In Tunisia: Regional Symposium on Femicide and the Silence of the State

By: Ikhlas Hosni

Between grief and anger, on Wednesday, May 14, 2025, women’s and human rights advocates gathered in Tunis for a regional forum organized by the association Aswat Nissa, with the participation of initiatives from Jordan and Morocco. The aim was to shed light on crimes against women and exchange experiences on monitoring and resistance mechanisms.

The meeting became a political platform to analyze patterns of unreported violence and their social and cultural contexts, especially in the absence of a serious national vision and amid clear institutional collusion. Participants agreed that women in Tunisia, Morocco, and Jordan have become direct targets of femicide, which demands radical changes in public policy, proper enforcement of existing laws, and the development of effective protection systems.

Testimonies revealed that the tragic situation facing women in the three countries stems from systemic failures: the inability to protect them, underestimation of risks, slow legal procedures, lack of awareness, unwillingness to address the root causes of gender-based violence, and the absence of serious enforcement of laws.

“Takatoat” from Jordan: women’s security is state security

In a statement to Sharika wa Laken, Jordanian activist Banan Abu Zaineddin, executive director of the feminist collective Takatoat, emphasized the gravity of the crisis and the need to “recognize femicide as crimes distinct from other categories, increase penalties, and treat them as a matter of state security, because women’s security is inseparable from state security.”

She stressed that “murders do not happen suddenly; they are preceded by cycles of repeated violence that current systems fail to break due to inadequate protection mechanisms and weak gender responsiveness.” This reality, she explained, forces women to remain trapped in cycles of abuse despite efforts to escape, compounded by social and economic pressures.

Abu Zaineddin noted that “in Jordan, femicide rates are among the highest. Since we began monitoring in 2013, we have observed a worrying increase in these crimes and a shift from the private sphere to the public sphere, as seen in the cases of Aya and Ahlam, which were treated as ordinary murders, even though they are glaring examples of today’s reality.”

On the inefficiency of protection systems for women and girls, she explained: “In Jordan, this is called the family protection system, but women are still viewed mainly through their social role rather than as individuals with inherent rights to protection. The system also fails to recognize that women and men face different types of risks and dangers.”

In Morocco: no official statistics

Moroccan journalist Camelia Shehab pointed out that Morocco “lacks official statistics on femicide,” noting that “according to media sources, not official ones, there were around 50 murders of women in 2023.”

In her interview with Sharika wa Laken, she highlighted the “absence of deterrent laws,” stressing that “existing legal protections have proven ineffective at safeguarding women or curbing murders committed against them simply because they are women.”

State responsibility and failure to protect

Mounia Qari, a professor of private law, held the Tunisian state responsible for the rise of the phenomenon, citing the absence of a clear national plan, the lack of an official discourse addressing violence, and the weak enforcement of Law No. 58.

She pointed to the absence of effective danger assessments and the failure of security services to respond seriously to women’s complaints. She explained that there is a tool known as a “risk assessment scale,” developed by civil society to evaluate the level of threat faced by women. The Ministry of the Interior also created its own risk assessment tool, yet neither has been applied in practice.

She emphasized that the severity of the problem is evident in women’s experiences when they go to police stations to file complaints. They are often met with attitudes that normalize violence, sometimes told to return home, or even prevented from filing a complaint and pursuing legal action. This reality contributes directly to the escalation of violence, leaving women trapped in cycles of danger that may ultimately lead to murder.

“Aswat Nissa” Report: 26 murders in Tunisia in 2024

The association Aswat Nissa presented its annual report, which documented 26 murders and one attempted murder in Tunisia in 2024, claiming the lives of 30 women. Sixty-four percent of these crimes took place in Greater Tunis, specifically in the capital and Ariana. The report revealed that most perpetrators were intimate partners, and most were in their forties and fifties.

The data showed that murders of women were recorded across 16 governorates, with the highest concentration in Greater Tunis, where 16 cases were documented, equivalent to 64 percent. Tunis province topped the list with eight cases, followed by Ariana with six.

