Former Tunisian minister calls for popular referendum

Former Tunisian Minister of Religious Affairs, Nourredine Khadmi, called for “a popular referendum as a constitutional mechanism to resolve the issue of equality in inheritance in accordance with the people’s will and in application of the state’s citizenship.”

The official Tunisian news agency TAP quoted Khadmi’s statements in which he stressed that “The issue of equality in inheritance is a matter of disagreement.”

He also stressed that “the issue of inheritance is clear in religious texts, and that all religions have religious reference in terms of legal status.”

Khadmi added that “Inheritance is not based on being male or female, and there are more than 30 cases in which women inherit more than men.”

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Last summer, Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi for the first time introduced the issue of equal rights for men and women in all fields, including inheritance. He also demanded a change in an administrative decree which was issued during the rule Habib Bourguiba (1957-1987), and which prevents the Tunisian woman’s marriage to a foreigner unless he declares his conversion to Islam.

Essebsi decided to form a committee on “individual freedoms and equality” to prepare a report on reforms related to individual freedoms and equality.

The Tunisian presidential initiative has provoked an internal and external jurisprudencial and political debates, to the point that Al-Azhar Mosque intervened in it.