WORLD WORLDWIDE FRANCE News Journal Update (en) France, CNT-AIT, femmes [BROCHURE]: THE VEIL, AN INSTRUMENT OF MALE DOMINATION AND EXCLUSION OF WOMEN (Tahar HADDAD) (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

If the wearing of the veil is de rigueur in the cities and certain villages, the
woman nevertheless remains free from this obstacle in rural societies; which
leads one to believe that it was therefore dictated by a selfish feeling hidden
under a religious argument, since this rigorism sometimes gives way to a
tolerance and even to a certain relaxation when it comes to problems which we
discuss without passion . ---- It is enough for that to notice our attitude with
respect to the adultery, it is as indulgent, even sympathetic towards the man as
severe, hard even towards the woman. The man sees with repugnance and revolt that
his relatives have sentimental relations with others, while he allows himself to
have them with the wives and daughters of others. These are the limits to which
we abhor adultery and fanatically defend the wearing of the veil. Only we men are
not used to considering ourselves, to judging ourselves with this brutal
frankness in order to recognize the truth.

One of the disadvantages of the veil is that it is above all a separation between
the man and the woman which prevents them from getting to know each other better
with a view to marriage in order to better know their inclinations, their tastes,
their character and to found a home. happy. But they are unfortunately obliged to
be satisfied with the opinion of the parents who most often act against their
interests and their convenience, which is why the success of the marriage remains
subordinate to luck, to chance. We would not want to dwell on the cases where it
is a question of deception and serious deceit as regards the very identity of the
fiancée; the duped fiancé, often without a family, does not sue for forgery.

These incidents, though frequent, had made the young people skeptical, suspicious
and suspicious. Some have even preferred to marry a European since they can get
to know their future[wife], although this association is not a sure way of
eliminating all the risks of failure. However, this preparatory relationship for
marriage does not leave the future solely to the whims of chance and can also
create in the future spouses a certain confidence that we cannot experience with
our customs.

The use of the veil has led Man to lead an almost secret life and without the
knowledge of women. In cafes, restaurants, places of shows and games, we go crazy
spending, while often at home, the wife, the children are deprived of the
necessary. The head of the family only leaves them a limited sum to live on and
keeps the rest for the other life he leads outside.

What, no doubt, emboldens the man to bask selfishly in this wide life, is the
privileged situation which leaves him the present condition of the captive woman,
veiled, incapable of having a view of the places where fathers of families, where
they slide towards debauchery, ruin and illness. The effect of this behavior of
the man on the spirit of the woman and on her conduct is not to be demonstrated.

By her irrefutable right to manage her own fortune, the woman must play a role,
have activities in the legal, economic and social life that she can only really
exercise with the knowledge of her partners. This is how wearing the veil has
become a real handicap in this area; hence a bizarre situation that facilitates
deceptive operations and scams of which it is the victim.

The pretext of wearing the veil finally led her to be completely excluded from
the management of her own fortune, she was unjustly condemned to entrust her
interests to others, to a male representative; there are many examples of
fortunes squandered with impunity, because the victim does not know how to get
caught up in the wheels of justice.

The consequences of isolation on the psychic and moral levels, the cases of
sexual perversity are very widespread in different aspects that Muslim jurists
have cited and on which they have expressed their opinion.

(...) It only remains to get to the bottom of the problem to find data for
constructive action, which provides him with education, instruction and his
rights in the legal field.

It would be useless to explain the arguments of those who stick to the
preservation of the veil for the sake of protecting good morals. Rather, we must
recognize that the situation demands of us sincerity in language and action.
Because it is not a question of displaying our personality in front of the public
who has the right to be enlightened and not to be fooled by words.

For my part, I feel no tendency to believe that the solution of the problem could
be found in the defense of the veil, because the veil is accused today by
arguments so powerful that no system of defense can invalidate.
It must be recognized rather that the most urgent thing is to unite our efforts
in order to constitute for women an education system and a teaching program which
will ensure their real development, instead of wasting precious time in debates
sterile.

Tahar HADDAD, "Our wife, in Sharia and society", Tunis, 1930

Born on December 4, 1899 in Tunis in a poor family, Tahar HADDAD ((?) is a
leading Tunisian thinker and trade unionist.

Having studied at the University of Zitouna, one of the high places of Islamic
higher education, he joined the Destour Party (Tunisian nationalists) after his
studies, where he was a member of the Propaganda Commission, in charge of to get
Tunisians to join. However, he left the party in 1924, the nationalists of
Destour being moderately interested in the social question (and not wanting to
question the native employers ...) refused the creation of a workers' union.

As a trade union activist from the start, he participated in 1924 with Mohamed
Ali El Hammi and other trade unionists in the founding of the Association for
Economic Cooperation as well as in the establishment of the General Confederation
of Tunisian Workers (CGTT) . In his book "Tunisian workers and the emergence of
the trade union movement", he defends the idea of a trade union which is both a
melting pot of workers' demands to improve living and working conditions
(increase in wages, better housing, etc.) but also a framework of solidarity and
organization of the production and distribution of the goods produced, in the
form of cooperative societies coupled with mutual insurance companies and social
funds that can support the working class in its struggle for its subsistence and
his dignity.

Precursor and feminist before the letter, offering an enlightening reading of
Islam of which he was a convinced follower. He also ardently campaigned for the
evolution of Tunisian society at the beginning of the 20th century. His most
famous work "Our wife, in Sharia and society", published in 1930, had the effect
of a bomb. This book was a turning point in the perception that Tunisian society
had of women and the status of women.

First publication of Tahar HADDAD's book in Arabic in 1930
This publication earned him virulent opposition, harsh criticism and fierce
hatred from all the elites of the country: religious circles of the Great Mosque
of Zitouna, officials of the Bey (the Tunisian Sultan), nationalists of Destour
(Bourguiba himself opposed by following the campaigns against the veil because he
considered that it would undermine the feeling of national belonging, and
therefore opposed the anti-colonial struggle), rich French colonists (the
"preponderants"), all of whom delivered Haddad to public vengeance. Only a few
intimate friends and a few enlightened minds of the French left who could be
counted on the fingers of one hand, supported him unfailingly. Since then, he has
lived like a plague victim, rejected by the population, after being stripped of
his position as a notary, stripped of his diploma, prevented from taking the exam
which was to ensure him professional promotion. His modernist spirit cost him
denigration, seclusion and ostracism, a rejection that drove him into exile. He
died of tuberculosis, alone and in extreme poverty, on December 7, 1935, at the
age of 36.

More than 80 years later, reactionary circles continue to devote infinite
hostility to him: in May 2012, in the midst of a period of political
confrontation in Tunisia, the press revealed that his tomb had been desecrated.
His statue will in turn be desecrated in 2015 at Hama

http://cnt-ait.info/2023/03/06/tahar-haddad-pionnier-sacrilege/

http://cnt-ait.info/2020/01/29/tahar-haddad/
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