Powerful women rule in Carthage

By Fleur Macdonald

I arrived in Tunisia for the Carthage Film Festival last Thursday, two days after 12 members of the Presidential Guard had been killed in a suicide attack in central Tunis. Despite curfews and beefed-up security, the festival, which ran until Saturday, was in full swing and the mood was defiant. Founded in 1966, this is the longest-running film festival in Africa. It is a companion to the Fespaco festival in Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso and the official competition is only open to Arab and African film-makers.

It was also the week of the UN’s International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (as I was told – just like that – by the man sent to fetch me at the airport). It seemed propitious: in many ways women were at the heart of the festival. “The History of Arab Feminism”, a documentary by Feriel Ben Mahmoud, was a crowd-pleaser. It shows the great strides made by feminist movements during the waves of independence in the 1950s. While Nasser didn’t dare go as far in Egypt, Habib Bourguiba, the first president of Tunisia, personally removed veils from women’s heads in the streets. In 1973, abortion was legalised. Female emancipation was a great symbol of modernity. But the documentary argues that progress now needs to be kick-started again. A clip of a less-than-charming imam sharing pearls of wisdom on a Middle Eastern TV channel provoked uproarious laughter from the Tunisian spectators. “Allah honoured wives by instating the punishment of beatings. The Prophet Muhammad said, ‘Don’t beat her in the face, and do not make her ugly’… See how she is honoured.” The women in the audience were laughing hardest.