to prevent a Muslim man from marrying a non-Muslim woman.
56. As we can see, therefore, the legal status of women is still governed by the contradictions that exist between the Constitution and the texts of the Mudawana. Whereas all texts in the economic and political sphere are totally secular, those governing the status of women and family relations are based on traditional Muslim law and therefore regard women as legally inferior. Even though reforms have been carried out, there are still a number of negative aspects based on a patriarchal and conservative approach to the family.
57. For some Moroccan associations of women, the root of all their evils and cause of all their problems within Moroccan society is the Mudawana which constitutes a set of very discriminatory laws governing women’s lives within their families.
58. Reading the Mudawana reveals blatant discrimination from beginning to end. Although woman has been a major contributing factor with regard to the development of the Moroccan economy, they still have the abnormal status of minors. It is still said, for example, that women must obey their husbands and that husbands have the right to control their wives’ family visits.
59. As a result of all these texts, women are cast in chains, rejected, repudiated and disparaged. It is an absolute crime for us that a woman can be thrown out of their marital home after repudiation and pushed, if they have no financial means of their own, into a life of prostitution, begging or crime.
60. With regard to guardianship, divorced women are not allowed to open an account in their children’s name without the prior consent of their former husband. Even once the account has been opened, the woman has no access to the money.
61. In 1977 Morocco ratified the Covenant on Civil and Political rights, Article 3 of which establishes equality between women and men and Article 23.4 of which provides for equality of rights and responsibilities of spouses as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
C. Tunisia
62. Tunisian society is different from the Algerian and the Moroccan societies. It has undergone profound structural changes. Since independence, the lot of women in Tunisia has improved substantially. Polygamy and repudiation are forbidden.
63. The Personal Status Code, adopted under President Bourguiba, granted women numerous rights which they had not had before. Tunisian law guarantees equal rights for women and men, and there is now practically no discrimination between the sexes in legal terms. Article 6 of the Constitution provides that “all citizens have the same rights and the same duties” and that “they are equal before the law”. Articles 20 and 21 provide that women have the right to vote and are eligible for election.
64. As a result of these structural changes, female illiteracy rates have increased from 32% to 55% between 1980 and 1955, the numbers of women attending university and taking up work have grown and grown. Nowadays all Tunisian girls go to school and women have an ever increasing role in industry and the public services. Thanks to the impact of the modern media they live in another cultural world.
65. According to information provided by members of the Tunisian Chamber of Deputies, women account for about 25% of judges, 11% of members of parliament, 20% of local government officials and 56% of university students. 89% of girls attend school.
66. A number of factors have made it possible to secure women’s rights in Tunisia, among them the head of state’s determination, the existence of systems enabling women’s rights to be put into practice, and the strong desire of women themselves to be able to exercise their rights. In 1993 the Personal Status Code was amended and now stipulates that spouses must treat each other kindly and must both help run the household and manage matters relating to the children.
67. The other amendments to the Code concerned the need for maternal consent for the marriage of under-age daughters, maternal involvement in the management of matters relating to the children, and the right of married under-age daughters to manage their own private life and affairs.
68. Tunisian women probably enjoy the most liberal status in the Muslim world. Their emancipation is mainly the result of the ground-breaking decisions taken by President Bourguiba from the end of the 1950s onwards, notably with regard to divorce, with the creation of a fund to ensure that divorced wives and their children receive maintenance. It was enhanced by President Ben Ali who, during his first term of office, brought women even more firmly into public and economic life. There was even a campaign against wearing the veil in the early 1990s.
69. Tunisia has also developed a family planning strategy, as can be seen from the table in Appendix 2 which shows that 50% of women use contraception.
70. The emphasis, in fact, has been on improving basic infrastructures which offer a wide variety of preventive and curative care to the women who attend the centres.
71. In addition, the appointment of two women ministers (the Ministry of Women’s and Family Affairs and the Ministry of Vocational Training and Employment) and three women state secretaries shows that there is a commitment to making it easier for women to accede to senior posts. Between 1989 and 1999, for example, the proportion of women in the Chamber of Deputies, where a woman was elected Vice-Chair, rose from 4.3% to 11.5%.
