The “Aswat Nissa” association presented at a press conference Thursday in Tunis a comprehensive survey assessing the performance of the Ministry of the Family, Women, Children and the Elderly using the “gender metre” indicator.
The association’s legal advisor, Ahmed Mkaddem, stressed that the Minister of Women issued 87 decisions in 2023, mainly concerning appointments and promotions, representing a rate of 86%, according to the report.
However, some of these decisions concerned organisational and structural matters within the ministry.
Mkaddem considered it unacceptable for the ministry to focus solely on administrative aspects without formulating a clear action plan to improve the status of Tunisian women.
He argued that Tunisian women face many dangers, the most important of which is the escalating rate of femicide.
He underlined that the number of documented cases of femicide in Tunisia increased sharply in 2023, with statistics showing that 54% of victims were killed by their spouses, 8% of crimes w
ere committed against sisters or daughters, and 4% of incidents targeted immigrant women and young girls who were not related to the perpetrator.
The Ministry’s performance in supporting women was “weak”, he added, highlighting that 38% of homicides were committed with knives, while 29% involved other sharp objects, still according to the report.
The association explained that the Gender Metre based its assessment of the Ministry of Women’s performance on data from various sources, including official statistics, the ministry’s activities throughout 2023, studies published on its website, as well as regulatory decisions published in the Official Gazette (JORT).
Mkaddem explained that the ministry’s communication strategy is superficial, as its vision of economic empowerment includes numerous programmes that do not produce any discernible results, especially considering that the unemployment rate for women has reached 21%, as opposed to 13% for men.
Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse