Tunisian women are now free to marry non-Muslims

Tunisia has overturned a 44-year-old law that ban Muslim women from marrying non-Muslims.

In pushing for the ban to be lifted, Tunisian president, Beji Caid Essebsi argued that it contravened Tunisia’s 2014 constitution which was created following the Arab Spring protests at the turn of the decade.

The state is obliged to achieve full equality between women and men and to ensure equal opportunities for all responsibilities, Beji Caid Essebsi said on Tunisia’s National Women’s Day in August when he announced gender equality proposals, including scrapping the ban.

After the ban was lifted, a presidential spokeswoman congratulated women in the country for the “enshrinement of the right to the freedom to choose one’s spouse.”

Until now, a non-Muslim man who wished to marry a Tunisian Muslim woman had to convert to Islam and submit a certificate of his conversion as proof.  

Tunisia, which is 99% Muslim, is viewed as one of the most progressive Arab countries in terms of women's rights.  

The new law comes after President Essebsi pushed for the lifting of the marriage restriction law that was put in place in 1973, since taking office in December 2014.