72. A National Council for Women and the Family was also set up in 1992 under the auspices of the Ministry of Women’s and Family Affairs. Since 1997, the Council has set up three commissions to monitor the image of women in the media and to ensure that equal-opportunities legislation is enforced and implemented.
73. It should also be emphasised that women’s associations are highly active. By way of example, the rapporteur wishes to cite an initiative by a Tunisian women’s association which has set up training centres for Tunisian women. These training centres have notably enabled some young women to obtain micro-loans to set up small businesses, usually in the craft sector, or to teach other women so that they in turn can travel to rural areas and educate women and girls about their rights.
74. Nonetheless, further effort has to be made because gains are never permanent and the aim of achieving total equality for women still comes up against deep-seated antagonisms. Among Tunisian men, who, in the space of two generations, have seen women escape from domestic slavery into salaried employment with full exposure to modern society, there are still festering pockets of resistance.
75. On the legal front, women’s final struggle relates to inheritance. Under Muslim law women inherit half the share due to men. Even President Bourguiba did not dare to tamper with this rule enshrined in the Koran, which states explicitly that “Allah (thus) directs you as regards your children’s (inheritance): to the male, a portion equal to that of two females.” Today, Tunisian feminists are demanding – with petitions organised by the Association of Democratic Women to support their case - that equality must also apply in this area. It should be noted that since 1998 spouses may marry under the community property rule which establishes equality between spouses in respect of property. Death marks the end of such equality, however, with women seen as inferior to men.
76. Another persistent problem is domestic violence. According to women’s rights activists, impunity prevails because the police refuse to investigate and the courts turn a blind eye, regarding violence within families as a strictly private affair.
77. The economic crisis that the country has been undergoing for more than a decade has led to an acute awareness of the necessity for women to participate to the financial support of the household. However, there is still much more resistance within the family circle than within society as a whole. Men are quite happy to see their neighbour’s wife working but not their own. Social and cultural change inevitably means that the notion of working women is increasingly accepted and even actively promoted. However, changes in attitudes are still slow. The influence of old habits, the misinterpreted legacy of Islam and a patriarchal outlook mean that the position of women in society is neglected.
II. Situation of Maghrebi women’s situation in Europe
A. In the private realm
78. Further to the bilateral treaties existing between the countries of origin and the host countries, the Family Codes which are in force in Algeria and Morocco are applied to Maghrebi women in Europe. Girls and women living in Europe, including those with the nationality of a European country, may be subject to a foreign code of personal status as a result of agreements on applicability of the law of the country of origin. The effects of applying these family codes can be seen in the use of the summary form of divorce known as repudiation, in arranged marriages and in abductions of children and honour killings. There is currently a resurgence in arranged marriages.
79. A large number of Algerian women are governed by the Algerian Family Code even if they live in Europe. This keeps them in a position of inferiority to their husbands, their fathers or their matrimonial guardians. It should be said that the female members of the Algerian parliament are prepared to work with migrant women living in Europe to try to improve their situation and help them integrate into their host country.
80. Two striking examples can be given in this context:
81. - The first is an Algerian woman who married in 1981 and lived with her husband in Lyon, France. She did not have a job and her husband supported the family. They had three children, now aged 18, 16 and 13. In 1989, after marital tensions, they temporarily separated and after the summer holidays, in September 1989, the husband failed to return to the marital home. The wife was sent a unilateral divorce order which her husband had obtained from the Algiers Court on 25 July 1989. She had never been summoned to appear in the proceedings and it was only from the order that she learnt she had been granted a maintenance allowance of 100 French francs per child per year.
82. - The second is that of a woman of 52 who has been living in France for 30 years. Her husband is retired. The couple separated after breakdown of the relationship and physical violence. The wife obtained a French court order in January 1997 under which her husband was to pay 3,800 francs per month for the children’s upkeep and upbringing. After this she filed for a divorce in France but her husband returned to Algeria, took the case to the Bejaïa court and obtained a divorce in one week. Such divorce orders are enforceable in France by exequatur, a procedure in which the French courts are requested to issue an order making a judgment delivered abroad applicable in France. In this case, it was the judgment delivered in Algeria that applied because it was delivered before the French judgment had become enforceable. The legal proceedings became a race against the clock to see which party obtained judgment faster. The Algerian decision favoured the husband and the wife was denied her French rights.
