Republic of Tunisia

http://www.all-keyboard.com/,http://www.laptopfan-shop.com/,http://www.laptop-fan-shop.com/ Tunisia , officially the Republic of Tunisia  (Arabic: الجمهورية التونسية‎ al-Jumhūriyyah at-Tūnisiyyah; Berber:Tagduda n Tunes; French: République tunisienne), is the smallest country in North Africa. It is a Maghreb country bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. HP 448007-001 battery Tunisia is almost 165,000 square kilometres (64,000 sq mi) in area, with an estimated population of just under 10.7 million. Its name is derived from the capital Tunis located in the northeast. The south of the country is composed of the Sahara desert, with much of the remainder consisting of particularly fertile soil and 1,300 kilometres (810 mi) of coastline. HP Pavilion DV7 battery Tunisia has an association agreement with the European Union and is a member of the Arab Maghreb Union, the Arab League, and the African Union. Tunisia has established close relations with France in particular, through economic cooperation, industrial modernization, and privatisation programs. HP DV6-1120SA battery The word Tunisia is derived from Tunis; a city and capital of modern-day Tunisia. The present form of the name, with its Latinate suffix -ia, evolved from French Tunisie.^[10] The French derivative Tunisie was adopted in some European languages with slight modifications, introducing a distinctive name to designate the country. HP DV6-1210SA battery Other languages remained untouched, such as the Russian Туни́с (Tunís) and Spanish Túnez. In this case, the same name is used for both country and city, as with the Arabic تونس, and only by context can one tell the difference.^[10] The name Tunis can be attributed to different origins. It is generally assiociated with the Berber root tns, which means "to lie down" or "encampment".^[11] Compaq CQ50 battery It is sometimes also associated with the Phoenician goddess Tanith (aka Tunit),^[10][12] ancient city of Tynes.The Atlas mountains and the Sahara desert both played a prominent role in ancient times, first with the famous Puniccity of Carthage, then as the Roman province of Africa, which was known as the "bread basket" of Rome. HP Pavilion DV8 battery Later, Tunisia was occupied by Vandals during the 5th century AD, Byzantines in the 6th century, and Arabs in the 8th century. Under the Ottoman Empire, Tunisia was known as "Regency of Tunis". It passed under French protectorate in 1881. After obtaining independence in 1956 the country took the official name of the "Kingdom of Tunisia" at the end of the reign of Lamine Bey and the Husainid Dynasty. Sony VGP-BPS13 battery With the proclamation of the Tunisian Republic on 25 July 1957, the nationalist leader Habib Bourguiba became its first president.The country was led by the authoritarian government of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali from 1987 to 2011 before he fled during the Tunisian revolution. Farming methods reached the Nile Valley from the Fertile Crescent region about 5000 BC, and spread to the Maghreb by about 4000 BC. HP DV9700 battery Agricultural communities in the humid coastal plains of central Tunisia then were ancestors of today's Berbertribes. It was believed in ancient times that Africa was originally populated by Gaetulians and Libyans, both nomadic peoples. Compaq CQ35-100 battery According to the Roman historian Sallust, the demigod Hercules died in Spain and his polyglot eastern army was left to settle the land, with some migrating to Africa. Persians went to the West and intermarried with the Gaetulians and became the Numidians. The Medes settled and were known as Mauri latter Moors. HP HP-6000L Battery The Numidians and Moors belonged to the race from which the Berbers are descended. The translated meaning of Numidian is Nomad and indeed the people were semi-nomadic until the reign of Masinissa of the Massyli tribe. At the beginning of recorded history, Tunisia was inhabited by Berber tribes. HP HSTNN-C17C Battery Its coast was settled by Phoenicians starting as early as the 10th century BC. The city of Carthage was founded in the 9th century BC by Phoenician and Cypriot settlers. Legend says that Dido from Tyre, now in modern day Lebanon, founded the city in 814 BC, as retold by the Greek writer Timaeus of Tauromenium. HP HSTNN-C29C Battery The settlers of Carthage brought their culture and religion from the Phoenicians.