Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0372/03726.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 24KB | 400 lines

$Unique_ID{COW03726}
$Pretitle{289}
$Title{Tunisia
Chapter 2A.   The Society and Its Environment}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{LaVerle Berry and Robert Rinehart}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{tunisia
population
percent
rate
tunis
tunisians
region
central
urban
interior}
$Date{1986}
$Log{Sidi Uqba Mosque*0372601.scf
Figure 7.*0372602.scf
Tunis, the national capital.*0372604.scf
}
Country:     Tunisia
Book:        Tunisia, A Country Study
Author:      LaVerle Berry and Robert Rinehart
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1986

Chapter 2A.   The Society and Its Environment

[See Sidi Uqba Mosque: Sidi Uqba mosque in Kairouan]

     Tunisia in the mid-1980s had the appearance of a society in transition
from one set of guiding principles to another. To a noticeable degree, it was
also increasingly divided against itself, pitting those devoted to
modernization along Western lines against those favoring a more traditional
society in conformity with Islamic norms and precepts. The middle class and
governing elite-mostly urban, relatively well-off economically, and successful
professionally-had fared well during the years since independence in 1956.
French-educated and West European-oriented, this class was well-represented in
government circles. The lower classes lived in rural areas and villages or in
slums surrounding major cities. Considerably poorer than the middle class and
composed of subsistence farmers, herders, and the unemployed, the lower
classes were less receptive to Westernization and were oriented more toward
the Arab world and Islam.

     The upper classes had controlled the nature and direction of the Tunisian
society since independence, but over the past few years they had come under
strong challenge from their more tradition-minded countrymen. In the mid-1980s
the future course of the nation and society was not at all clear. What seemed
certain, however, was a new emphasis on indigenous Muslim norms and values
together with a movement to restructure the society along those lines at the
expense of Western-inspired ideals and life-styles.

     Tunisia, like its neighbors Algeria and Morocco, had a high rate of
population growth. While the rate was substantially lower than it had been a
decade or more earlier, population control remained a major problem that
affected all aspects of national life. It slowed socioeconomic development,
stimulated internal and external migration, produced high rates of
unemployment, and caused shortages in housing, educational facilities, and
health services. The demographic situation, while serious, was more
encouraging than elsewhere in the Maghrib because of a well-established family
planning program, rising marriage ages among the young, and a growing
awareness of the advantages of smaller families.

     A majority of the population were under the age of 25 and posed a
challenge to the government in terms of their impact on housing, education,
and employment. Many young people found themselves without employment or the
opportunity for social advancement and had become frustrated and resentful of
the wealth and status of the middle class. They were also questioning the
value of the elite's modernization policies. These discontented youth,
particularly the educated among them, were instead finding in Islam and
Tunisian identity an alternative to the West European-inspired values of the
upper classes. They were also joining organizations opposed to the government
and were becoming more inclined to reject the contemporary social order.

     The nuclear family continued to gain in popularity at the expense of the
patriarchal extended family of the past. This trend was especially significant
in that it favored lowered birth rates and improvement in the status of women.
Over the last 30 years women had been granted legal rights and protections in
matters of family law and had taken advantage of educational opportunities in
order to move out of the home and into the workplace and even the political
arena. It was not always easy to exercise the new freedoms or to assume
different roles, however, because women's emancipation offended deeply held
beliefs about the proper place and behavior of females in a male-dominated
Islamic society, even one as receptive to change as that of Tunisia. As part
of the recent popularization of Islamic precepts, some younger women were
returning to traditional dress or attempting in other ways to conform to the
more normative standards of Muslim behavior.

     In the mid-1980s Tunisia remained in many ways a moderate, socially
progressive state virtually unique among its Muslim contemporaries. Its
society was homogenous and possessed a high degree of ethnic and cultural
unity. The governing elite had in the past demonstrated its capacity to
recognize problems and to devise solutions to meet them. The challenge in the
1980s from the young, the Islamists, and the have-nots indicated that the
elite's resilience and convictions would continue to be put to the test as the
country prepared for an uncertain future.

Physical Setting

     Together with Algeria, Morocco, and the northwestern portion of Libya
known historically as Tripolitania, Tunisia is part of the Maghrib (see
Glossary), a region in which fertile coastal lands give way to the great Atlas
mountain chain of North Africa and, finally, to the interior expanses of the
Sahara (see fig. 7). Tunisia has an area of approximately 164,000 square
kilometers and a coastline of about 1,600 kilometers indented by the gulfs of
Tunis, Hammamet, and Gabes.

     The Atlas mountain system, which begins in southwestern Morocco,
terminates in northeastern Tunisia. Most of northern Tunisia is mountainous,
but elevations average less than 300 meters and rarely exceed 1,000 meters.
The Atlas Mountains in Algeria and Morocco, however, reach much higher
elevations.

     The principal mountain chain, the Dorsale, slants northeastward across
the country and plunges into the sea at Cape Bon, an area famed among early
Mediterranean navigators. The Dorsale is cut by several transverse
depressions, among them the Kasserine Pass, which figured significantly in the
battle for Tunisia during World War II.

[See Figure 7.: Terrain and Drainage]

Geographic Regions

     Tunisia is divided into three major geographic regions, determined in
part by topography and the quality of the soils and in particular by the
incidence of rainfall, which decreases progressively from north to south.
The regions are northern, central, and southern Tunisia.

     The Dorsale mountains form a rain shadow separating northern Tunisia
from the remainder of the country. Rainfall tends to be heavier north of this
mountain barrier, soils are richer, and the countryside is more heavily
populated.

     Northern Tunisia is a generally mountainous region and is sometimes
referred to as the Tell, a term peculiar to North Africa. It is generally
defined as a heavily populated area of high ground located close to the
Mediterranean Sea. The region is bisected from east to west by the Mejerda
River and is divided into subregions made up of the Mejerda Valley and the
several portions of the Tell. Rising in the mountains of eastern Algeria,
the Mejerda River flows eastward and discharges into the Gulf of Tunis. Its
valley contains Tunisia's best farmland.

     Comprising less than one-fourth of the national territory, northern
Tunisia is a generally properous region. It was heavily settled and
exploited by the French, and its physical characteristics resemble those of
southern Europe more than those of North Africa.

     South of the Dorsale lies central Tunisia, a region of generally poor
soils and scanty rainfall. Its interior consists of a predominantly pastoral
area made up of the High Steppes and the Low Steppes, the former occurring
at greater elevations near the Algerian border. The term steppes was used
by the French to define the semiarid interior highlands of North Africa,
and the area ha