Observers of the uprisings that engulfed the Arab world in 2011 praise Tunisia as the only Arab nation to fulfill its citizens’ desires for democracy. Yet certain obstacles remain – especially recent ones – which have clearly prevented this from becoming reality. Tunisia did successfully install elections, allowing its people to choose who to represent them. On paper, this is indeed democracy. Taking further steps, the government has in recent months implemented progressive reforms that activists and human rights groups have long called for. These range from tightening laws on violence against women, abolishing a colonial-era ‘marry your rapist’ law, criminalizing sexual harassment, along with legalizing marriage between Muslim women and men of other faiths. While these moves improve women’s status in society, certain issues still prevent Tunisia from evolving into the democracy many of its citizens desire. In fact, many observers suspect legalizing inter-faith marriages was actually a ploy to divert attention away from corrupt government policies, including a law passed the following day granting amnesty to former officials involved in corruption during the rule of former autocrat Zine al Abadine Ben Ali, whose government Tunisians fought to overthrow….
