"It's Complicated" The Relationship Between Islam and Gender Equality. : A Comparative Case Study of the Developments of Family Codes in the two Muslim States Tunisia and Algeria

Abstract: This paper takes a critical stance to the conventional thinking about the relationship between Islam and gender equality in a functional idea analysis on the family codes in Algeria and Tunisia. With two different outcomes in spite of their historical and cultural similarities, this paper seeks to understand the developments from neo-colonial and Islamic feminist perspectives. The analysis investigates three variables brought from these theories: militarization, anti-westernism and Islamic law interpretation, and their possible effect on the shaping of the family code. By applying them to the historical, cultural and social contexts of the countries and comparing them to each other, the conclusion is made that all of the variables could be used to understand the family code-outcomes. This results in a hypothesized causal mechanism which can be tested on other muslim states, when seeking to understand differences in institutionalized gender equality around the world.