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Abstract
The paper explores the impact of EU democracy promotion in the area of gender in Tunisia. It corroborates and adds nuance to the claim found in previous literature that the EU finances those CSOs whose leadership already embraces gender equality. It shows that members of these CSOs are socialized to different degrees and the internalization of gender equality differs depending on age, gender and location. Already socialized members increased their levels of attachment and investment. New CSO members differed in their socialization outcomes. Some undergo a full internalization process, others develop attachment to some features, while they reject those ideas that do not resonate in their value system. Findings also show that the EU successfully fosters local ownership in project management.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Acknowledgments
This paper has received extensive feedback and comments from the following people: Irene Fernández Molina, Betty S. Anderson, Shamiran Mako, Andrea Teti and Santiago Petschen. Beatriz Tomé, Éric Pardo and Evangelos Liaras have read and re-read the paper in its different drafts. I am indebted to all of them and to the three anonymous reviewers that significantly helped in improving the draft to publishing standards. I specially want to thank Valentine Moghadam for reading this work on multiple occasions and for the mentorship offered whilst being a Carnegie visiting scholar at the International Affairs department of Northeastern University from September to December 2014.
Notes
1. Leverage is a top-down approach of intergovernmental frameworks addressed to governmental elites. Its instrument is political conditionality. The governance model is based on functional cooperation between administrations operating in different policy fields (Lavenex & Schimmelfenning, Citation2011: 887). For more information about how the EU has ‘mainstreamed’ good governance and the toolkit it uses for its promotion, see Börzel et al., (Citation2008).
2. There is some scepticism on the ground about this assumed correspondence of values. The worry is that it actually reflects a fundraising strategy intended to take advantage of the post-revolutionary influx of money from international organizations, rather than a real commitment to gender equality. However, as Johnston has suggested, being deeply committed to principles is coherent with strategic behaviour in an ‘ends justify the means way’ (Johnston, Citation2005: 1031).
3. The major contribution to this topic was made by an issue of International Organization in 2005 devoted to international institutions and socialization in Europe.
4. In 2011, the EU proclaimed a new era and committed itself to the promotion of ‘deep democracy’ which would be based not just on regular elections, but also on a set of preconditions including freedom of association, expression, the rule of law, anti-corruption measures and democratic control of security forces (European Commission, Citation2011a: 3). An extensive literature argues that the EU has not lived up to this commitment. Some relevant examples can be found in Dandashly (Citation2015), Noutcheva (Citation2014), Pace (Citation2014), Buy and Völkel (Citation2014).
5. The other methods Johnston suggests for observing identity change are: ‘to isolate the characteristics that respondents believe are central to group identity, the degree of difference they believe exists between their own group characteristics and others and the appropriate behaviours associated with those different identity memberships’ (Johnston, Citation2005: 1034).
6. This paper uses the term ‘Modernism’ and cognates as it is most often understood in Tunisia, namely as a broad concept defined essentially in opposition to tradition which is associated to Nahda and the Salafi movements. This does not necessarily mean that modernists defend a progressive model of society.
7. Type I socialization is more likely when the following conditions hold: agents are in settings were ‘contact is long, sustained, has a significant duration’ and is ‘intense’ (Checkel, Citation2005: 811). In addition, agents have ‘previous professional experience in policymaking’ (Checkel, Citation2005: 811). Type II socialization occurs when: the agent is a novice, the actor has few ‘prior, engrained beliefs’, the socializing individual is an ‘authoritative member of the in-group to which the target wants to belong’, the socializing agent ‘acts out principles of serious deliberative argument’ and the interaction happens in less politicized settings (Checkel, Citation2005: 813).
8. Within the broad category of modernist CSOs the fact that some have been financed by the EU and others not is related to the consistency of the projects presented, the number of people working in each association and the means to carry out the stated goals. Initially, the study wanted to compare and contrast CSOs that had been funded versus others that had not. This information is not public and hence difficult to obtain. However, interviews with EU officials, CSO members of other associations and journalists stated that the criteria were not ideological, but ‘technical’. More on this issue can be found in the section on civil society strengthening.
9. Interview with Khaliya Belhassi, secretary general of AFTURD, Tunis, 25th June.
10. Interview with Khaliya Belhassi, secretary general of AFTURD, Tunis, 25th June and Vission et mission http://www.afturd-tunisie.org/a-propos (retrieved in June 2014).
