Tunisia's democracy blooms as Model for Arab Spring Smooth elections, a coalition between moderate Islamists and secularists, and an explosion of civic life are propelling Tunisia forward as a model for the Arab Spring.
By Elizabeth Dickinson | The Christian Science Monitor Just 10 months since the former president fled and the Arab Spring began, civic life in Tunisia hasn't just opened - it has erupted.
The political side of that story has been well told: more than 110 political parties registered in advance of Tunisia's first democratic vote on Oct. 23. But behind the scenes, a parallel opening was emerging in the fourth estate.
Roughly 1,000 associations have also been created since January, ranging from women's and human rights groups to youth initiatives. "Under Ben Ali, nobody was talking," says Bechir Bouraoui, founder of Generation Tunisie Libre (Generation Free Tunisia). "Now, everyone wants to talk."
In Egypt, community organizations are under fire: several dozen NGOs are under investigation for treason in what Human Rights Watch has called a move by the transitional military government to "restrict rights and democracy groups." By contrast, Tunisia looks well on its way to a vibrant, participatory democracy.
"There is a lot of cacophony. But that's natural ... and it's fantastic to see," says Philippa Neave, who works with local associations through the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). "We had zillions and zillions of civil society associations just come out of nowhere."
Forty percent of the population is under the age of 24, and in the south and west, farthest from the developed coastline, opportunities are few. "We all thought that if Tunisia is to step out of this very hard phase, it's going to be through our culture, through opening minds," Bouraoui says. "There were a lot of initiatives to go around the country and say to people, 'go vote.' "
Organizing in just months wasn't easy - especially for groups that, like Generation Tunisie Libre, were scrambling for funds. Bouraoui and his colleagues have poured their own money in. In July, Bouraoui quit his marketing job to work at the new association - which won a small international grant, but only enough to fund a bus trip to several marginalized areas. Now the money's gone, and paying for a staff, a website, and outreach activities himself isn't sustainable. "People have their own lives," he says. "If we have funds, we can make these associations permanent."
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The Nation:
Tunisia Is A Lodestar Worth Following
By Graham Usher | NPR
In January Tunisia toppled the first dictator of the Arab Spring. Last month it held its first election. Both events, mostly, went peacefully. That is perhaps the country's greatest achievement. There are others. In less than five months Tunisia's freshly minted election commission (ISIE) registered more than 100 political parties, oversaw a 70 percent turnout and confirmed results deemed free, fair and transparent by local and foreign monitors.
But the political outcome was definitive. The Islamic Nahda (Renaissance) party won 41 percent of the vote, or three times as many seats as its nearest rival, the secular Congress for the Republic (CPR). The challenge is how to revive the economy while charting a course that will gradually redistribute wealth away from the richer coast to an aggrieved interior. Nahda's first move has been to reassure local and foreign capital that Tunisia is "safe" for investment, particularly in the "strategic" tourist sector that, the Islamists vow, will be unharmed by any bans on alcohol or bikinis. But its second move has been to invite into coalition the humanist CPR party and socialist Ettakol party, both of which want to tilt Tunisia's deeply unequal society in favor of the poor. How the new government combines growth with fairness remains key, especially for a people demanding both. The contest will be not so much between Islam and democracy, says a secular party leader, as between "two competing visions for our future. One is conservative, rooted in religious observance; the other is progressive, modern and forward looking." The elections have given a sense of which vision most Tunisians prefer. Nahda not only swept the field; it established itself as the country's national party, bridging the divide between rich and poor, coast and interior. It came top in all of Tunisia's twenty-seven electoral districts save one, and including Tunis, the elite's cosmopolitan citadel. How come? It's true the Islamists ran a well-organized campaign. But the principal reason was that their advocacy of religion resonated with most Tunisians, at different levels, but mainly as a critique of the past. For the devout it meant restoring Islam, against a secular "modernist" state that persecuted all signs of overt religiosity. For the traditional working class it meant returning morality to politics, against the epic venality of the Ben Ali era. And for the young, poor and disenfranchised, it meant a sense of community, against a model of economic development where the choice was between migration and the