World of the Liberated Woman of the East
Fairytale Tunisia, which to idle tourists seems the embodiment of Scheherazade's tales, stretches from the gentle coast of the Mediterranean Sea to the endless silence of the Sahara. And if you turn just a little off the worn tourist trail, you can catch a glimpse of how ordinary Tunisians live today.
Tunisia is a paradoxical world. As in every Muslim country, the laws of Islam are respected here. And at the same time, you are unlikely to see many women on the busy city streets of Hammamet, Monastir, or Sousse wearing traditional dark hijabs that cover their heads. The customs still reflect decades of French colonization. And the famous first president of independent Tunisia, Habib Bourguiba, graduated from the Sorbonne and was married to a Frenchwoman. So, do modern granddaughters of Berber women feel relaxed and free?
According to the constitution, women in Tunisia are allowed to study and work, to vote and be elected to the highest bodies of state power; they can demand divorce and have abortions. Today, women make up 12% of Tunisia's parliament. Since the 1970s, women have "broken into" the tourism business, the electronics industry, and finance. Suffice it to say that, for example, in the mass media they constitute 62%.
In the event of divorce, the husband is obliged to fully support the family. Wearing the hijab – the national "robe" with a headscarf – is legally prohibited at work. True, women's attitudes toward this issue are twofold: some still wear light headscarves or shawls on the street, while others, even despite the scorching sun and forty-degree heat, will never put anything on their heads.
Although polygamy is legally prohibited, disputes about the advisability of multiple wives continue to this day. Some believe that in the past it was justified by economic conditions. There were more women, and if her husband died, the fate of a widow with children was deplorable. The Koran says that every Muslim can have up to four wives, provided he is just with them in all things. True, it is also mentioned in passing that it is extremely difficult to ensure this equality. So everyone finds in the Koran what he wants.
A few words about marital justice. Recently, a prince from Saudi Arabia, the happy husband of eight wives, bought one of them an airplane. A couple of days later, he was forced to buy seven more airplanes – for each of the "offended" wives... The Tunisian women's press, by the way, hotly discussed this case.
Well, with princes everything is clear – the rich cry in their own way. But how does an ordinary, regular Tunisian family live?
Everyday life of the Tunisian "unit of society"
Fath is 29, Yasmin is 26. They have been married for six years and have two adorable little boys born a year apart. Fath works as a physical education teacher at a college; in the summer he does additional work at a travel agency, especially since he speaks English and Russian fluently (he studied in Donetsk). Yasmin is a home electrification manager. Tunisia is actively building, and people increasingly call her to their homes to discuss the layout and installation of electrical equipment from Schneider Electric, as well as various household appliances. She has a flexible work schedule, so she can spend more time with the children. The rest of the time, a specially hired woman looks after them.
Despite the fact that we are sitting in a cheap fast-food place and from the heat I feel myself gradually sticking to the plastic chair, Fath, in his strict business suit and dazzling white shirt, feels great. Yasmin is wearing a cream-sand trouser suit and a traditional headscarf covering her head from the top of her eyebrows to the edge of her chin. They smile at me politely and expectantly, and I begin asking questions about how ordinary Tunisian women live.
Fath smiles smugly: oh, they live well! For example, Tunisian "traffic cops" do not stop a woman behind the wheel – it's not allowed. A man in shorts has no right to enter a bank or other state institution, but a woman in a miniskirt – please! If spouses divorce, the house remains with the wife. In general, they live even too well. Yasmin is more reserved, but she also admits: yes, life is not bad. They both belong to the generation on which Habib Bourguiba's government placed its bet. It is they, thirty-year-olds, who received an excellent and free education, who must turn Tunisia into a paradise on earth. A paradise flexibly balancing between East and West...
In a quiet voice, Yasmin tells me how she graduated from college, and then her aunt, who knew the neighbors of Fath's parents, organized a celebration in honor of her grandson's circumcision. And at this celebration they met completely by chance (a flutter of fluffy eyelashes and a sly – or did it just seem to me? – look). Fath began to visit her brothers, and then they met again at another celebration... In short, three months later the question of marriage was settled. And neither Fath's excellent Russian nor Yasmin's "frankness" brings complete clarity: who, how, to whom, and when first spoke about the wedding? The elusive charm of Muslim love relationships lies in their understatement, transparency for all those in the know, and complete mystery for naive onlookers.
So after all, where and how does Tunisian youth meet? In large cities – in the same places as their peers all over the world: at college, at university, at work. In the provinces – in the same places as their mothers and grandmothers: at weddings, at relatives' houses, at "betrothals". Young Tunisian women are in no hurry to get married; young Tunisian men simply cannot marry early: a self-respecting man must bring his wife to his own home. There is no other option! A son must build a house, a daughter must fill it. So the average age of a bride is 24-26 years, and the groom is even older. By the way, in Tunisia no one is surprised by a forty-year-old bride: it means Allah did not give a destiny! She is smart, kind, good in every way, she waits... Well, of course, relatives take it upon themselves to "help" providence a little.
Building a house is a difficult task: land in Tunisia is expensive, on average 200 dinars per square meter (the Tunisian dinar is approximately equal to the dollar). So a house will cost 100-150 thousand. "No, of course, there are very cheap plots, in the Sahara for example," laughs Fath. Then he becomes serious: "If you want your children to grow up as worthy, well-bred people with clear life goals, it is very important in which area you will live," he asserts. "What kind of people your neighbors are determines what your children will grow up to be: they will play with the neighbors' children and visit their homes. If a rumor spreads that bad people live in a good, expensive area, everyone starts selling their houses and gradually moving away from there."
And who in their family handles the family budget? Fath explains somewhat arrogantly: a man's job is to earn money, a woman's job is to run the home. Yasmin smiles: yes, her husband does his utmost to earn, and her task is to make the earnings cover all needs. The average salary in Tunisia is 250-300 dinars. Most of the money goes to paying off the housing loan. Moreover, the life of ordinary Tunisians is a constant struggle: in summer with heat, in winter with cold. "The cheapest air conditioner costs $700, and only expensive models can withstand our forty-degree heat," complains Fath. "Houses are built without central heating, and in winter it is cold and windy, so for the heating season (about three months) you have to pay another 600 dinars." But there are no problems with food: meat and milk are inexpensive, and what can we say about fruits and vegetables, if, for example, tomatoes in Tunisia produce four harvests a year!
Do they save money for their sons' education? And here both Fath and Yasmin smile triumphantly – not a penny, that is, not a millime! Education in Tunisia is universal and free. The secondary education system is modeled on the French system. Schools are coeducational. Humanities are taught in Arabic, exact sciences in French. In middle school, English, German, or Russian is added (by choice). Upon graduation from secondary school, an exam for a bachelor's degree is held simultaneously throughout the country. This event deserves a separate discussion.
To be continued.