2018 — Study on Trans Rights Published, Tunisia

In 2018, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung published a report on trans rights in Tunisia by Dr Habib Nouisser, titled ‘Sex Change in Tunisia: When Law Confiscates Identities.’ According to the study,

“the Tunisian judiciary systematically refuses requests to change gender markers in cases in which people have undergone sex reassignment surgery because of gender identity disorder, citing various sources from the Qur’an as well as Tunisia’s cultural positioning in the Arab-Muslim world as grounds for their decisions. The same study indicates that the judiciary is more inclined to allow legal gender recognition for intersex people than for transgender people.

Judicial authorities’ reliance on the misconceived pathologization of transgender identities forces transgender people who seek legal recognition of their gender to endure humiliating medical examinations by judicial forensic authorities. Judicial authorities also require transgender people to undergo all surgical and hormonal treatments before reviewing their applications.”

Source: ‘Tough Territory for Transgender People in Middle East and North Africa’, by Nora Noralla

The study looked at Tunisian legislation regarding gender identity. The author writes that Tunisian law views gender as a binary, meaning it does not cater for people who undergo gender-affirming surgery, condemning them to discrimination based on identity documents that do not reflect their bodily realities and gender identities (pages 4-5).

The author continues, the law

“confines the person concerned to a legal status which restricts his/her most fundamental rights as an indication and not limited to his/her basic right to identity, his/her right to enter marriage and found a family, his/her right to individual liberty, his/her right to respect for the dignity of his/her person [… and] his/her body” (page 6).

According to the study, legislation allows changes to legal sex if it is “justified by a vital necessity, with a curative purpose” and not on the basis of “modifying the initial sex” (page 7). This would seem to indicate, although the study does not explicitly say so (possibly due to the article being written in Arabic and translated into English), that Differences of Sexual Development, or intersex characteristics, would be a legally acceptable reason to amend one’s legal sex as it would be “curative” in removing any sexual physical ambiguities and make it easier to place an individual in the legal binary of male and female.

The study also discusses the reliance on religion within the justice framework, with gender identity being seen as a Western world “cultural identity”, and contrary to the teachings of the Quran (pages 7-8).

In an article published on 7 April 2022 entitled ‘Tough Territory for Transgender People in the Middle East and North Africa’, Nora Noralla writes that surgical gender-affirming care for Tunisian trans people are limited, with people having to travel abroad. One activist said,

“There are no doctors who can do the surgeries for us here, maybe some plastic surgeons would do the top surgery [breast augmentation or removal], but it is very costly. I traveled to Egypt in 2015 after some friends there connected me with doctors who did the operation for me in their private clinic.”

Noralla also writes that access to general healthcare is often denied to trans people, and that they have been harassed by healthcare workers. A trans man interviewed by Noralla said,

“When I get sick, I would rather sleep it away than go to a hospital. Every time I go I either get mocked or cursed at and often do not even receive the treatment I need.”

Noralla reports that trans people not being able to access identity documents that reflect their gender leads to discrimination. A trans man said that

“For me, the biggest problem is the mismatch between my papers and my gender identity. I cannot get a job, and this impacts all the other aspects of my life.” He added, “The basis of our problems is the lack of economic empowerment. If we get jobs, we can make money and then undergo the operations or travel abroad.”

In concluding the article, Noralla writes:

“Tunisia [is party] to international human rights treaties, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), which emphasize the protection of human rights regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation. The UN Human Rights Committee, which monitors compliance with the ICCPR, and the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights have made clear that countries are prohibited from discriminating based on sexual orientation or gender identity in upholding the rights set forth in the respective treaties. CESCR General Comment No 14 states that the right to healthcare is fundamental and calls on member states to ensure access to healthcare without discrimination. CESCR General Comment No 4 emphasizes the right to adequate and safe housing.

Tunisia [is] also obligated under the African Charter of Human Rights to protect sexual and gender minorities as stipulated in the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights’ resolution 275 in 2014, which condemns systematic attacks and human rights violations based on gender identity and sexual orientation and states that governments should pass new laws to address the violations […]

In view of the documented violence transgender people face by security forces, the authorities in Egypt, Lebanon, and Tunisia should ensure that transgender people have equal access to legal protections and complaint mechanisms to report violations against them.”