Frauenrechte: Der nächste arabische Frühling?

Kamel Daoud schreibt über die jüngsten Entwicklungen in Tunesien, Jordanien, Saudi Arabien und Marroko:

For the time being, laws throughout the Arab world tend to ratify inequality, especially when it comes to inheritance. In Algeria, despite the struggles of democrats and feminist groups since the country’s independence in 1962, the family code still largely tracks Shariah law: A woman’s choice of husband must be validated by a male guardian. So-called honor crimes — as punishment for adultery, among other things — remain widespread, even in countries deemed to be moderate, like Jordan.

The old Tunisian revolutionary has thus exposed one of the mechanisms that continues to handicap the Arab world: collusion between civil laws and religious laws. The latter overlap with the former and modify them, transforming their spirit, covertly or overtly. At the same time, Mr. Essebsi’s positions also suggest some means of resistance and possibilities for deep reform.

Is this the eve of another Arab Spring? Perhaps. Morocco, Jordan and Lebanon have finally abolished laws that allowed a woman’s rapist to escape prosecution by marrying her. Last week, the king of Saudi Arabia authorized Saudi women to drive cars.

But Saudi women, for example, are still not free to travel or dress as they please. And so it is Mr. Essebsi who has opened an enormous crack in the foundation of Muslim conservatism and set a unique precedent by validating various feminist and intellectual movements.

His stand has yet to be fully appreciated: It is revolutionary — Copernican, even. The president of Tunisia has proclaimed the equality of women in the Arab world, a social universe in which the Earth is still flat.