Complying with last year’s calls for more equality between men and women, Tunisia’s president Essebsi proposed giving women equal inheritance rights. According to Reuters, despite protests in front of Parliament from thousands of Muslim adherents who feel that the call is a direct challenge to Islamic law, the proposal by the secular politician and head of state was made on Monday. It has been passed on to Parliament to prepare the bill. It answers the wishes of previous women rallies who have demanded equal inheritance rights in the past, but it also grants families wishing to pass on inheritance based on Islamic law the freedom to do so. Tunisia is one of the few Arab countries of the MENA region in which experts claim that women are granted more rights; along with Lebanon, Tunisia is often hailed as having a ‘liberal/secular’ society. Similar to Egyptian law, which is based on Islamic jurisprudence, Tunisia’s inheritance laws are as following: brothers inherit twice that of sisters, sons inherit twice that of daughters, and husbands twice that of wives. As for mothers and fathers who are alive at the time of a deceased…
