Essebsi: Ennahda has positive attitudes and some reservations about the freedoms report

Demonstration which took place in central Tunis as a remembering of the Tunisian Women’s Day and asking for Equality and rights for Tunisian women, organised by Secularist movements and about 3.000 people attended

Demonstration which took place in central Tunis as a remembering of the Tunisian Women’s Day and asking for Equality and rights for Tunisian women, organised by Secularist movements and about 3.000 people attended

Demonstration which took place in central Tunis as a remembering of the Tunisian Women’s Day and asking for Equality and rights for Tunisian women, organised by Secularist movements and about 3.000 people attended

Demonstration which took place in central Tunis as a remembering of the Tunisian Women’s Day and asking for Equality and rights for Tunisian women, organised by Secularist movements and about 3.000 people attended

Demonstration which took place in central Tunis as a remembering of the Tunisian Women’s Day and asking for Equality and rights for Tunisian women, organised by Secularist movements and about 3.000 people attended

Demonstration which took place in central Tunis as a remembering of the Tunisian Women’s Day and asking for Equality and rights for Tunisian women, organised by Secularist movements and about 3.000 people attended,. on 13 August, 2018 [Dario Martin/Middle East Monitor]

The President of the Republic, Beji Caid Essebsi said in a speech marking mothers day in Carthage on Monday that the Ennahda movement sent him a letter concerning the Individual Freedoms and Equality Committee.

Essebsi said that the letter contained a positive attitude toward the report, but also included some reservations, which he did not reveal. He said that it would be up to movement whether to disclose the content of the letter or not.  Essebsi announced the proposal of a bill on the issue of equality in inheritance in the Assembly of the Representatives of the People.

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Essebsi said that he decided to submit a draft law on equality in inheritance as the sponsor and guarantor of the implementation of the constitution, which stipulates gender equality and stresses the secular nature of the state. He said that “as long as the president is responsible for respecting the constitution, I announce the change of the Code of Personal Status provisions because we do not deal with a religious text, but with a Constitution. We are a secular state, and the Constitution is clear.”