Institutions, feminist mobilizations, and political economy: Debating equal inheritance in Tunisia

Abstract

ABSTRACT Scholars have long established that institutions, both formal and informal, are gendered. But how does institutional change come about, and what prevents it? This article focuses on the debate in Tunisia around equal inheritance for women. Tunisia’s 1956 family law had emancipatory features, but equal inheritance for daughters was not among them, and the issue came to be advocated by feminist groups. The Committee on Individual Liberties and Equality (COLIBE), formed in 2017 by then President Essebsi, produced a report the following year that recommended equal inheritance, among other legal and policy reforms. The Tunisian experience shows how feminist groups seek to realize institutional change by working with (and within) state bureaucracies and political parties, appealing to other elite allies, securing support from legal and technical experts, and aligning ‘framing’ strategies for wider religio-cultural resonance. However, feminist goals may be undermined by an untoward political economy and low popular support, as occurred in Tunisia. Sources of data and information include detailed press accounts and relevant secondary sources, a close reading of the COLIBE report, Facebook discussions, Tunisian feminist publications, a June 2019 seminar on the COLIBE process by one of its members, and public opinion data.