The farmer's servant calls for a referendum on the number of wives
The Deputy B of the Assembly of the Representatives of the People demands that the President of the Republic propose an amendment to the Personal Status Journal on direct voting to address increasing family problems.
Deputy to the Assembly of the Representatives of the People Abdul Al-Star al-Zari called on the President of the Republic to hold a popular referendum on the revision of the Personal Status Journal and the issue of polygamy in Tunisia. The call came during a public meeting to discuss the budget of the Ministry of Family, Women, Children and the Elderly.
The MP based his proposal on the block of trust and work to consider polygamy as a solution to increasing social and family problems and higher divorce rates. The farmer stressed that the final decision in this proposal should be left to the will of the citizens to decide their fate through direct voting.
The MP confirmed that the citizens are the actual decision-makers in this matter through the ballot boxes.
The initiative welcomed a backlash from the family minister, human rights, women's rights organisations and parliamentarians who considered the violation of women's earnings to be contrary to the existing constitutional and legal system.
Tunisia prohibits polygamy and criminalizes it under Chapter 18 of the Journal of Personal Conditions issued on 13 August 1956, which punishes its perpetrator with imprisonment and a fine. The legislative or presidential arena has not seen any further official step to translate the referendum proposal into a constitutional procedure or a bill on the ballot.