Islamism and Uncertainty: Charting the Future of Women's Rights in Tunisia

The supposed clash between Islamism and women's rights has proven to be one of the most contentious realms of debate in the wake of the recent Arab uprisings. This is particularly true in Tunisia, where a long-banned Islamist party called Ennahda won a resounding 41 per cent of the votes in the October 2011 elections. This paper analyses the perceived conflict between Ennahda Islamists and women's rights through the lens of first-hand interviews conducted with forty-six Ennahda women activists. It finds that Tunisia's Islamist women are taking an increasingly vocal role in determining the direction of the country's women's rights agenda, and argues that greater attention must be accorded to the experiences and motivations of women identifying with the resurgent Ennahda movement.