Tunis Cracks Down On Hijab Wearers.

Tunisian authorities have launched a campaign against the Islamic headscarf, with senior officials criticising it as a "sectarian" form of dress and police stopping women on the street and asking them to uncover their hair. The FT on Oct. 16 quoted "Faiza Rahem, who works in a private law firm", as saying: "I was stopped in the market and taken to a police station to sign a pledge that I would not wear my scarf again. The police report said I was arrested red-handed. I refused to sign and luckily the officer was sane enough to let me go".

President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, who crushed the country's moderate Islamist opposition in the 1990s, said in the previous week there was a need "to distinguish between sectarian dress...imported and uninvited...and traditional Tunisian dress, a symbol of an identity rooted in our history". Other officials were cited in recent days accusing those who promoted the Islamic headdress as people hiding behind religion to achieve political aims.

The Turkish-style ban on wearing headscarves in public places dates back to 1981 when it was introduced under Habib Bourguiba, the former president who tried to stamp a secular imprint on the country. Tunisian women who insist on covering their hair in schools and government offices risk losing their jobs. Mrs Rahem said she was barred from entering her son's school wearing her scarf. But despite the ban, the number of women adopting Islamic dress has risen in recent years.

Tunisian analysts cite the influence of preachers on satellite channels beamed from other Arab countries as a main cause of the rise. They say in most cases those who take up Islamic dress do it for religious rather than political reasons. The FT quoted Suad Haji, a human rights activist, as saying: "There is now a fierce campaign against the headscarf. I condemn it because it means that Tunisian women have been deprived from the right to choose what they wear, which is against the constitution. Besides, the government is creating an atmosphere of tension and hostility which could lead to exactly the kind of sectarianism which they say they want to prevent".

Other observers said many people were upset by attempts to enforce the ban, but that in a country where dissent is not tolerated they were afraid to speak up. Ben Ali has clamped down on the spread of ideas or signs of religiosity which could strengthen the outlawed Islamic opposition. He moved against Islamists after violence erupted in Algeria where the army stepped in to deprive an Islamist party of its electoral victory in 1991.