First Independent Mena Newspaper
Tunisia’s constitutional assembly voted earlier this week to enshrine gender equality in its draft constitution, upholding the country’s status as having one of the Arab world’s most progressive laws on women’s right. The text enshrining the equality between men and women was approved by a large majority of 159 lawmakers out of the 169 who […]
The ongoing voting of the constitutional articles is surrounded with great enthusiasm and debates. The different political parties are blaming each other for the approval or rejection of certain articles. Voting began at the end of last week. Death threats have already been sent to a couple of members in parliament thereby delaying the voting […]
From the perspective of Tunisian youth, year 2013 was a game-changer. According to Issam Khemakhem, the president of the Tunisian-Euro-Mediterranean Association of Youth (ATEMJ), the need to combat extremism, as experienced by Tunisia in 2013, due to terrorist attacks, is reinforced especially when it comes to dealing with ideological, religious, or social threats. ATEMJ has […]
Tunisia’s parliament is expected to vote on the drafted constitution on Friday but the text is undergoing amendments in the last moments and parliamentarians are yet to lay their hands on the final draft. The National Constituent Assembly begun the amendments after intense last-minute negotiations led to the revision of certain articles and probably some […]
The killing of three French journalists in northern Malian region of Kidal in early November 2013 is indicative of the ability of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) to conduct terrorist attacks in the region despite French military presence. Similarly, the announcement of the creation of a new terrorist group called Al Mourabitoun out of […]
In order to deal with the envisaged decline in state revenues, Tunisia is planning to introduce tax hikes and subsidy cuts in the budget for 2014. Not surprisingly, this unpopular call has already triggered a wave of controversy, while economists agree that all in all the entire draft of the 2014 budget is inevitably facing […]
Threats of terrorists’ attacks on New Year’s Eve are being issued by the Interior Ministry but it seems as if Tunisians are busy preparing for festivities. The end of year is usually marked with celebrations all over the world and it is also seen by businesses as an opportune moment to offer promotional packages. Minister […]
The spokesman of the 21 political parties engaged in talks, Mohamed Mahfoudh, has announced that the 14th of January 2014 will be the deadline for the adoption of a new constitution. Tunisia has been meddled in political crisis since the departure of Ben Ali. Elections returned the country to relative calm but tensions reached new […]
Tunisia has recently commemorated the deportation of 5,000 Jews from the country during the Second World War between 1942 and 1943 – an act that astonished many Tunisians. According to the general societal feeling though, the commemoration of the Holocaust – among Jews known as “shoah” – is an interesting step that comes at a […]
Because of the mounting security situation in the region of Sahel, closer cooperation and integration in Maghreb is needed. According to the final concluding remarks of the 11th Morocco-EU Association Council, the EU28 stressed the salience of tight cooperation between the MENA and Sahel-Sahara region. The effort of closer collaboration between Sahel and Maghreb was […]