Tunisia
(2003)
The Constitution provides for the free exercise of religions that do not
disturb the public order, and the Government generally respects this right;
however, there were some restrictions and abuses. The Constitution declares
that Islam is the official
state religion.
There was no change in the status of respect for religious
freedom during the period covered by this report. The Government does
not permit the establishment of political parties on the basis of religion,
prohibits proselytizing, and partially limits the religious freedom
of members of the Baha'i Faith.
The generally amicable relationship among religions
in society contributed to religious freedom.
The U.S. Government discusses religious freedom issues
with the Government in the context of its overall dialog and policy
of promoting human rights.
Section I. Religious Demography
The country has a total area of 63,170 square miles
and its population is approximately 10 million. Ninety eight percent
of the population is nominally Muslim. There is no reliable data on
the number of practicing Muslims. There is a small indigenous Sufi Muslim
community; however, there are no statistics regarding its size. Reliable
sources report that many Sufis left the country shortly after independence
when their religious buildings and land reverted to the Government (as
did those of Orthodox Islamic foundations), leaving them no place to
worship. Although the Sufi community is small, its tradition of mysticism
permeates the practice of Islam throughout the country. During annual
Ramadan festivals, Sufis provide public cultural entertainment by performing
religious dances. There are also 150 members of the Baha'i Faith.
The nominal Christian community, composed of foreign
residents and a small group of native-born citizens of European and/or
Arab descent, numbers approximately 20,000 and is dispersed throughout
the country. According to church leaders, the practicing Christian population
is approximately 1,000 and includes an estimated 200 native-born ethnic
Arab citizens who have converted to Christianity. The Catholic Church
operates 7 churches, 6 private schools, and 6 cultural centers/libraries
throughout the country, as well as 1 hospital in Tunis, the capital.
There are approximately 400 practicing Catholics. Most are foreign residents
but a small number are native-born citizens of European and/or Arab
descent. In addition to holding religious services, the Catholic Church
also freely organizes cultural activities and performs charitable work
throughout the country. The Russian Orthodox Church has approximately
100 practicing members and operates 1 church in Tunis and another in
Bizerte. The French Reform Church operates 1 church in Tunis, with a
congregation of 140 primarily foreign members. The Anglican Church has
a church in Tunis with approximately 70 foreign members. The 30-member
Greek Orthodox Church maintains 3 churches (in Tunis, Sousse, and Jerba).
There are also 50 members of Jehovah's Witnesses, of which approximately
half are foreign residents and half are native-born citizens.
With 1,800 adherents split nearly equally between
the capital and the island of Jerba, the Jewish community is the country's
largest indigenous religious minority. The Jewish community on the island
of Jerba dates back 2,500 years.
Foreign missionary organizations and groups function;
however, they are not permitted to proselytize in the country.
Section II. Status of Religious Freedom
Legal/Policy Framework
The Constitution provides for the free exercise of
religions that do not disturb the public order, and the Government generally
respects this right; however, it does not permit the establishment of
political parties based on religion, forbids proselytizing, and partially
limits the religious freedom of Baha'is. The Constitution declares that
Islam is the official state religion and stipulates that the President
of the Republic must be a Muslim.
The Government recognizes all Christian and Jewish
religious organizations that were established before independence in
1956. Although the Government permits Christian churches to operate
freely, it has only formally recognized the Catholic Church, via a 1964
concordat with the Holy See. Some observers consider this agreement
to be statutory recognition of the Christian religion. In addition to
authorizing 14 churches "serving all sects" of the country,
the Government recognizes land grants signed by the Bey of Tunis in
the 18th and 19th centuries that allow other churches to operate. The
Government has not acted on a request for recognition of a Jewish religious
organization in Jerba; however, the group is permitted to operate and
it performs religious activities and charitable work unhindered.
The Government promotes interfaith understanding by
sponsoring regular conferences and seminars on religious tolerance and
by facilitating and promoting the annual Jewish pilgrimage to the El-Ghriba
Synagogue.
