Political orientations of young Tunisians: the impact of gender.

• Author: Suleiman, Michael W.

TUNISIA'S INCREASED CONTACT WITH EUROPE in the nineteenth century forced the Tunisian leadership to consider the most appropriate responses that would enable an economically poor country and its people to protect themselves against a foreign culture and superior powers. While the dominant traditional culture in Tunisia was Arabo/Islamic, the country suffered from an antiquated educational "system," and an abundance of corrupt public and religious officials. When Khayr al-Din al-Tunsi, an enlightened and public-spirited official was in a position to introduce major reforms in the 1870s, he modernized the curriculum of the Zaituna Mosque-University and established a new secondary school, Sadiqi College, modeled after the French lycee. These actions were premised on Khayr al-Din's conviction that Tunisians would not adopt wholesale Western, especially French, culture. Instead, the Arab and Islamic cultural heritage was to be strengthened through reform and, simultaneously, Tunisians were to borrow, selectively, some of the technological and intellectual products of France and Europe generally.(1)

In a very real sense, the dilemma generated by Tunisia's cultural encounter with Europe and the devised solution to it have continued to challenge the Tunisians until the present day. At times, the Arabo-Islamic heritage provides a stronger pull; at other times the supporters of secularism and development are in the ascendancy. However, there is no question that, politically, the major struggle for control of the nationalist movement in Tunisia in the 1930s, sometimes referred to as a "cultural schism," resulted in the triumph of the populist, Western-oriented elites over their more traditionalist counterparts.(2) That ushered in the era of the Neo-Destour Party, later (1964) renamed the Destour Socialist Party, and then the Democratic Constitutionalist (Destourian) Rally (1988). In other words, since the mid-1930s, and definitely since Tunisian independence in 1956, the political leadership in the country has mainly championed a Western-orientation in education and development programs, but with some recognition of the country's Arab and Islamic heritage.(3) As the development push began to sputter in the 1970s, and as the political leadership fractionalized and then fossilized, the Arab and Islamic orientation was, rather reluctantly, allowed somewhat greater expression.(4)

Throughout this lengthy struggle for Tunisia's soul, the leadership has been much more Western-oriented than the public, especially the population living outside of the main urban centers. Thus, while the school system since independence has been bilingual (Arabic and French) and bicultural, with a bias toward Western ideas, the home environment has been mainly traditional and Arab-Muslim in orientation. Under such circumstances, it is important to learn about some of the values the school children have internalized, values that will guide the future leaders of the country. In addition, we will attempt to determine the impact of gender on various cultural and political norms. It should be noted that male/female relationships as well as the education and role of women in society are of equal and major concern to both the traditionalists and the advocates of Western-style reforms and development.(5)

This article presents and discusses the knowledge and attitudes of male and female Tunisian youths, ages 9-17, concerning different aspects of society and politics. These orientations are culled from a 1988 survey of 1,618 students (54% male, 46% female) from a relatively representative sample of sixteen Tunisian elementary and secondary schools, including technical institutes. In other words, the students from the survey would now be young adults ranging in age from 13 to 21 years. This structured-questionnaire survey was conducted in Arabic among students in the fourth to ninth (i.e. third secondary) grades.

Rather than formulate a number of hypotheses about specific issues, I shall assume a general null hypothesis to the effect that there are no differences in the attitudes of male and female young Tunisians concerning their knowledge of political issues, their attitudes toward foreign countries and peoples, or their cultural values and orientations. In other words, it is initially assumed that whatever differences exist in the orientations of young Tunisian males and females are the result of random chance. Obviously, only after the statistical analysis is carried out can we determine whether or not there are significant differences, and whether gender is a primary factor in producing such differences.

POLITICAL KNOWLEDGE

Some of the survey questions attempted to determine how well (or poorly) these young people knew some political leaders and functions, both on the domestic and international levels. One question stated, "What is a political party and what functions does it perform?" Surprisingly few students (157 or 9.7%) could answer that question accurately. This is the case even when we accept as a "correct" response the mere naming of any political party or any reference to what a political party does, such as campaigning or articulating and aggregating interests.(6) A similarly-worded question inquired about labor unions. The results were even more disappointing, with only 85 or 5.3% of the respondents answering correctly. While very few Tunisian students know enough about political parties or labor unions to be able to identify such terms, we noted that among the knowledgeable group, males tend to outnumber females in identifying parties (12.8% to 6.5%) or labor unions (4.8% to 2.8%), but the differences were barely significant.

Young Tunisians' ignorance concerning political parties and labor unions must be viewed with some alarm by Tunisian leaders. After all, the Neo-Destour Party was instrumental in winning the country's independence from France in 1956. Furthermore, it has been in existence since the 1930s, albeit under different names. Also, the UGTT (Union Generale des Travailleurs Tunisiens), the main labor union, has been a major force on the Tunisian scene since 1946, providing a major voice for Tunisian workers in all sectors.

Obviously, the young age of the respondents is a factor contributing to their ignorance. Thus, the older the youths, the better informed they are on these issues. Nevertheless, the 14-17 year-old respondents, who constitute about one-third (31.8%) of the sample, were largely ignorant of political parties and labor unions, with only 85 (16.6%) and 52 (10.1%) correctly answering these questions. The more likely reason for such ignorance is the fact that the party and state have been "fused" in that the party dominates the state and often is "seen" as the state, with no separate status of its own. It is clear that the move to introduce and legitimize other, especially opposition parties, has not been internalized by these youths.(7) In any case, they are not likely to have heard much about it in the school system, which is run and controlled by the state.(8)

The state, however, is very successful in teaching these students who their political leaders are. Thus, a rather impressive 71.4% of all students could correctly name the then prime minister of Tunisia (Hedi Baccouche). On this issue, males were significantly more knowledgeable than females (77.4% vs. 66.1%). This pattern was consistent in all the geographic regions, among the different age groups, and regardless of the level of schooling or the socioeconomic status of schools.(9)

An index of political knowledge concerning internal (domestic) issues was constructed from a compilation of the correct answers to questions relating to political parties (and their functions), labor unions (and their functions), name of prime minister, and the duties/responsibilities of the prime minister. Once again, in comparing the results on the basis of gender, we find that, overall, males appear to be more knowledgeable than females.(10)

One question listed eight regional and world leaders and asked the youths to write a little something about each one, i.e. if they have any knowledge of the leader. Table 1 details the students' responses. Several points may be made about the results. First, Mu'mmar Qadhafi of Libya is clearly the best-known foreign leader, followed by Yasir Arafat, Ronald Reagan and Francois Mitterand, in that order. After that, there is a definite drop in the youths' ability to recognize other leaders on the list. Thus, it is rather surprising that fewer than one-fifth of the students could recognize a major Arab/Muslim leader, namely Hosni Mubarak of Egypt. Also, only about one-eighth knew who Ayatollah Rouhallah Khomeini was.

Table 1 Tunisian Youths' Knowledge of International Leaders

Knows Answers Does not Leader Leader Incorrectly Answer No. % No. % No. % Qadhafi 687 42.5 256 15.8 675 41.7 Arafat 562 34.8 296 18.3 760 47.0 Reagan 526 32.5 209 12.9 883 54.6 Mitterand 482 29.8 160 9.9 976 60.3 Mubarak 303 18.8 224 13.8 1091 67.4 Khomeini 201 12.4 252 15.6 1165 72.0 Klibi 133 8.2 329 20.3 1156 71.4 De Cuellar 23 1.4 86 11.6 1409 87.1 We should observe further that, among Arab leaders, it is Arafat, the head of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), who is best known, in part because of the PLO's presence in Tunisia since 1982. Another point of...