ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates how the self-identified Tunisian feminist movement of the sixties and seventies lost momentum over time and how for women across generations there was no one strategy, no mentorship, and no common vision of modern Tunisian women. The Code of Personal Status (CSP) continued to serve as the cornerstone of women's rights in Tunisia at the dawn of the new millennium despite the growing conservative trends and controversial government actions of the 1980s and 1990s. In Tunisia, the new trend of women covering their head with the loosely form fitting headscarf or hijab is steeped in particularly complex, historical narrative. One of the most symbolic and visually documented gestures that helped to solidify the image of Habib Bourguiba as the "Emancipator of women" beyond the promulgation of CSP occurred in 1956. Just prior to the revolution, women activists were advocating for social change and legal solutions to certain remaining inequalities, particularly with regard to the institution of marriage.