The following religious holidays are considered national
holidays: Aid El-Kebir, Ras Al-Am El-Hejri, Mouled, and Aid Essighir.
Restrictions on Religious Freedom
The Government controls and subsidizes mosques and
pays the salaries of prayer leaders. The President appoints the Grand
Mufti of the Republic. The 1988 Law on Mosques provides that only personnel
appointed by the Government may lead activities in mosques and stipulates
that mosques must remain closed except during prayer times and other
authorized religious ceremonies, such as marriages or funerals. New
mosques may be built in accordance with national urban planning regulations;
however, they then become the property of the State. The Government
also partially subsidizes the Jewish community.
The Government does not permit the establishment of
political parties on the basis of religion, and uses this prohibition
to refuse recognition of the illegal Islamist An-Nahdha Party and to
prosecute suspected party members. The Government maintains tight surveillance
over Islamists and members of the Islamic fundamentalist community.
The Government revoked the identity cards of an estimated 10,000 to
15,000 Islamists and fundamentalists, which prevents them from being
employed legally, attending court hearings, or using public telephones
or faxes. According to reliable sources, the Government refused to issue
passports to Islamists and fundamentalists and has confiscated the passports
of a small number of Tunisian converts to Christianity. In at least
one case the Government seized the passport of a close relative of an
Islamic activist, allegedly for the sole reason that they were related.
The Government maintained that only the courts possess the power to
revoke passports under public laws; however, reports indicate that the
Government rarely observed this separation of powers in politically
sensitive religious cases.
The Government forbids the wearing of hijab (headscarves
traditionally worn by Islamist and Islamic fundamentalist women) in
government offices; however, a few female government employees were
seen wearing the hijab in their offices. The Government characterizes
the hijab as a "garment of foreign origin having a partisan connotation"
and prohibits its use in public institutions in order to "observe
impartiality required of officials in their professional relations with
others." There were some reports of police requiring women to remove
their hijabs in offices, on the street, and at certain public gatherings.
The Government allows the Jewish community freedom
of worship and pays the salary of the Grand Rabbi. It also partially
subsidizes restoration and maintenance costs for some synagogues. In
1999, the provisional Jewish community elected a new board of directors,
its first since independence in 1956; however, the board has not met
while it awaits approval from the governor of Tunis. Once the governor
approves the election, which originally was expected to be only a formality,
the board (now referred to as the Jewish Committee of Tunisia) is expected
to receive permanent status. The governor had not granted approval by
the end of the period covered by this report, although approval remains
expected. The Government permits the Jewish community to operate private
religious schools and allows Jewish children on the island of Jerba
to split their academic day between secular public schools and private
religious schools. The Government also encourages Jewish émigrés
to return for the annual Jewish pilgrimage to the historic El-Ghriba
Synagogue on the island of Jerba. However, during the period covered
by this report, the Government continued to refuse recognition to a
Jewish religious organization in Jerba, although the group has been
permitted to operate and perform religious activities and charity work
unhindered.
Baha'is regard their faith as a religion distinct
from Islam. However, the Government regards the Baha'i Faith as a heretical
sect of Islam and only permits its adherents to practice their faith
in private. The Government permits Baha'is to hold meetings of their
National Council in private homes but prohibits them from organizing
local councils. The Government reportedly pressures Baha'is to eschew
organized religious activities. There are credible reports that police
periodically call in prominent Baha'is for questioning; however, the
number of such incidents decreased during the period covered by this
report. The Government also unofficially denied the Baha'i request for
permission to elect local assemblies during the period covered by this
report. The Government also does not permit Baha'is to accept a declaration
of faith from persons who wish to convert.
In general the Government does not permit Christian
groups to establish new churches, and proselytizing is viewed as an
act against public order. Foreign missionary organizations and groups
are active; however, they are not permitted to proselytize. Authorities
deport foreigners suspected of proselytizing and do not permit them
to return. There were no reported cases of official action against persons
suspected of proselytizing during the period covered by this report;
however, in 2001, there were reports that materials distributed by Christian
missionaries in Sfax were confiscated from local secondary students.
