Gender and judging in Tunisia and the intersections of penalty and privilege

Abstract

The international community encourages countries to increase the number of women in the judiciary. This is partly based on the hypothesis that female judges make the bench representative of society. However, the question arises as to which women we are referring to. While the experiences of women are different from men because of their sex, experiences of lower-class women are also different from those from the middle and upper classes, as experiences of women belonging to a minority are different from those belonging to the majority. Using the intersectionality grid of “penalty and privilege” proposed by Patricia Hill Collins (2000), this article aims to look beyond the gender-binary in the study of judges in Muslim contexts by bringing in an intersectional approach, using Tunisia as a case study. Focusing on two female judges functioning under the Tunisian authoritarian regime, this study hopes to show how different women bring different experiences to the bench.