^[20] After a series of wars with Greek city-states of Sicily in the 5th century BC, Carthage rose to power and eventually became the dominant civilization in the Western Mediterranean. The people of Carthage worshipped a pantheon of Middle Eastern gods including Baal and Tanit. HP HSTNN-C50C Battery Tanit's symbol, a simple female figure with extended arms and long dress, is a popular icon found in ancient sites. The founders of Carthage also established a Tophet, which was altered in Roman times. A Carthaginian invasion of Italy led by Hannibal during the Second Punic War, one of a series of wars with Rome, nearly crippled the rise of Roman power. HP HSTNN-C51C Battery From the conclusion of the Second Punic War in 202 BC, Carthage functioned as a client state of the Roman Republic for another 50 years. Following the Battle of Carthage in 149 BC, Carthage was conquered by Rome. After the Roman conquest, the region became one of the main granaries of Rome and was fully Latinized.   The Romans controlled nearly all of modern Tunisia from 149 BC until the area was conquered by the Vandals in the 5th century AD, only to be reconquered byRoman general Belisarius in the 6th century, during the rule of Emperor Justinian I. During the Roman period the area of what is now Tunisia enjoyed a huge development. HP HSTNN-C52C Battery The economy, mainly during the Empire, boomed: the prosperity of the area depended on agriculture. Called the Granary of the Empire, the area of actual Tunisia and coastal Tripolitania, according to one estimate, produced one million tons of cereals each year, one-quarter of which was exported to the Empire. HP HSTNN-C53C Battery Additional crops included beans, figs, grapes, and other fruits. By the 2nd century, olive oil rivalled cereals as an export item. In addition to the cultivations, and the capture and transporting of exotic wild animals from the western mountains, the principal production and exports included the textiles, marble, wine, timber, livestock, pottery such as African Red Slip, and wool. HP HSTNN-C54C Battery   There was even a huge production of mosaics and ceramics, exported mainly to Italy, in the central area of El Djem (where there was the second biggest amphitheater in the Roman Empire). Berber bishop Donatus Magnus was the founder of a Christian group known as the Donatists. HP HSTNN-CB45 Battery During the 5th and 6th Centuries (from 430 to 533 AD), the GermanicVandals invaded and ruled over a kingdom in North Africa that included present-day Tripoli. They were defeated by a combined force of Romans and Berbers. Around the second half of the 7th century and the beginning of the 8th century, HP HSTNN-CB71 Battery the region was conquered by Arab Muslims, who founded the city of Kairouan, which became the first city of Islam in North Africa. In this period, the Great Mosque of Kairouan (also called the Mosque of Uqba) was erected in 670 AD. The Great Mosque of Kairouan, which has the oldest standing minaret in the world, HP HSTNN-CB72 Battery is the most ancient and most prestigious sanctuary in the Muslim West;^[23] it is also considered a masterpiece of Islamic art and architecture.^[24] Tunisia flourished under Arab rule as extensive irrigation installations were constructed to supply towns with water and promote agriculture (especially olive production). HP HSTNN-CB73 Battery This prosperity permitted luxurious court life and was marked by the construction of new Palace cities such as al-Abassiya (809) and Raqadda (877).^[25] Successive Muslim dynasties ruled Tunisia (Ifriqiya at the time) with occasional instabilities caused mainly by Berber rebellions;of these reigns we can cite the Aghlabids (800–900) and Fatimids (909–972). HP HSTNN-CB87 Battery After conquering Cairo, Fatimids abandoned North Africa to the local Zirids (Tunisia and parts of Eastern Algera, 972–1148) and Hammadid (Central and eastern Algeria, 1015–1152).^[27] Zirid Tunisia prospered, with agriculture, industry, trade and learning, both religious and secular, all flourishing.