In terms of perpetrators’ ages, the report indicated that men in their forties committed the highest number of crimes against women, particularly intimate partner murders involving husbands or ex-husbands. The figures also showed that five crimes were committed by men in their thirties, nine by men in their forties, three by men in their fifties, and one by a man in his sixties.

In light of the rising number of cases, Aswat Nissa sounded the alarm about the state’s inability to protect its women. “Every woman killed simply because she is a woman is the victim of a society that has chosen to justify, remain silent, and absolve the killer.”

Femicide worldwide… and crimes of genocide

At the regional level, data from UN Women highlights high rates of women killed due to domestic violence in countries such as Tunisia, Egypt, and Morocco.

In Palestine, the killing of women was classified as a crime of genocide during the aggression on Gaza. Oxfam reported that the war beginning on October 7, 2023 resulted in at least 40,000 deaths, the majority of them civilians, including 10,000 children and 7,000 women.

Globally, UN reports show that about 140 women are killed every day, or one woman every 10 minutes. UN data further indicates that approximately 89,000 women and girls were deliberately killed in 2022, while in 2023 the figure reached 85,000. Sixty percent of these crimes, or 51,000 women and girls, were committed by an intimate partner or another family member.

An “unnamed crime” and an ambiguous definition

During the seminar, participants raised the issue of the absence of a unified legal definition of the term femicide. Although the concept recognizes the gendered dimensions of the crime and has been internationally adopted, it has yet to be incorporated into Tunisian law, even though some countries, particularly in Latin America, have already done so.

The term femicide acknowledges gender as a central factor in explaining the motives behind these murders. It refers specifically to intentional killings of women because they are women, often referred to as “gender-based murder” or “gender-based killing.”

In her presentation, Professor of Private Law Mounia Qari stressed that the lack of a unified definition of femicide is a major problem. “The killing of women by men simply because they are women makes the crime political par excellence,” she argued. She added that women face legal, institutional, and security barriers when seeking protection, which places them in a vulnerable position that increases their risk of being murdered. “We have no clear national plan. The state is not responding adequately. Violence continues to be managed through a patriarchal culture that normalizes it.”

Sociologist Dr. Fathia Saeidi linked the rise of femicide to domestic violence and to the lack of comprehensive enforcement of Law No. 58. She noted that the Tunisian Penal Code does not recognize the killing of women as a distinct crime, treating it instead like any other homicide, without considering its gender-based context.

For her part, Arij Al-Jalassi, head of gender-based violence programs at Aswat Nissa, emphasized the importance of psychological care for survivors to support their recovery, as well as psychological rehabilitation for perpetrators to prevent repeated acts of violence.

Regarding media coverage, journalist Hanene Zbis criticized the press for its negligence and superficial treatment of such cases, pointing to the lack of follow-up and inadequate naming of crimes. She condemned the tendency to report cases without mentioning the victim’s name, “as if she were a nobody or just a number.” She added that coverage too often stops at the immediate news without tracking the case further.

Urgent recommendations and demands

The symposium served as a platform for strong criticism of official performance. Participants unanimously agreed that the countries in question, particularly Tunisia, remain unable to provide effective protection for women. Although laws exist, they are often unenforced, and the institutions charged with protection lack resources and training.

Participants called for sweeping reforms to judicial, educational, and media systems, and for the urgent implementation of a comprehensive national plan to combat violence. Aswat Nissa further demanded the creation of a body within the Ministry of Women to assess the effectiveness of policies, the adoption of a risk assessment index for use by judges and police, and the organization of nationwide awareness campaigns engaging all relevant institutions.

They also underlined the need for “national awareness campaigns with the participation of ministries and institutions covered by Basic Law No. 58 of 2017 on combating violence against women,” along with the adoption of a standardized risk assessment tool by specialized units and family judges.

The symposium concluded with a call for a comprehensive feminist strategy to combat femicide, beginning with holding both authorities and society accountable, reforming the judicial system, revising educational and media programs, and fostering a collective consciousness that rejects violence in all its forms.