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Showing posts with the label bourguiba

Tunisia

Interesting but in fact the analysis does a disservice to socialism for its sweeping statements. The reader has the impression that both Tunisia and Algeria were socialist countries at one time. In Tunisia the cooperative experiment was a small part of the economy. There was never a socialist economy. A planned economy is not the equivalent of socialism. Ben Salah and the Fate of Destourian Socialism

Feminism

  A History of Arab Feminism (a 2015 documentary) A liberal perspective. A whole essay could be written as a critique of the documentary. Here some of my thoughts on it: Very informative, although I disagree with the approach and the omissions. “Feminism” is not one. But it is obvious in this documentary that “liberal” feminism, i.e. the feminism of the “free market” Western capitalism, is the reference and criteria. “Liberal feminism” includes sexualisation of the body and commodification of women, exploitation of women as cheap labour, although that has a contradictory aspect, for it helps women join the labour force and gain some rights. It is also obvious in the documentary that the “liberation” of Tunisian women did originally and mostly came from above, not through a radical movement. But the documentary wanted to say that it came through both. The documentary has some inaccuracies in the English translation. Example: تونس دولة مدنية must be translated “Tunisia is a civic state,