83. One third of the Tunisians living in France are women and their main problem is integrating without abandoning their roots.
84. There have been 96 cases of repudiation of Moroccan women in Belgium. Until 1998 the word “repudiated” was even added to these women’s identity documents.
85. One of the main problems for North African women living in Europe is lack of education programmes for children and the family-reunion issue. Many European laws do not recognise immigrant families’ right to family reunion. There are many cases of mothers being separated from their children and they have no means of defending themselves in court. It is essential therefore to amend family law in these countries.
B. In the economic sphere
86. One of the main problems that North African women encounter is unemployment. Poor command of the host country’s language and poor qualifications partly explain North African women’s difficulty in finding jobs. Even those of them who are highly skilled and qualified have difficulties to find employment because of their origins. At the same age and with the same qualifications as their European counterparts, young North African immigrant women are likelier to be unemployed. Those who take the host country’s nationality have a slight advantage because their origins are less obvious. North African women who have not attended school in the host country have practically no chance of finding a job. If they succeed in finding a job, coming to Europe often means - in view of current conditions on the labour market - that they have to accept a steep permanent drop in employment status. Not being able to find a job prevents any kind of personal development.
87. Algerian nationals often have dual nationality. However, it has been found that Franco-Algerian bi-nationals are not protected by France if political persecuted in Algeria because neither country recognises the other nationality.
88. North Africans often live in social housing in industrial or disadvantaged areas. There is no policy to help these people integrate.
Conclusions
89. The rapporteur wishes to emphasise once again the importance of this report and the need for the Council of Europe to concern itself with the status of women, particularly in immigrant families, a status which, as we have just seen, is creating conflict owing to differences in culture and customs.
90. She therefore considers that only very strong pressure from the international community can move things forward. She also believes that more should be done to make governments and consulates aware of these issues and to remind North African nationals of the need, on pain of expulsion, to observe existing laws in the host countries, thereby avoiding a split between the private and public sphere.
91. In the light of the above, it would seem essential to ask the governments of Maghreb countries to:
- revise family codes to guarantee that women have equal rights with men. Support associations and politicians calling for reform of family codes;
- take steps to introduce a family planning system;
- provide social integration programmes and support structures;
- set up literacy centres;
- encourage women to have more access to the civil service;
- conduct awareness drives to inform immigrant women of their rights and to create information;
- raise media awareness so that immigrants receive less consistently adverse publicity.
92. The Assembly asks the governments of member states to:
- see to it that the laws of the country of residence are applied in accordance with private international law;
- improve immigrants’ legal status;
- introduce dual nationality ;
- allow foreigners to be employed as civil servants;
93. The Assembly asks the national parliaments of the member states to invite the political parties to:
- ensure that the immigrant population is represented in parliament, making sure that women are equally represented;
- ensure gender-balanced representation of immigrant communities on municipal electoral lists.
Annexe 1
Programme of the visit by Ms Roudy (France, SOC) to Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco in preparation for the report on the situation of Maghrebi women
Saturday, 9 March 2002
1.45 pm Arrival in Algiers and welcome at the airport by Ms K. MESSAOUDI, MP in the National Popular Assembly (APN)
3 pm Meeting organised by women parliamentarians with female representatives of civil society, at the APN headquarters
8 pm Working dinner given by women parliamentarians at Hotel “El-Djazaïr”
Sunday, 10 March 2002
8.30-9.15 am Meeting with Mr ZIARI, Minister in charge of Foreign Affairs and the International Community abroad
9.30-10 am Visit to the “DARNA” centre for women in distress
11.20 am Departure for Tunis
12.30 pm Arrival in Tunis and transfer to the Hilton Hotel
3.30 pm Depart hotel
4 pm Visit to the Carthage Museum