^[28] HP HSTNN-CB0W Battery Management of the later Zirid emirs was neglectful though, and political instability was connected to the decline of Tunisian trade and agriculture.The invasion of Tunisia by the Banu Hilal, a warlike Arab Bedouin tribe encouraged by the Fatimids of Egypt to seize North Africa, sent the region's urban and economic life into further decline. HP HSTNN-CB0X Battery The Arab historian Ibn Khaldun wrote that the lands ravaged by Banu Hilal invaders had become completely arid desert. The coasts were held briefly by the Normans of Sicily in the 12th century, but following the conquest of Tunisia in 1159–1160 by the Almohads the last Christians in Tunisia disappeared either through forced conversion or emigration. HP HSTNN-CQ44C Battery The Almohads initially ruled over Tunisia through a governor, usually a near relative of the Caliph. Despite the prestige of the new masters, the country was still unruly, with continuous rioting and fighting between the townsfolk and wandering Arabs and Turks, the latter being subjects of the Armenian adventurer Karakush. HP HSTNN-DB02 Battery The greatest threat to Almohad rule in Tunisia was the Banu Ghaniya, relatives of the Almoravids, who from their base in Mallorca tried to restore Almoravid rule over the Maghreb. Around 1200 they succeeded in extending their rule over the whole of Tunisia, until they were crushed by Almohad troops in 1207. HP HSTNN-DB0G Battery After this success, the Almohads installed Walid Abu Hafs as the governor of Tunisia. Tunisia remained part of the Almohad state, until 1230 when the son of Abu Hafs declared himself independent. During the reign of the Hafsid dynasty, fruitful commercial relationships were established with several Christian Mediterranean states. HP HSTNN-DB10 Battery In the late 16th century the coast became a pirate stronghold .In the last years of the Hafsids, Spain seized many of the coastal cities, but these were recovered by the Ottoman Empire.The first Ottoman conquest of Tunis took place in 1534 under the command of Barbarossa Hayreddin Pasha, the younger brother of Oruç Reis, who was the Kapudan Pasha of the Ottoman Fleet during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. HP HSTNN-DB13 Battery However, it wasn't until the final Ottoman reconquest of Tunis from Spain in 1574 under Kapudan Pasha Uluç Ali Reis that the Ottomans permanently acquired the former Hafsid Tunisia, retaining it until the French occupation of Tunisia in 1881. Initially under Turkish rule from Algiers, soon the Ottoman Porte appointed directly for Tunis a governor called the Pashasupported by janissary forces. HP HSTNN-DB17 Battery Before long, however, Tunisia became in effect an autonomous province, under the local Bey. Under its Turkish governors, the Beys, Tunisia attained virtual independence. The Hussein dynasty of Beys, established in 1705, lasted until 1957.^[33] This evolution of status was from time to time challenged without success by Algiers. HP HSTNN-DB20 Battery During this era the governing councils controlling Tunisia remained largely composed of a foreign elite who continued to conduct state business in the Turkish language. Attacks on European shipping were made by corsairs, primarily from Algiers, but also from Tunis and Tripoli, yet after a long period of declining raids the growing power of the European states finally forced its termination. HP HSTNN-DB31 Battery Under the Ottoman Empire, the boundaries of Tunisia contracted; it lost territory to the west (Constantine) and to the east (Tarabulus). The Maghreb suffered from the deadly combination of plague and famine.^[34] The great epidemics ravaged Tunisia in 1784–1785, 1796–1797 and 1818–1820.^[35] HP HSTNN-DB32 Battery   In the 19th century, the rulers of Tunisia became aware of the ongoing efforts at political and social reform in the Ottoman capital. The Bey of Tunis then, by his own lights but informed by the Turkish example, attempted to effect a modernizing reform of institutions and the economy. Tunisian international debt grew unmanageable. HP HSTNN-DB42 Battery This was the reason or pretext for French forces to establish a Protectorate in 1881. In 1869, Tunisia declared itself bankrupt and an international financial commission took control over its economy. In 1881, using the pretext of a Tunisian incursion into Algeria, the French invaded with an army of about 36,000 and forced the Bey to agree to the terms of the 1881 Treaty of Bardo (Al Qasr as Sa'id). HP HSTNN-DB51 Battery  With this treaty, Tunisia was officially made a French protectorate, over the objections of Italy. Under French colonization, European settlements in the country were actively encouraged; the number of French colonists grew from 34,000 in 1906 to 144,000 in 1945. In 1910 there were 105,000 Italians in Tunisia. HP HSTNN-DB63 Battery In 1942–1943, Tunisia was the scene of the third major operations by the Allied Forces(the British Empire and the United States) against the Axis Powers (Italy and Germany) during World War II. The main body of the British army, advancing from their victory in the Battle of el-Alamein under the command of British Field Marshal Montgomery, pushed into Tunisia from the south. HP HSTNN-DB64 Battery The U.S. and other allies, following their invasions of Algeria and Morocco in Operation Torch, invaded from the west. Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, commander of the Axis forces in North Africa, had hoped to inflict a similar defeat on the Allies in Tunisia as German forces did in the Battle of France in 1940. HP HSTNN-DB72 Battery Before the battle for el-Alamein, the Allied forces had been forced to retreat toward Egypt. As such, the battle for Tunisia was a major test for the Allies. They concluded that in order to defeat Axis Powers they would have to coordinate their actions and quickly recover from the inevitable setbacks the German-Italian forces would inflict. HP HSTNN-DB73 Battery   On February 19, 1943, Rommel launched an attack on the American forces in the Kasserine Pass region of Western Tunisia, hoping to inflict the kind of demoralizing and alliance-shattering defeat the Germans had dealt to Poland, Britain and France. The initial results were a disaster for the United States; the area around the Kasserine Pass is the site of many U.S. war graves from that time. HP HSTNN-DB74 Battery However, the American forces were ultimately able to reverse their retreat. With a critical strategy in tank warfare, and having determined that encirclement was feasible, the British, Australian and New Zealand forces broke through the Mareth Line on 20 March 1943. The Allies subsequently linked up on April 8, and on May 13, the German-Italian Army in Tunisia surrendered. HP HSTNN-DB74 Battery Thus, the United States, United Kingdom, Australian,Free French, and Polish forces (as well as others) were able to win a major battle as an Allied army. The battle, though overshadowed by Stalingrad, represented a major Allied victory of World War II largely because it forged the Alliance that would one day liberate Western Europe. HP HSTNN-DB75 Battery   Tunisia achieved independence from France in 1956 led by Habib Bourguiba, who later became the first Tunisian President.^[40]The secular Constitutional Democratic Rally (RCD), formerly Neo Destour, controlled the country as one of the most repressive regimes in the Arab World since its independence in 1956.^[41] HP HSTNN-DB75 Battery   In November 1987, doctors declared Bourguiba unfit to rule and, in a bloodless coup d'état, Prime Minister Zine El Abidine Ben Ali assumed the presidency.^[40] President Ben Ali, previously Habib Bourguiba's minister and a military figure, held office from 1987 to 2011, HP HSTNN-DB90 Battery having acceded to the executive office of Habib Bourguiba after a team of medical experts judged Bourguiba unfit to exercise the functions of the office in accordance with Article 57 of the Tunisian constitution.^[42] The anniversary of Ben Ali’s succession, November 7, was celebrated as a national holiday. HP HSTNN-DB91 Battery He was consistently re-elected with enormous majorities every election, the last being 25 October 2009,^[43] until he fled the country amid popular unrest in January 2011. Ben Ali and his family were accused of corruption^[44] and plundering the country's money. HP HSTNN-DB93 Battery Corrupt members of the Trabelsi family, most notably in the cases of Imed Trabelsi and Belhassen Trabelsi, controlled much of the business sector in the country.^[45] In its January/February 2008 issue, the Foreign Policy Magazine reported that Tunisia's First Lady was using a government 737 Boeing Business Jet^[46] to make "unofficial visits" to European fashion capitals, HP HSTNN-DB94 Battery such as Milan, Paris and Geneva. The report mentioned that the trips are not on the official travel itinerary. The former first lady was described then as a shopaholic.^[47][48] Tunisia refused a French request for the extradition of two of the President's nephews, from Leila's side, who were accused by the French State prosecutor of having stolen two mega-yachts from a French marina.^[49] HP HSTNN-DB95 Battery During the last few years of the old regime, rumors circulated that Ben Ali's son-in-law Sakher al-Materi (the husband of Zine and Leila's daughter Nessrine) was being primed to eventually take over the country.^[50] Independent human rights groups, such as Amnesty International, Freedom House, HP HSTNN-E02C Battery and Protection International, have documented that basic human and political rights were not respected.The regime obstructed in any way possible the work of local human rights organizations. In the Economist's 2008Democracy Index Tunisia was classified as an authoritarian regime ranking 141 out of 167 countries studied. HP HSTNN-E03C Battery In 2008, in terms of freedom of the press, Tunisia was ranked 143 out of 173. The Tunisian revolution was an intensive campaign of civil resistance, including a series of street demonstrations that took place in Tunisia. The events began when Mohamed Bouazizi, a 26-year old Tunisian street vendor, set himself afire on 17 December 2010, in protest of the confiscation of his wares and the humiliation that was inflicted on him by a municipal official. HP HSTNN-FB39 Battery This act became the catalyst for mass demonstrations and riots throughout Tunisia in protest of social and political issues in the country. Anger and violence intensified following Bouazizi's death on 4 January 2011, ultimately leading longtime President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to step down on 14 January 2011, after 23 years in power. HP HSTNN-FB40 Battery International Tunisian organizations, such as the Tunisian Community Center in the US, supported the protesters' aims toward democracy as well, in addition to TCC's efforts to freeze Ben Ali's assets abroad.^[58] The demonstrations were precipitated by high unemployment, food inflation, corruption, HP HSTNN-I60C-5 Battery a lack of freedom of speech and other political freedoms^[60] and poor living conditions. The protests constituted the most dramatic wave of social and political unrest in Tunisia in three decades^[61][62] and resulted in scores of deaths and injuries, most of which were the result of action by police and security forces against demonstrators.^[63] HP HSTNN-I61C-5 Battery Labour unions were said to be an integral part of the protests.^[64] The protests inspired similar actions throughout the Arab world as well as elsewhere in the wider North Africa and Middle East. In response to the demonstrations, Ben Ali declared a state of emergency in the country, HP HSTNN-I62C-7 Battery dissolved the government on 14 January 2011, and promised new legislative elections within six months. But on that same day Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi went on state television to say he was assuming power in Tunisia. However, the head of Tunisia's Constitutional Court, Fethi Abdennadher,^[65] HP HSTNN-I71C Battery confirmed that Ghannouchi violated the constitution. Fouad Mebazaa became acting President following the Constitutional Court's interpretation of the situation and the Constitution. It was soon confirmed, however, that Ben Ali had fled to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. HP HSTNN-I79C Battery   Protests continued in Tunisia to call for banning of the ruling party and the eviction of all its members from the transitional government formed by Mohammed Ghannouchi. Eventually the new government gave in to the demands and a new prime minister Beji Caid-Essebsi was appointed by the acting president on Thursday, 3 March 2011. HP HSTNN-I81C Battery Two of the first actions made after the appointment of the new government were the decision of the Tunis court to ban the ex-ruling party RCD and to confiscate all its resources, and a decree by the minister of the interior banning the "political police" including what has been known as the state security special forces which were used to intimidate and persecute political activists. HP HSTNN-IB03 Battery   Tunisia is situated on the Mediterranean coast of North Africa, midway between the Atlantic Ocean and the Nile Delta. It is bordered byAlgeria on the west and Libya on the south east. It lies between latitudes 30° and 38°N, and longitudes 7° and 12°E. An abrupt southward turn of the Mediterranean coast in northern Tunisia gives the country two distinctive Mediterranean coasts, west-east in the north, and north-south in the east. HP HSTNN-IB04 Battery   Though it is relatively small in size, Tunisia has great environmental diversity due to its north-south extent. Its east-west extent is limited. Differences in Tunisia, like the rest of the Maghreb, are largely north-south environmental differences defined by sharply decreasing rainfall southward from any point. HP HSTNN-IB09 Battery The Dorsal, the eastern extension of the Atlas Mountains, runs across Tunisia in a northeasterly direction from the Algerian border in the west to the Cape Bon peninsula in the east. North of the Dorsal is the Tell, a region characterized by low, rolling hills and plains, again an extension of mountains to the west in Algeria. HP HSTNN-IB0F Battery In the Khroumerie, the northwestern corner of the Tunisian Tell, elevations reach 1,050 metres (3,440 ft) and snow occurs in winter. The Sahel, a broadening coastal plain along Tunisia's eastern Mediterranean coast, is among the world's premier areas of olive cultivation. HP HSTNN-IB0N Battery Inland from the Sahel, between the Dorsal and a range of hills south of Gafsa, are the Steppes. Much of the southern region is semi-arid and desert. Tunisia has a coastline 1,148 kilometres (713 mi) long. In maritime terms, the country claims a contiguous zone of 24 nautical miles(44.4 km; 27.6 mi), and a territorial sea of 12 nautical miles (22.2 km; 13.8 mi). HP HSTNN-IB0X Battery Tunisia's climate is temperate in the north, with mild rainy winters and hot, dry summers.^[67] The south of the country is desert. The terrain in the north is mountainous, which, moving south, gives way to a hot, dry central plain. The south is semiarid, and merges into the Sahara. A series of salt lakes, known aschotts or shatts, HP HSTNN-IB10 Battery lie in an east-west line at the northern edge of the Sahara, extending from the Gulf of Gabes into Algeria. The lowest point is Shatt al Gharsah, at 17 metres (56 ft) below sea level and the highest is Jebel ech Chambi, at 1,544 metres (5,066 ft). Tunisia is a constitutional republic, with a president serving as head of state, HP HSTNN-IB14 Battery prime minister as head of government, abicameral parliament and a court system influenced by French civil law. The new Constitution of Tunisia guarantees rights for women, and states that the President's religion "shall be Islam."^[69] Rare for the Arab world, women hold more than 20% of seats in both chambers of parliament.^[70] HP HSTNN-IB17 Battery   The Tunisian legal system is based on the French civil code and on Islamic law; the judiciary is appointed by the Ministry of Justice. The Code of Personal Status remains one of the most progressive civil codes in the Middle East and the Muslim world.^[71] Enacted less than five months after Tunisia gained its independence, HP HSTNN-IB20 Battery the code was meant to end gender inequality and update family law, to enable greater social and economic progress and make Tunisia a fully modern society. Among other reforms, the code outlawed the practices of polygamy and repudiation, or a husband’s right to unilaterally divorce his wife.^[72] HP HSTNN-IB31 Battery   On 3 March 2011, the president announced that elections to a Constituent Assembly would be held on 23 October 2011. The constituent assembly elections took place as scheduled with international and internal observers declaring it free and fair. The Ennahda Movement, formerly banned under the Ben Ali regime, won a plurality of 90 seats out of a total of 217.^[73] HP HSTNN-IB32 Battery   On 12 December 2011, former dissident and veteran human rights activist Moncef Marzouki was elected as president of Tunisia by a ruling coalition dominated by the moderate Islamist Nahda party, and sworn in on 13 December 2011. Marzouki had previously been imprisoned and exiled for years for opposing former President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali. HP HSTNN-IB33 Battery At the time of his election, Marzouki was head of the secular center-left Congress for the Republic party. The Islamist Nahda party also "won the largest share of seats in an assembly charged with appointing a transitional government and drafting a new constitution."^[74] The revolution ushered in nationwide calls for political reform. HP HSTNN-IB34 Battery The Constituent Assembly, with 217 members, was elected on October 23, 2011 in a process that included thousands of domestic and hundreds of international observers. A new president and prime minister took office in December 2011. On December 23, 2011, the Constituent Assembly confirmed a new cabinet for Tunisia composed of 41 ministers (29 full ministers, 15 deputy ministers.) HP HSTNN-IB39 Battery Length and terms of office, the authority of the legislature, and separation of powers are subject to change under the new constitution currently in draft.^[75] The number of legalized political parties in Tunisia has grown exponentially since the revolution. There are now over 100 legal parties, including several that existed under the former regime. HP HSTNN-IB40 Battery During the Ben Ali, only three functioned as independent opposition parties: the PDP, FDTL, and Tajdid. The Islamist opposition party Nahda was deemed a "terrorist organization" and outlawed by the Ben Ali government in 1991, but quickly reasserted its position as a major political player following the party’s legalization by the post-Ben Ali government. HP HSTNN-IB42 Battery While some older parties are well-established and can draw on previous party structures, many of the 100-plus parties extant as of February 2012 are small.