During the period covered by this report, there were
reports of cases in which the Government punished individuals who converted
to another faith from Islam by denying them the ability to obtain a
passport. In previous years the Government denied converts the right
to vote and serve in the military, among other rights.
Islamic religious education is mandatory in public
schools, but the religious curriculum for secondary school students
also includes the history of Judaism and Christianity. The Zeitouna
Koranic School is part of the Government's national university system.
Both religious and secular nongovernmental organizations
(NGOs) are governed by the same legal and administrative regulations
that impose some restrictions on freedom of assembly. For example, all
NGOs are required to notify the Government of meetings to be held in
public spaces at least 3 days in advance and to submit lists of all
meeting participants to the Ministry of Interior. One group, composed
of foreign Christians mostly from Sweden and the United Kingdom, is
active in providing medical and social services in the city of Kasserine
in the west. Despite its ambiguous legal status, this group (with 15
to 20 members) reports that it is free to pursue its social and medical
work without interference and states that it does not believe that it
is subject to religious discrimination.
Religious groups are subjected to the same restrictions
on freedom of speech and the press as secular groups. Primary among
these restrictions is "depot legal," which requires that printers
and publishers provide copies of all publications to Ministry of Interior
censors prior to publication. For publications printed abroad, distributors
must deposit copies with the Chief Prosecutor and other ministries prior
to their public release. In 2001 the Chamber of Deputies approved several
changes to the Press Code, including the designation of the Ministry
of Human Rights, Communications, and Relations with the Chamber of Deputies
as the sole central censorship office.
Although Christian groups reported that they were
able to distribute previously approved religious publications in European
languages without difficulty, they said the Government generally did
not grant permission to publish and distribute Arabic-language Christian
texts. Moreover, the Government only allowed sanctioned religious communities
to distribute religious publications. It considered other groups' distribution
of religious documents to be an illegal "threat to public order."
Muslim women are not permitted to marry outside their
religion. Marriages of Muslim women to non-Muslim men abroad are considered
common law, which are prohibited and thus void when the couple returns
to the country. Muslim men and non-Muslim women who are married may
not inherit from each other, and children from those marriages (all
of whom the Government considered to be Muslim) cannot inherit from
their mothers. Civil law is codified; however, judges are known to override
codified law if their interpretation of Shari'a (Islamic law) contradicts
it. For example, codified laws provide women with the legal right to
have custody over their minor children; however, judges have refused
to grant women permission to leave the country with them, holding that
Shari'a appoints the father as the head of the family and that he must
grant permission for the children to travel.
Generally, Shari'a based interpretation of civil law
is applied only in some family cases. Some families avoid the effects
of Shari'a on inheritance by executing sales contracts between parents
and children to ensure that sons and daughters receive equal shares
of property.
Abuses of Religious Freedom
During the period covered by this report, credible
sources estimate that approximately 500 persons were serving prison
sentences because of their membership in the illegal Islamist group
An-Nahdha or for their alleged Islamist sympathies. Other sources claim
that the number of those prisoners is as low as 100 or as high as 1,000;
however, there were no reports of cases in which it was clear that persons
were arrested or detained based solely on their religious beliefs. The
Government claims An-Nahdha is a terrorist organization and has accused
it of plotting the overthrow of the Government in the early 1990s. A
credible source reported that high-ranking An-Nahdha leaders have been
held in solitary confinement since 1991.
The Government maintained that "the rights of
prisoners are carefully protected in the country and the law provides
both disciplinary measures and judicial sanctions for government officials
who, in the exercise of their duties, violate the physical integrity
of individuals"; however, independent reports indicated the contrary
and suggest that Ministry of Interior officials routinely torture politically
sensitive prisoners. Presiding judges in trials of Islamists routinely
refuse to investigate claims by defendants that their confessions were
extracted under torture.