menial. Some secular parties like CPR and Ettakol understood the weight of this sentiment, which is why they responded to Nahda's call to national unity. But others did not. The centrist Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) and Eurocentric Modern Democratic Pole (MDP) ran negative campaigns against Nahda, warning that a vote for Islam would endanger Tunisia's secular identity and liberal social mores. That charge scared only the few. For the overwhelming mass of Tunisians, Francophone modernity has masked and licensed fifty years of authoritarian dictatorship. And while Tunisia's gender code is undeniably free, that freedom stopped for a woman the moment she put on a veil. Far from being "progressive, modern and forward-looking," many Tunisians deemed the PDP and MDP elitist and regressive, little more than holdovers from the old regime. The PDP won seventeen seats; the MDP five, including four in Tunis. It's risky to extrapolate too much from the Tunisian experience. Small, ethnically and religiously homogeneous and educated, the country was always well groomed for democracy. But Tunisia does offer pointers to Egypt and Libya, both in the midst of rocky democratic transitions. One is a political compact made possible by Tunisia's interim government. Secularist CPR and Ettakol accept "Islam as the religion of state," says CPR leader Moncef Marzouki. Ghannouchi says he accepts a Western "notion of citizenship as the basis of rights, so that all citizens are equal whether they are Islamist or not." Such a compromise could seal a Constitution that would satisfy most sides of Tunisia's class and ideological divide. It could serve as a similar bridge in Egypt and Libya. Second, Tunisia's emerging bloc between a moderate Islamism and a progressive social democracy may be the best political bulwark in Egypt against a military that seems ready to fan sectarian flames to ensure its economic interests and hegemony. Finally, the spectacle of 100 parties and not a single militia contesting Tunisia's elections is the best antidote to Libya, where the ratio is about the reverse. There too, a bloc between moderate Islam and progressive democrats would seem the best insurance against an Afghan-like descent into armed fiefdoms. In less than ten months, Tunisia has overthrown a dictator and conducted an election better than anyone could dare hope. It remains a lodestar worth following.
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Tunisia after the Elections:
Nahda and the Challenges of Democracy
By Jameleddine Ben Abdeljelil | Qantara.de
The secular political parties and the political elites in Tunisia have accepted the election result, and thus Nahda's clear lead in the polls, even if they are disappointed at their own results. But their acceptance of the result hasn't meant an end to the polarised and emotional discussion which they held during the campaign on how far the Tunisian Islamists can turn into democrats.
Among the world's Islamist movements, Ennahda is clearly one of the liberal ones, but its membership reflects a wide range of opinion, from cultural liberals to conservatives and even Salafists.
The fact that many of their supporters and activists were in exile in various European countries since the nineties has given the party the opportunity to include the experience which such members gathered abroad into the development of their party's positions, together with their knowledge of modern Western social, political and cultural structures and ways of life.
This exile experience, in my view, is one reason that Ennahda has initiated a process of critical reflection and deconstruction of outmoded but deeply rooted prejudices about concepts such as democracy, modernity and secularism. That has led them to moderate their absolute rejection of secularity and laicisim. The members of the party have nowadays a much more differentiated view of the issues.
The Tunisian elite has always upheld a firmly secularist line, influenced almost wholly by French history and the French discourse about religion and laicism.
This specifically French version of laicism among the Tunisian elite implies the radical exclusion of religion from the public arena. But the experience of other Western European countries, like Britain, Germany, Austria or the Scandinavian countries, shows that it is possible to understand secularism in pluralistic terms; and this new understanding has now been brought to Tunisia by those who were in exile.
This has allowed a certain common ground to develop between the values and concepts of modernism, democracy and secularism on the one hand, and Islam as a culture and religion on the other. This developing debate has had a "de-neuroticising" effect on the conflict.
One aspect of Ennahda's religious thinking is its traditional acceptance of the historical dimension in its interpretation of religious texts, such as the Qur'an, the hadith and fiqh, and the totality of the Muslim law which has been developed from Qur'an and Sunna. This acceptance largely stems from religious reform efforts in the Maghreb and Tunisia which started in the nineteenth century.