The interviewee specifically highlighted several issues. Firstly, according to the law, even if children’s custody is shared between the parents, only the father has the authority to allow offspring to leave the country or manage their assets, even when the couple has divorced. Mrs Belhassi also stressed that Tunisian women that do not work do not have a right to their own social security benefits as these are dependent on their husband’s, or that the current penal code allows a rapist to marry his victim, if she is under 18 years old, as a means of avoiding prison for his crime.
11. Interview AFTURD activist, July 2014, Kasserine, Tunisie.
12. Informal conversation with NGO Cospe worker in Kasserine, July 2014, Kasserine, Tunisia. Interview AFTURD activist, July 2014, Kasserine, Tunisia.
13. Cideal is a Spanish foundation that has worked as the European partner of several EU funded projects in Tunisia.
14. Interview conducted in French and translated into English by the author. El Kef, Menara Centre, Friday 27th June 2014.
15. Interview with Kerima Brinni, president of Women and Citizenship, El Kef, Menara Centre, Friday 27th June 2014.
16. Niqab was not mentioned, hence we cannot describe their opinion regarding this issue. We can assume that their flexibility is limited to the headscarf as there was not a single woman wearing niqab in the association. In fact, hijabi women were a minority in this CSO.
17. Thematic analysis aims to mark out representative contents of the text that, at the same time, are relevant for the research. The text is usually segmented into more or less homogeneous themes in a way that is suitable for the topics dealt it covers (Conde y Gutiérrez del Álamo, Citation2009: 24) Translation: LFP.
18. About Thematic Analysis. School of Pyschology, The University of Auckland, New Zeland. https://www.psych.auckland.ac.nz/en/about/our-research/research-groups/thematic-analysis/about-thematic-analysis.html (retrieved in July 2016).
19. CSOs have mushroomed in Tunisia in the 2011–2013 period and many have become institutionalized. According to the Centre of Studies and Documentation of Associations (IFEDA), 9.000 associations have been created since 2011. In 2014, there were 16. 500 associations in contrast to the 8.500 that existed in the Ben Ali period, although many are not actually active. Women associations have soared from 173 in 2010 to 700 according to Credif (Gribba & Depaoli, Citation2014: 42).
20. This EU view of civil society as a partner to the State is consistent with article 139 of the Tunisian Constitution.
21. Retrieved on <http://eeas.europa.eu/delegations/tunisia/projects/overview/civil_society_fr.htm> [11/01/2013].
22. Interview with Michel Mouchiroud and Melanie Bride, Delegation of the European Commission in Tunisia, Berges du Lac, Tunis. 15 July 2014.
23. Interview with Jamila Kssikssi, president of Civic Pole, Tunis, 4 July 2014.
24. Interview with Michel Mouchiroud and Melanie Bride, Delegation of the European Commission in Tunisia, Berges du Lac, Tunis. 15 July 2014.
25. Interview with Lila Rebai, project coordinator in the EU-TN project at the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network, Tunis, 10 June; interview with Michel Mouchiroud, Delegation of the European Commission in Tunisia, Berges du Lac, Tunis. 15 July 2014.
26. Interview with Michel Mouchiroud, Delegation of the European Commission in Tunisia, Berges du Lac, Tunis. 15 July 2014.
27. Bourghiba Avenue, Tunis, 25 June 2014.
28. By young members, I mostly refer to those activists born in the late 1980s or 1990s.
29. Gilligan’s work illustrating how males frame morality on an ethic of justice that is grounded in equality and according to which everyone should be treated the same (Gillingan, Citation1982: 174) resonates in the young men’s opinion on why they should commit themselves to women’s rights. I would like to thank the anonymous reviewer that made this comment because it helps clarifying how the human experience of justice is gendered.
30. Informal conversation with three young men. WAC. El Kef, Menara Centre, Friday 27 June 2014.
31. French is the language for scientific and technical instruction in Tunisia. Higher education is free, provided students pass the Bac exam at the end of high school. According to the European Commission, 38 per cent of the population in the 19–24 age bracket studies in university (Chacker, Citation2010: 3).
32. This is not to say AFTURD has not played an important role in women’s rights during the Transition. Their activism has proved highly effective when focusing on advocacy to pressure MP’-s, when raising national or international awareness towards injustices against women or when empowering local CSO entrepreneurs like Brinni to acquire the necessary ‘know-how’ to set a CSO and apply to EU funding.