Tunisia Photo Essay: 5000 Rally on Saturday for Equality Between Men and Women

Thomas v. der Osten-Sacken and Bernd Baier, who debuted on EA on Saturday with a photo essay on Friday's protests and police raid in Tunis, follow up with a report and pictures from yesterday's march for gender equality:

In the first massive rally for equality of sexes since the toppling of President Ben Ali,  marchers called for a change of the Constitution.

The first paragraph of Tunisia's Constitution calls the country a "secular republic" but also says Islamias the state religion. Women 's rights movements and other secularists want the removal of the clause --- Tunisia should be "secular republic", no more but definitely not less.

At 3 p.m., the demonstration began on Habib Bourguiba Avenue, the street that became the heart of the uprising against Ben Ali, where everyone meets, exchanges news, or just use the new-won freedom to have chats would have led to imprisonment only two weeks ago.

When the first 500 protesters gathered, a group of plainclothes men with sticks tried to attack them to spread fear and chaos.  An angry woman proclaimed, "These are the militias of Ben Ali, they want to provoke us and turn our manifestation  violent  to  give the police a reason for dissolving it."

However, some demonstrators organized peaceful resistance and saved the moment, as the plainclothes disappeared within the ranks of uniformed police. Then the rally started to move down the avenue, now joined by another 2000-3000 people, old and young, male and female, veiled and unveiled.

Later another demonstration for equality and a secular state was held.  A woman in her 50s holding a placard for democracy and secularism broke out in joy, "I' ve been living exactly for this moment." An older teacher said, "Probably this is the first time the Arab world has seen such an event."