Association Shams is a Tunisian queer legal association that works for the queer community and the decriminalisation of homosexuality. An announcement of the association in social networks caused a commotion – with both negative and positive reactions. Association Shams stated that Tunisia had declared a same-sex marriage valid. This would be a historic victory for the queer community in the Arab world – religious associations are taking the issue by storm.

The background: The marriage concluded in France between a Tunisian (26) and a Frenchman (31) is said to have been recognised by the Tunisian court last Friday. It was officially noted on the birth certificate at the Tunisian registration office, so that the Tunisian man could obtain a visa for a family reunion in his home country. The two men wish to remain anonymous for fear of their safety.

Homosexuality is illegal in Tunisia and is punishable by up to 3 years imprisonment. The North African country offers homosexuals, also because of its illegality, neither protective laws nor a legal recognition of same-sex partnerships. There have been several attempts to legalise homosexuality in recent years – the last time in 2018, when the presidential committee COLIBE asked the president to take this step. Religious associations resisted and feared for Tunisia’s identity.

Minister does not rule out a mistake

The news of the recognition of the marriage has at the same time led to the joy of queer activists and to accusations by conservative Tunisians who have been expressing their lack of understanding for the legal breakthrough in social media. The government has neither confirmed nor denied the report in response to enquiries by the independent Tunisian news site Nawaat. The Minister for Local Affairs, Lotfi Zitoun, stated that there was no centralisation of civil status data – so they were still checking the allegation. But: if it turned out to be true, it would be a violation of the law. French law would not allow recognition of same-sex marriage by the Maghreb countries – an authority in Tunis had once made a similar mistake, which was subsequently corrected.

In a post this evening, Association Shams again made it clear in relation to Zitoun’s statements that the legal situation in this case was different. First, the Tunisian husband did not settle in France until after his marriage, and secondly, the 1958 court agreement between Tunisia and France was suspended in 2016 in matters of intermarriage. In addition, public prosecutors now have a guideline which states that same-sex mixed marriages between French and North Africans should not be rejected.

Nobody fights more for Tunisia’s queers

Mounir Baatour is the president of Association Shams and a queer activist who is recognised beyond national borders. He is a lawyer and stood up for the presidential election in Tunisia last year. In January this year he fled Tunisia and applied for asylum in France. He told the news agency Thomson Reuters that he had previously received repeated death threats from Islamist groups.

Tunisia’s presidential candidate Mounir Baatour is not only campaigning against the deprivation of LGBTIQ* rights in Tunisia, he is also showing solidarity with the Berber minority, in front of whose flag he can be seen in this graphic.

Now he commented on the historic victory in court and expressed his pride – the success had been preceded by years of litigation.

“We have won… against the many post-revolutionary, political-judicial systems! This is not the only one of my joys. To my knowledge, Shams is the only queer law society in the Arab Muslim world. This is not nothing and offers us opportunities that are hard to grasp – sometimes beyond our borders.”

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