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Keith Walters
This paper seeks to describe and account for a common ideology among Tunisians and North Africans more broadly that associates the use of French with women, thereby symbolically associating the use of Arabic with men. In this regard, the use of French can be said to be “gendered” there. In an effort to historicize this phenomenon, I sketch the social history of French in Tunisia, particularly in regards to the access female and male Tunisians would historically have had to it through the institution of schooling. I then consider the different relationships contemporary Tunisian men and women have with French. Finally, I seek to contextualize these relationships in light of other ideologies that are part of Tunisian daily life, particularly notions of “authenticity” and “openness”, tropes of many forms of discourse in Tunisia.