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Alcohol, Bikinis, Secularism, and Islam: Welcome to Tunisian Democracy
A TV debate between the leader of Tunisia's Islamist party and a Saudi Salafi scholar reveal some encouraging signs for the Arab Spring's first democracy
By Ed Husain | The Atlantic
In a recent television exchange between Rachid Ghannouchi, Tunisian leader of the Ennahda party, and Saudi Arabia's leading Salafi scholar, Salman al-Awdah, we witnessed encouraging intellectual pronouncements that bode well for the Arab uprisings.
Was allowing the wearing of bikinis and the drinking of alcohol a compromise? Did this not defy the sharia? How can Ennahda claim to be modeled on Islamic values?
In response to such questions, Shaikh Salman provided jurisprudential support for Ennahda's stance. He explained how state enforcement of such rules creates oppression and difficulty, but considering what "society can bear" helps gradually introduce Islam to society.
When leading Salafis provide Ghannouchi and others with scriptural cover for their liberal advances, we should welcome it. It tells us that aspects of Salafism and Islamism are not frozen in time, but are increasingly in flux. Islamists are responding to pressure from liberals, secularists, and the West--this pressure must continue as moderation progresses. Mockery and suspicion will not help. Constant dialogue, engagement, encouragement, and incentive will.
Traditionally, secularism has had a negative connotation in the Arab world, and particularly among Islamists. Who can blame them? It was the secular governments of Assad, Mubarak, and Ben Ali who imprisoned and tortured Islamists and produced jihadi ideologues in Egypt's prisons. But again, Islamists are surprising us. Ghannouchi, in this interview, spoke critically of the French model of secularism, but rightly distinguished it from the American, British, and German approaches to a secular state, which are far more accommodating of religion. Turkey's Islamist leader, Erdogan, has gone even further and praised secularism as a guarantor for religious freedom.
Amid such encouraging news, there are three problems looming:
- First, will this work-in-progress continue in Tunisia in Ghannouchi's absence? How much of this development is linked to his intellectual weight and achievements? Will the right-wing of Islamist movements outmaneuver this emerging, sensible center ground?
- Second, while we are seeing relative progress in the quality of intellectual debate in Tunisia, and among Shaikh Salman's vast following in Saudi Arabia, we have not seen anything similar in Egypt. In fact, there's been no shortage of signs of extremism from Egypt's Salafists. Unless similar discussions and advance occur publicly in Egypt, the most populous Arab country, then liberal thinking may end up on the fringes of the Arab world.
- Third, in a word: Israel. Islamists cannot claim enlightenment and moderation while committed to annihilation of their Jewish neighbor. Yes, criticize many of Israel's flawed policies (deservedly), but extend to it legitimacy as a Middle East state. Without this, we risk conflagration of regional conflict where moderates can fast become extreme.
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Tunisian constitution will make no place for faith
By Tom Heneghan | Reuters Religion Editor
Tunisia's Islamist-led government will focus on democracy, human rights and a free-market economy in planned changes to the constitution, effectively leaving religion out of the text it will draw up, party leaders said.
"We are against trying to impose a particular way of life," Ennahda leader Rachid Ghannouchi, 70, a lifelong Islamist activist jailed and exiled under previous regimes, told Reuters.
All parties agreed to keep the first article of the current constitution which says Tunisia's language is Arabic and its religion is Islam. "This is just a description of reality," Ghannouchi said. "It doesn't have any legal implications.
"There will be no other references to religion in the constitution. We want to provide freedom for the whole country," said the Islamist leader, who will not take any official role in the new government. The new constitution is due in about a year.
Ghannouchi's reformist Islamist writings in the 1980s and 1990s helped influence Turkey's current mix of Islam and democracy, and he said his 22 years of exile in London helped him see the importance of civil society in influencing politics.
Like Turkey, Tunisia had decades of secularist dictatorship before evolving into a democracy where moderate Islamists -- dubbed "Muslim Democrats" in a take-off of Europe's Christian Democrats -- have emerged as a strong political force.
"Law by itself doesn't change reality," Ghannouchi said at Ennahda's headquarters, a six-story building abuzz with the excitement of open politics after decades of dictatorship.
"There shouldn't be any law to try to make people more religious," said Ghannouchi, whose party has pledged to continue to allow alcohol and Western dress here and pursue economic policies favouring tourism, foreign investment and employment.
Radwan Masmoudi, Tunisian-born director of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID) in Washington, said last month's elections showed the country had opted for an "evolutionary revolution" that avoided radical changes.
"Tunisians agree on almost everything," he said in the CSID office here in Tunis. "They want to keep their identity as Arab and Muslim but not live in a theocracy. "I think Tunisia can pave the way for other Arab countries to build a true democracy that is fully compatible with Islam."
Masmoudi said the realities of coalition parties and the probable need for a two-thirds majority to approve the constitution would force all parties to seek a broad consensus.
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Official Results:

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Tunisian Foreign Affairs:
France Shifts Positions, Ennahda Copes
By Farah Samti | Tunisia Live
Unlike the European Union and the USA, which maintained a steady position of support for the Tunisian people from the beginning of the revolution, France at first protected Ben Ali's dictatorship in order to preserve its interests. Three days before the fall of the Ben Ali regime, while reports were circulating that Tunisian police were firing live rounds at demonstrators, the then-French Foreign Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie offered to dispatch a team of French special forces to Tunis to assist in putting down the revolution. Before the October elections, France was somehow led to believe that Ennahda would not be able to win over one fourth of the Constituent Assembly's seats. However, after the elections, Sarkozy surprised Tunisians and the world with his straight-forward reaction to Ennahda's big win. The French president declared "Paris will be watching and supervising how well human rights and democratic principles are applied and respected." Current Foreign Minister Alain Juppé confirmed the president's implicit warning, saying "There are red lines that must not be crossed; those of human rights, democratic alternation and gender equality."
This state of vigilance France chose to maintain was emphasized through relating their economic support to Tunisia to respecting those "red lines." This seemingly forced way to ensure democracy did not upset Ennahda only, whose leader described it as "convincing, painful and calm" but Tunisians as well. France's "guardianship" exceeded its historical limit. This reaction created controversy among French politicians themselves. They did not find it "proper."
The fact that Italy and Germany opted for silence while the USA and the EU welcomed a new era of democracy in Tunisia added more pressure on France. Thus, the latter had to adjust its position. Mr. Juppé called Ghanouchi, who had no permission to enter France for years in the past because of Ben Ali's orders, and announced that he personally trusted Ennahda's leaders. This is considered to be a major change in French diplomatic policies as France did not hesitate to accuse Ennahda among other parties of double-speech in the past.
Opting for testing as time goes by instead of judging intentions before deeds, seems to be the new strategy that France is planning to follow. Mr. Juppé even stated that "the saying that Islam and Democracy don't go hand in hand is not right." He explained the change of position by saying "In France, we have an exceptional view of secularism. But many other countries refer to religion in their ordinary life." Accordingly,this can be explained by the fact that France seems to consider secularism a heritage of the French Revolution, a reference for the rest of the world, especially former French colonies. When the press attaché of Ennahda, Mr. Zoubair Chhoudi spoke about the future of foreign affairs of Tunisia with the rest of the world he stated that "Tunisia's interests are above any foreign relationships, even if it's on the expense of our allies." When asked about France in particular, he confirmed that "Ennahda will not cancel any of their current foreign relationships, but we would rather diversify them and expand our international economic scope." According to Mr. Chhoudi, Ennahda will maintain their relationship with France, improve them and continue to cooperate with them and the rest of Tunisia's allies, as long as interests of Tunisia and its counterparts are served. He added that during a phone call between the French minister of foreign affairs and the leader of Ennahda Rached Ghanouchi, Mr. Alain Juppé expressed his faith in Ennahda and the democratic transition in Tunisia. Mr. Ghanouchi, on the other hand, welcomed Mr. Juppé's trust. As promises have been made and trust has been shown, future events and reactions will further clarify stands of both parts. The drafting of the next Tunisian constitution will be the next occasion when this partnership will be tested. While Ennahda cannot afford to break their promises that made the Tunisian majority, and major international powers including France believe in the new democratic transition in Tunisia, France can no longer afford to interfere in internal affairs of a free Tunisia.