Visit to Sidi Bou Saïd
Monday, 11 March 2002
8.30 am Depart hotel
9 am Meeting with the Ms Boutheina Gribaa, Director of the Women’s Research, Studies and Information Centre (CREDDIF)
10 am Meeting with Ms Saïda Agrebi, Chairperson of the Tunisian Mothers’ Association (ATM)
11 am Meeting with Ms Naziha Ben Yedder, Minister of Women’s and Family Affairs
12 pm Meeting with Ms Chadija Boukchine, Second Vice-Chair of the Chamber of Deputies and President of the National Union of Tunisian Women (UNFT)
3.30 pm Visit to the “Sadika Keskes” centre
5 pm Meeting with Ms Leïla Khayat, President of the National Chamber of Women Business Leaders (CNFCE)
6.30 pm Meeting with Ms Abdel Yaoued, President of the Tunisian Association of Women Democrats (Hilton Hotel)
Tuesday, 12 March 2002
7 am Depart hotel for airport
10.10 am Arrival in Casablanca, Morocco
Welcome by Ms B. SQALLI, Socialist MP
12 pm Ligue Démocratique pour les Droits de la Femme (LDDF)
12.30 pm Lunch at the hotel
3 pm Meeting with Ms B. SQALLI and Ms F. BELMOUDEN,
Socialist MPs
4 pm Meeting with NGOs: Democratic Association of Women of Morocco, Association of Feminist Hope, Association of the Union of Women’s Labour and JOSSOUR
5 pm Meeting with Mr A. RADI, Speaker of the House of Representatives
6 pm Meeting with Ms N. CHEKROUNI, Minister in charge of women’s issues
Wednesday, 13 March 2002
9 am Departure for Casablanca
10 am Visit to the Hassan II Mosque
10.30 am Departure to Mohamed V airport
12 pm Departure of the delegation
Annexe 2
Extract of the newspaper “Le Monde” of Tuesday, 14 March 2000
The steep birth rate decline in the Maghreb is the result of later marriage. Better education and wider use of contraception are further factors in births being halved in the last 30 years.
In 30 years, birth rate has fallen steeply in the Maghreb countries (Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia) according to a February 2002 report by CEPED (France’s centre for population and development research). The author of the report, Aziz Ajbilou, who teaches at INSEA (the National Institute for Statistics and Applied Economics, Rabat), states that the number of children per woman, around 7 in the early 1960s, had fallen to 3 by the mid-1990s, while crude birth rate for the same period fell from 50 births per 1,000 population to 25.
The trend began in Tunisia, with the introduction of a family planning programme in 1966. Strong political commitment to improving women’s status (by stepping up educational provision and creating employment opportunities) has led to fertility levels nearing 2 children per woman, particularly in towns and cities.
Morocco has gone the same way as Tunisia but lagging a few years behind, even though measures making contraception more freely available were introduced as early as 1966. The total fertility rate is now around 3 children per woman (2.3 in urban areas, 4.1 in rural areas).
CONTRACEPTION
Algeria, which was initially hesitant about fertility control, viewing development as the best form of contraception, finally introduced a national programme to control population growth in the early 1980s.
As a result women’s contraception behaviour has greatly evolved since the 1960s, when only around 8% of women used contraception. Today more than half of married women use it. Ajbilou sees the major factor as being women’s greater emancipation. He points in particular to a much more educated female population, resulting in changed attitudes to marriage and more ambition, so that the desire to go out to work now competes with having children.
According to Unesco statistics, literacy among women rose, in Algeria, from 24% in 1980 to 49% in 1995, in Tunisia from 32% to 55% in the same period, and in Morocco from 16% to 31%.
At the same time the number of women with jobs was also rising: in 1998 33% of women aged 15 and over were in employment.
Predictably, this emancipation has resulted in later first marriage, and this in itself is a key factor in lowering of the birth rate. Ajbilou sees later marriage as closely connected with weakening of the traditional cultural model. All three countries’ contact with Western culture has altered family size and family structure, he says. Finding a marriage partner is now the couple’s business, not the family’s.
Ajbilou regards later marriage as one of the most spectacular demographic changes in the region. Until recently, very early marriage was a feature of the Maghreb, particularly for women. Now the average marriage age for women is 26 and for men 28.
So although marriage in the Maghreb remains the norm - in the 45-49 age group only a little over 4% are single - the proportion of people who never marry (age 50 and above) is set to rise in the years ahead, with the arrival of generations affected by the drastic changes in the first-marriage pattern.
YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT
Surveys and censuses in the Maghreb in the last 30 years show that, in the 1960s, nearly all women in the 30-34 age group were married. Among men, the number of unmarried in the 30-34 age group was 5.8% in Algeria (1970), 8.2% in Morocco (1960) and 16.2% in Tunisia (1966). 30 years on, the percentage of single people in that age group is much larger, everywhere exceeding 30% for men and 15% for women.
The urban situation suggests that numbers never marrying will rise. The proportion of unmarried urban women aged 30 to 34 was 18.1% in Tunisia (1994), 22.2% in Morocco (1994) and 18.2% in Algeria (1992). Figures are even higher for urban males: in all three countries, over 35% of urban men aged 30 to 34 were single.
However, the better-educated female population and disruption of the traditional family pattern are not the sole factors in the long-term trend away from marriage. High unemployment, particularly among young people, also comes into it: in Morocco, according to the national statistics office, the rate is 35% for the 15-24 age group, compared with 26% for the 25-34 age group and overall unemployment of 17%.
The current housing shortage in the country, with large-scale population movement into the towns and cities, is a another contributory factor.
LARONCHE MARTINE
Annexe 3
Table of statistics
|
Contra-ception |
Access to abortion |
Secondary education |
Women |
Illiteracy rate |
Access to employment |
Parliamentarians |
Government |
Managerial posts | ||
Teachers |
Lecturers | |||||||||
Algeria |
52 % |
No |
48 % |
38 % |
-- |
50 % |
24 % |
3 |
-- |
7,2 |
Morocco |
50 % |
No |
42 % |
31 % |
-- |
53 % |
30 % |
2 |
-- |
6 |
Tunisia |
60 % |
Yes |
48 % |
38 % |
26 % |
42 % |
29 % |
12 |
3 |
9 |
During the last thirty years, the fertility rate has considerably decreased in the Maghrebi countries as a result of the emancipation of women : improvement of the level of education, entry in the working world, birth control, decrease of the early unions.
- The number of children was of 7 at the beginning of the sixties and of 3 in the middle of the nineties.
- The literacy rate of women passed from 24% to 49% between 1980 and 1995 in Algeria, from 32% to 55 % in Tunisia and from 16% to 31% in Morocco during the same period.
- In the meantime, more women are working and the activity rate in the Moroccan female population aged 15 or more was more than 33 % in 1998.
- This emancipation movement is linked with a decrease of the age of marriage. Nowadays, women are getting married later, generally when they are 26 years old.
(Source: report by the Fench Centre on population, February 2000, author: Mr Aziz Ajbilou, Professor to the National Institute of Statistics and Applied Economy, Rabat).
Reporting committee: Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men.
Reference to committee: Doc 9092 and Reference No. 2617 of 22 May 2001.
Draft resolution unanimously adopted by the committee on 7 June 2002.
Members of the committee: Mrs Err (Chairperson), Mrs Aguiar (1st Vice-Chairperson), Mrs Keltošová (2nd Vice-Chairperson), Mrs Mikutiene (3rd Vice-Chairperson), Ms Anastassova, Mr Bakulin, Mrs Biga-Friganovic, Mrs Castro, Mrs Cryer, Mr Dalgaard, Mrs Dromberg, Mrs Druziuk, Ms Fogler, Mrs Freitag (Mr Palis), Mrs Frimannsdóttir, Mr Gaburro, Mrs Granlund, Ms Gülek, Ms Hajiyeva, Ms Herczog, Mrs Hornikova, Mr Juri, Mrs Katseli, Mrs Kestelijn-Sierens, Mr Kiely, Ms Konglevoll, Mrs Kryemadhi, Mr Mahmood (Mr Etherington), Mr Olteanu (Mrs Cliveti), Mrs Paegle, Mrs Paoletti Tangheroni, Mrs Patarkalishvili, Ms Patereu, Ms Pericleous-Papadopoulos, Mr Pintat, Mr Popovski, Mr Pullicino Orlando, Mrs Roudy, Mrs Rupprecht, Mrs Wurm, Ms Yarygina, Mrs Zafferani, Mrs Zapfl-Helbling, Mrs Zwerver.
N.B. The names of the members who took part in the meeting are printed in italics.
Secretaries of the committee: Mrs Nollinger, Ms Kostenko.