April 29, 2020
Couple's Same-Sex Marriage Recognized in Tunisia?
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 2 MIN.
A Tunisian equality group says that after becoming wed in France, the home country of one of the grooms, a same-sex couple got their marriage recognized in the home country of one of the other man: Tunisia, a Muslim-majority nation gripped by homophobia so vitriolic that being gay can result in a prison sentence of up to three years.
The claim was covered at news site Realities.
The French-language site said that a Facebook post from the Tunisian LGBTQ equality group Shams - Pour la d�p�nalisation de l'homosexualit� en Tunisie had announced that the marriage between a French man and his Tunisian husband had been officially recognized by the North African nation.
Realities reported that Shams called the recognition of the mens' marriage "a 'new achievement' for gay Tunisians in our country," and went on to add, "According to the same source, for the first time in the history of Tunisia and the Arab world, a gay marriage contract between a man of French nationality and another of Tunisian nationality, is officially recognized in Tunisia."
The Shams Facebook post read:
"After their marriage, French and Tunisian, the contract of their marriage (which was passed by French laws) in Tunisia is recognized and included in the content of tunisian birth."
The post caused instant controversy, but also instant excitement, garnering headlines from around the world.
The news was seemingly dismissed a fake by officials in the Tunisian government. Shams took to Facebook once more to rebut this in a followup post:
"In response to the statements made by Minister Lotfi Zitoun, the association #Shams says:
1-Tunisian husband has no other nationality. He is not French-Tunisian and only became a resident in France after the marriage.
2-The 1958 judicial convention between Tunisia and France was suspended in 2016 by the French Court of Cassation in matters of mixed marriage. In addition, a Directive has been sent to prosecutor not to oppose mixed gay marriage between French and Maghreb.
3-No legal action has been brought by Tunisian husband to delete the registration of gay marriage in his birth certificate.
UK newspaper the Daily Mail offered more detail:
Mounir Baatour, the founder of Shams, said the Tunisian man had married a 31-year-old Frenchman at a city hall in France, which legalised equal marriage in 2013.
A French consulate in Tunisia then informed the local authorities who added the marriage to the Tunisian man's birth certificate, Baatour said....
'It shows that Tunisia will not be able to resist the natural course of history in the world,' Baatour said.
Baatour was quoted by The Jerusalem Post as noting that his organization "became legal after years of legal battle."
Added Baatour: "To my knowledge, SHAMS is now the only legal association in the Arab-Muslim world. This is not nothing and offers us hardly believable opportunities, sometimes beyond our borders."
British LGBTQ equality advocate Peter Tatchell offered this comment to the Jerusalem Post:
"This recognition of a gay marriage is a milestone in the Arab world. "
