Tunisia: An Arab Anomaly

Safwan Masri explores the factors that shaped the country’s own experience of political transition. He recounts the long history of reforms Tunisia engaged in areas of education, religion, and women’s rights. Masri contends that the seeds of today’s relatively liberal and democratic society were sown long before the mid-19th century. For him, the Tunisian model cannot be replicated in other Arab countries, for the history of reforms it undertook placed it on a separate path from the rest of the region. The book further explores controversial matters related to the idea of identity, the gelatinous relationship between Islam and society, and the dominant role of religion in shaping educational, social and political agendas in the region. Based on interviews with dozens of experts, leaders, activists and ordinary citizens, and the gathering of a rich body of information, Masri offers a sensitive, and often personal account of the Tunisian experience that is crucial in understanding what makes the country an “anomaly”, distinct from the rest of the Arab world.