The Government also continued to place Islamists under
administrative control. For example, Hedi Bejaoui has been under administrative
control since 1990. Bejaoui was arrested and released in 1990 for membership
in An-Nahdha. In May 2001 he began a hunger strike that lasted 6 weeks
to protest his administrative control and the seizure of his passport.
Bejaoui attempted to travel abroad for medical treatment after the authorities
took his medical insurance card. On March 23, Abdelouahab Boussaa, sentenced
in 1991 to 16 years imprisonment for membership to An-Nahdha, died in
detention following a 4-month hunger strike protesting his conditions
in detention. Two weeks later Lakhdar Essdiri died, possibly from medical
neglect, while serving a 28-year sentence for An-Nahdha activities.
Sources also report that police awaken suspected Islamists
in the night and bring them to police headquarters for interrogation.
Human rights activists allege that the Government subjected the family
members of Islamist activists to arbitrary arrest and other restrictions,
reportedly utilizing charges of "association with criminal elements"
to punish family members. For example, one female medical doctor claims
that she has been unemployed since 1997 because police have pressured
hospitals not to hire her because her husband was convicted of membership
in An-Nahdha. One man claimed that for 8 years, the Government refused
to issue him a passport because his brother was prosecuted for membership
in An-Nahdha.
According to human rights lawyers, the Government
regularly questioned Muslims who were observed praying frequently in
mosques. Reliable sources report that the authorities instruct imams
to espouse government social and economic programs during prayer times
in mosques. Sources indicated that an imam in the city of Kairouan issued
a fatwa against former Education Minister and human rights activist
Mohamed Charfi in June 2002. The reasons for such an edict are unclear
but Charfi is a prominent activist and potential government opponent
and many in civil society circles believe the edict was aimed at intimidating
him.
Forced Religious Conversion
There were no reports of forced religious conversion,
including of minor U.S. citizens who have been abducted or illegally
removed from the United States, or of the refusal to allow such citizens
to be returned to the United States.
Section III. Societal Attitudes
The generally amicable relationship between religions
in society contributed to religious freedom; however, there were incidents
of religiously motivated violence. In March 2002, a synagogue in the
Tunis suburb of La Marsa was broken into and vandalized. In April 2002,
a synagogue in Sfax, a southern commercial city also was vandalized.
No injuries were reported and damage at each of the synagogues was minor.
The Government responded by increasing security at both sites.
In April 2002, a terrorist attack outside the historic
El-Ghriba synagogue on the island of Jerba killed 21 persons and damaged
the interior of the synagogue. Two weeks before the annual El-Ghriba
pilgrimage (See Section I), the driver of a truck transporting liquid
gas detonated an explosive device while the truck stood at the Synagogue's
compound wall. The explosion killed 17 tourists and 4 Tunisians, including
the driver. The Government initially claimed that the explosion was
an accident; however, on April 22, after German authorities became involved
in the investigation, it admitted that the incident was an attack. The
Government provided increased security for the synagogue and encouraged
pilgrims and tourists to visit El-Ghriba despite the attack.
There is great societal pressure against Muslim conversion
to other religions, and conversion from Islam is relatively rare. Muslims
who do convert may face social ostracism for converting. There is some
conversion among individuals in the Christian and Jewish communities.
Despite a history of social pressure by middle and
upper class secularists to discourage women from wearing the hijab,
anecdotal suggests that the number of young middle class urban Tunisian
women choosing to wear the hijab rose during the period covered by this
report. Notably, many observers consider this trend to be less a sign
of increasing religiosity among young citizens than a reaction to perceived
increasing pressure from modernity on traditional Arab/Muslim culture.
Section IV. U.S. Government Policy
The U.S. Government discusses religious freedom issues
with the Government in the context of its overall dialog and policy
of promoting human rights.
The U.S. Embassy maintains good relations with leaders
of majority and minority religious groups throughout the country, and
the Ambassador and other embassy officials met regularly with Muslim,
Christian, Jewish, and Baha'i religious leaders throughout the period
covered by this report. Embassy officials discussed religious freedom
issues with government officials on various occasions during the year.
Sources: U.S. State Department - Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor |