Ennahda member says to withdraw controversial chapter

Soad Abdulrehim A member of Tunisia's ruling Ennahda party in Tunisia has asked the National Constituent Assembly to withdraw Chapter 28, which caused controversy over the new constitutional draft that redefines in principle equality between man and woman.
Thousands of Tunisians had also protested in the capital, Tunis, on Tuesday against moves by the Islamist-led government which they fear will reduce women's rights.
The government has unveiled a draft constitution which refers to women as "complementary to men".
The mostly women protesters held up placards which read: "Rise up women for your rights."
Soad Abdulrehim, who is the only non-veiled woman in the moderate-Islamist party, told Arabstoday: "The integration terms should be withdrawn from Chapter 28 and replaced by "equality" which will assure Tunisian women of their freedom, which was declared years ago, and the revolution didn’t give her all the rights she used to previously enjoy."
The member denied that the Ennahda movement was against women's rights, and called on the NCA to work with civil society in order to form a consensual constitution relevant to the future.
 On a Tunisian lifestyle magazine that recently celebrated its 56th issue, Abdulrehim said: "The magazine is a great gain as many friends in other countries envy us for it," calling for the constitionalisationof the magazine that "guarantees woman rights".
During a Wednesday press conference, the minister for Tunisian women's affairs, Siham Baddy, from the President Moncef Marzouki-lef CPR, criticised the chapter as "not up to Tunisians' expectations".
She said that "chapters must be accurately written in order not to open a door for circumvents".
Tunisia was reputed as one of the most secular Arab states before the Islamist Ennahda party won elections last year. It took power following the mass uprising which led to the overthrow of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's regime in January 2011.
The 1956 constitution said that women and men were equal, banned polygamy and introduced civil divorce and marriage.
Ennahda member Farida al-Obeidi, who chairs the constitutional assembly's human rights and public freedoms panel, said the wording of the draft constitution was not a backward step for Tunisian women.
Instead, the draft stipulates the "sharing of roles and does not mean that women are worth less than men", she said.
But the chairperson of the Democratic Women's Association, Ahlam Belhadj, condemned the clause.
"Major retreats usually begin with one step," she said.
"If we stay silent today, we will open the door to everything else and end up surprised by even more serious decisions."
The protests began on Monday evening after the end of the daytime fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.