Tunisia will go to the polls tomorrow in an election that could produce an all-male parliament.
That outcome would be no accident: recent changes to electoral laws have made it nearly impossible for women to compete in politics.
“People in my area trusted me because they know I don’t belong to any party,” says Monia Abid, a 58-year-old mother of three who lives in La Goulette, a fishing district near the capital, Tunis. After years of community work and organising, first as a member of the Tunisian Workers’ Communist Party, and then in the leftist Popular Front Coalition, Abid decided to run for office for the first time in this election. However, her candidature was rejected after she failed to collect the 400 signatures required for nomination.
