ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates how women's issues intersect with other socioeconomic demands and can, if kept at bay, eventually disappear from the collective mindset, in order to address the broader challenge of stabilizing a country's infrastructure. The spontaneous uprising that materialized in December 2010 and January 2011 in Tunisia had no leader, no slogan, and no preconceived strategy or cause. Members of the local branches of the powerful Tunisian General Labor Union (UGTT), who represented education, health, and telecommunications workers, also played a significant role in this powerful uprising. The newly re-organized second interim government, recognizing a growing socio-political uneasiness permeating Tunisian society, created the High Commission for the Realization of Revolutionary Goals, Political Reforms, and Democratic Transition in March 2011. Almost immediately after the revolution, Tunisia began to witness a rapidly evolving and growing civil-society landscape. During the Ben Ali years, the total number of sanctioned associations, that is, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), never surpassed 7,000.
