ABSTRACT
The process of writing the new Tunisian Constitution began in February 2012, and the final text was eventually approved in late January 2014. The first major constitutional debate for and about women occurred in response to a proposed draft article originating in the National Constituent Assembly (ANC) subcommittee, the Commission of Rights and Freedoms, on August 1, 2012. Women's rights was not the only topic of concern and debate among members of the six ANC subcommittees crafting the various constitutional articles and among the general public; they also questioned articles pertaining to the right to life, the role of the State in religion, and the freedom of conscience. The final vote to approve the new Constitution on January 26, 2014, demonstrates impressive efforts among dispersed ideological groups to find compromise in the name of progress, that is, to focus on the goal of moving forward a country that had, from the outside, underscored its main revolutionary objective: dignity and freedom.