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Tunisia Seeks Economic Development at U.S. Forum
More than 200 U.S. investors, business leaders, Tunisian Americans, and visiting Tunisian business executives joined officials from the State Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) at a partnership forum in Washington November 15.
The forum focused on business agreements that would generate fresh income and encourage job creation and economic opportunity to benefit Tunisia and the United States, said acting Assistant Secretary of State Mike Hammer. Tunisian government and business officials identified three priorities for this initial effort: tourism, trade and information communications technology, according to the State Department.
The Tunisian ambassador to the United States, Mohamed Salah Tekaya, told the forum that it represented "a powerful testimony about America's support of the people of Tunisia."
"America will do all we can to ensure that the free and open democracy that has begun to take root in Tunisia will be sustained by new investments in order to create a free and open economy," Deputy Secretary of State Thomas Nides told participants at the forum.
"This is a new day for Tunisia, and the opportunities for investment in the U.S.-Tunisian relationship have never been greater," Nides said.
The North African nation of 12 million became the first Arab nation to launch a massive reform movement in January, known as the Jasmine Revolution. It brought significant political and social change to the Tunisian people and ended a 23-year dictatorial regime. The movement for political and social justice inspired reform movements across North Africa and the Middle East. The nation held its first free election October 23 for an assembly to draft a new constitution and shape a new government.
In September, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Tunisian Foreign Minister Mohammed Mouldi Kefi signed a new framework for cooperation: the U.S.-Tunisia Joint Political and Economic Partnership. The forum, held November 15 in Washington at the State Department's George C. Marshall Conference Center, is the first step toward fulfilling one of the main objectives of the framework, linking potential international investors to Tunisia, the State Department said.
OPIC President and Chief Executive Elizabeth Littlefield said the forum aimed to put Tunisia on the minds of U.S. companies for the first time. During the forum, Tunisian companies, including Tunivest and Mazars, met with executives from U.S. companies IBM, Intel and others, at sessions hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
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Can Islamism and Feminism Mix?
By MONICA MARKS | New York Times
Many Tunisian women developed a political consciousness in reaction to Mr. Ben Ali's severe oppression of Ennahda in the 1990s. While their husbands, brothers and sons were in jail - often for reasons as simple as attending dawn prayers - these women discovered that they had a personal stake in politics and the strength to stand alone as heads of families. When the party was legalized in March, it found a widespread base of public sympathy and grass-roots support.
After interviewing 46 female activists and candidates from Ennahda, I found that many turned to politics after experiencing job discrimination, arrests, or years in prison merely because they chose to wear the head scarf or because their families were suspected of Ennahda sympathies. For some of them, this election is as much about freedom of religious expression as anything else.
"I have a master's degree in physics but I wasn't allowed to teach for years because of this," said a 43-year-old woman named Nesrine, tugging the corner of her floral-print hijab, a veil banned under Mr. Ben Ali but legalized since his departure. According to Mounia Brahim and Farida Labidi, 2 of the 13 members of Ennahda's Executive Council, the party welcomes strong, critical women in its ranks. "Look at us," Ms. Brahim said. "We're doctors, teachers, wives, mothers - sometimes our husbands agree with our politics, sometimes they don't. But we're here and we're active."
These women are not likely to oppose women's rights legislation. Ennahda women are, first and foremost, Tunisians. They are well educated, and their brand of Islamism, like Tunisian society as a whole, is relaxed and comparatively progressive. Since the 1950s, Tunisian women have enjoyed greater legal protections than their counterparts in other Arab states. To do so, the party has explicitly declared that it will emulate Turkey's governing Justice and Development Party, known as the A.K.P., which has cracked down on corruption, involved women as equal political partners, and delivered stunning economic growth rates.
