A Tunisian magistrate, Mrs. Monia Ammar, was elected as member of the under-commission of Human Rights as part of the League of Arab States. The news was announced on the occasion of the 23 rd session of the permanent Arab commission of Human Rights, currently held at the League's headquarters in Cairo .
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Last week, Sheikh Rachid Ghannouchi and other members of the Islamic al-Nahda Party returned to Tunisia after more than two decades in exile. Ghannouchi’s return—and the warm welcome he received at the Tunis airport—touched off concerns about a resurgence of political Islam in the North African country. No one is more concerned than Tunisia's women, who have enjoyed more than half a century of political, legal and personal freedoms unprecedented in the Arab world.

In a bid to lend support to the process of electoral reform in Tunisia as preparations get under way for the election of a Constituent Assembly on 24 July 2011, the IPU dispatched an expert mission to the country from 22 to 24 March 2011. Following consultations with Tunisian women politicians, members of civil society organizations and representatives of local and international youth movements, the mission met with the subcommittee tasked with writing the draft electoral law.

For Tunis resident Amel, her country's January revolution brought her personal freedom after two decades living in a repressive police state. But as a woman, she is fearful Tunisia's yet uncertain future could bring something else -- an Islamist resurgence and what that could mean to her rights.

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A women’s group begins campaigning near La Marsa beach in Tunis to convince more women to come up and register in the electoral lists, in time for the deadline now pushed back to Aug. 14. Most of the women watching the proceedings are veiled.

The veils present more a question than a suggestion at present. One survey among veiled women conduced by journalists here claims that four in five of these women will not vote for Ennahda, the Islamist party surging ahead in popularity ahead of elections for a constituent assembly due in October.