MP Abdessattar Zarai has reignited the controversy around polygamy by publishing a new message on Facebook, the day after an explosive plenary session devoted to the budget of the Ministry of Women.
In his intervention as in his post, he calls for a revision of the Personal Status Code, accused according to him of having “destroyed the family”. His words triggered a wave of reactions, from Minister Asma Jabri to the UNFT.
An assertive plea that shakes up the hemicycle and the networks
In his message, Abdessattar Zarai unfolds a vision that he presents as “balanced” between men and women: a “virtuous” woman would be “a crown placed on (her) head”, he writes, promising to defend “justice and real equality”. The deputy criticizes the CSP for having “wronged” both sexes and for having caused “the disintegration of the family”.
He then emphasizes polygamy, which he describes as a “personal freedom” that everyone could exercise “within the lawful framework”. He goes so far as to challenge women who refuse this practice: they should “love, support and not threaten with the pension” in the event of divorce.
This position, rare in the Tunisian public debate for several years, extends his outing the day before at the Assembly, where he had already called for a reconsideration of the legal foundations of the CSP in front of a stunned audience.
An immediate response from the government and the associative movement
The Minister of Women, Asma Jabri, was quick to react. Already the day before in the plenary session, she had categorically refused: “No turning back the clock on the achievements of women in Tunisia is possible,” she recalled, emphasizing the position of the State in favor of the protection and strengthening of the rights of Tunisian women.
In the wake of the MP’s post, the UNFT in turn denounced a controversy deemed “unworthy” in the face of the social realities that hit families: insecurity, violence, economic imbalance. Its president, Radhia Jerbi, castigated “shameful” comments and a focus that diverts the debate from the country’s emergencies.
Between the history of the CSP and the resurgence of a sensitive debate
Zarai’s exit comes in a context where the CSP – founding pillar of Tunisian modernity since 1956 – remains at the heart of debates on individual freedoms. If certain isolated voices periodically mention polygamy or the reassessment of certain provisions, no political group represented in Parliament officially carries this discourse.
Read also