Tunisia has done an excellent job of including women in its transitional institutions thus far. This is especially true when viewed in comparison with Egypt, where the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces recently banned women from heading any party lists.
Ennahda has thus far used its newfound political heft to stimulate rather than stifle women's participation in Tunisian politics. Its activists are presenting a potentially more accessible model of "Islamist feminism" to many rural and socially conservative Tunisian women than that of secularist parties.
Vocal, active, and often veiled, they are comfortable with the language of piety and politics. Despite the fear mongering of secular skeptics and Western pundits, their actions and aspirations are far more reminiscent of Turkey's A.K.P. than Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood.
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Open Letter to Ghannouchi from Iran
Bismillah Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim
Dear Brother Rached Al-Ghannouchi,
Assalaamu alaikum wa rahamttulahi wa barakaatu.
I congratulate you and your Tunisian brothers and sisters for your victory, not only in overthrowing an oppressive regime, but more than that, for successfully conducting a free and fair national election. From Iran, there is keen interest and prayers for your success, and I have followed closely the news of Tunisia's struggle for both freedom from oppression and a democracy government.
Your party's election victory is indeed commendable, but it puts a tremendous burden on your shoulders as the leader. While I am deeply touched by the political maturity of Tunisians, nonetheless, I am seriously concerned about the long range outcome. Our people, Muslims of every nation, struggle for the restoration of their basic rights, liberty, and sovereignty. But we do not have sufficient experience with democracy. We fight and overthrow dictators, but not dictatorship itself. Despotism is not just a political structure. It has its corresponding social and cultural dimensions which enable it to persist and which become ingrained in individuals and whole societies afflicted by despotism for a long time. The result is that we Muslims overthrow despots often to see a new ones replace it. This is what has indeed befallen us in Iran. We deposed the Shah, but neglected to address the 'shah' personality within our own selves. Thus the vicious circle continues.
What then can be done to break this cycle and institutionalize democracy? Democracy is not an importable commodity. It is a national process of learning and development. Elections are valued instruments, but are not by themselves democracy. I call to your attention three basic concepts that if learned and taken to heart by people, we have a chance of ensuring the blessings of freedom and democracy for generations of Muslims:
The first concept is the recognition and celebration of the diversity of human society and pluralism. Allah subhanahu wa-ta'ala, in His Holy Qur'an, reminds us of this and commands us to tolerate each other. He says He will judge about our diverse opinions in the day of judgment. Muslim countries, including Tunisia, have the characteristics of a "transitional society". As such, the diversity of opinions is much greater than in established stagnant societies. So acceptance and celebration of pluralism, particularly in this phase of Muslim history, is a critical concept.
The second concept is tolerance. As you know, this is a cherished part of our Islamic traditions, in the form of tasamoh, modara and tasahol. But where there is a diversity of opinions, this may lead to confrontation and the re-emergence of tyranny. Tolerance itself is a passive attitude and is never sufficient to avoid this outcome.
This leads to the third concept central to a sustainable healthy democracy: compromise. Tunisia's social and economic development will require the compromise and cooperation of all of your citizens, regardless of their ideological, racial and religious affiliations. Compromise does not imply neglect ones beliefs and agenda. Rather, is it the recognition that cooperating with each other is essential for the cause of national salvation, which will benefit all groups.
My dear brother: You have the support of the most voters, and it is now up to you to set an example of open-mindedness and recognition of the rights of others. I pray that God protect you from repeating the mistakes we have made in Iran, or those of our brothers in Algeria and elsewhere.
This Spring, Tunisia was the vanguard of the contemporary Arab awakening movement. Now Tunisia is again first in this wonderful move in the direction of a democratic society. I pray that God will bless Tunisia to be the vanguard of true and sustainable democracy in the Arab world, and an example to Muslims everywhere.
Your Brother in Islam,
Ebrahim Yazdi
Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran
Tehran
October 26, 2011
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