^[75] Trade unions are now in the process of reconstituting themselves to participate in the country’s new political and socio-economic debate. Following Ben Ali’s ouster, two new trade confederations, HP HSTNN-IB44 Battery the Union of Tunisian Labor (UTT) and the General Confederation of Tunisian Labor (UCGT), emerged to challenge the status quo. Since the revolution of 2011, religious violence has increased in Tunisia, primarily consisting of Muslim attacks on Christians and members of other non-Muslim groups. HP HSTNN-IB45 Battery Tunisian journalists and human rights activists were harassed and faced surveillance and imprisonment under harsh conditions. Others were dismissed from their jobs or denied the right to communicate and move freely. The authorities had also prevented the emergence of an independent judiciary, further compounding the problem. HP HSTNN-IB51 Battery Islamist groups have also violently repressed artistic expression that is viewed to be hostile to Islam.^[78] Tunisia remains a model in the Arab world in promoting the legal and social status of women. A Code of Personal Status was adopted shortly after independence in 1956, which, among other things, HP HSTNN-IB52 Battery gave women full legal status (allowing them to run and own businesses, have bank accounts, and seek passports under their own authority). It also, for the first time in the Arab world, outlawed polygamy. The government required parents to send girls to school, and today more than 50% of university students are women and 66% of judges and lawyers are women. HP HSTNN-IB62 Battery Rights of women and children were further enhanced by 1993 reforms, which included a provision to allow Tunisian women to transmit citizenship even if they are married to a foreigner and living abroad. The government has supported a remarkably successful family planning program that has reduced the population growth rate to just over 1% per annum, contributing to Tunisia's economic and social stability. HP HSTNN-IB64 Battery   Since the revolution, some non-governmental organizations have reconstituted themselves and hundreds of new ones have emerged. For instance, the Tunisian Human Rights League, the first human rights organization in Africa and the Arab world, operated under restrictions and state intrusion for over half of its existence, but is now completely free to operate. HP HSTNN-IB72 Battery Some independent organizations, such as the Tunisian Association of Democratic Women, the Association of Tunisian Women for Research and Development, and the Bar Association also remain active. As of 2008, Tunisia had an army of 27,000 personnel equipped with 84 main battle tanks and 48 light tanks. HP HSTNN-IB73 Battery The navy numbered 4,800 operating 25 patrol boats and 6 other craft. Paramilitary forces consisted of a 12,000-member national guard.^[79] Tunisia's military spending is 1.6% of GDP (2006). The army is responsible for national defence and also internal security. Tunisia has participated in peacekeeping efforts in the DROC and Ethiopia/Eritrea. HP HSTNN-IB74 Battery Previous United Nationspeacekeeping deployments for the Tunisian armed forces have included Cambodia (UNTAC), Namibia (UNTAG), Somalia, Rwanda, Burundi and the 1960s mission in the Congo, ONUC. The military has historically played a professional, apolitical role in defending the country from external threats. HP HSTNN-IB75 Battery Since January 2011 and at the direction of the executive branch, the military has taken on increasing responsibility for domestic security and humanitarian crisis response. Tunisia now finds itself as an export-oriented country in the process of liberalizing and privatizing an economy that, while averaging 5% GDP growth since the early 1990s, has suffered from corruption benefiting politically connected elites. HP HSTNN-IB79 Battery ^]Tunisia has a diverse economy, ranging from agriculture, mining, manufacturing, and petroleum products, to tourism. In 2008 it had a GDP of US $41 billion (official exchange rates), or $82 billion (purchasing power parity).^[84] It also has one of Africa and the Middle East's highest per-capita GDPs (PPP).^[85] HP HSTNN-IB82 Battery