Sumaiya did not expect that the secret she had buried deep in her heart for more than ten years would be suddenly unearthed when she presented her personal documents to her employer, which revealed that Sumaiya was not married and that her daughter did not carry her father’s title.

Sumaiya did not expect that the secret she had buried deep in her heart for more than ten years would be suddenly unearthed when she presented her personal documents to her employer, which revealed that Sumaiya was not married and that her daughter did not carry her father’s title.

Before, everybody at work knew that Sumaiya was a divorcee and that her husband had abandoned her and their nine-year-old daughter. However, the civil status document she submitted to the human resources (HR) office did not include any evidence in this regard; not even whether she was married or divorced.

Sumaiya realized that she had made a serious mistake and that the HR officer had perceptively noticed the situation. She immediately left the office and hid the second copy of her civil status inside of her clothes, as if she was trying to hide her secret again.

Sumaiya realised it was useless to hide her status any longer. She therefore decided to face reality and declare publicly: she was a single mother and that her daughter was the result of an illicit relationship with a friend whom she loved for five years before discovering that he was married to someone else.

Sumaiya says she no longer feared how the society would look upon her. She said she feels unshackled and more able to face people, although she hailes from a rural milieu, which believes that childbearing outside marriage is a major honor crime.

Running away from stigmas

Sumaiya’s decision to live in the capital in search for work relieved the social pressure from which many other women still suffer in conservative rural communities. For her, the capital has become a shelter for single mothers who give birth outside the legal marriage.

She constitutes a model of thousands of Tunisian women who have gone through that hard experience. Recent official statistics show that between 1200 and 1500 babies are born outside of wedlock every year.

Official data indicate sthat more than 80 percent of single mothers come from poor rural communities and a large number of them have experienced rape or been lured into illicit marriages.

The same data also shows that a large number of these cases involve girls who hail from impoverished rural regions in search for work as maidservants in the capital and other major cities.

The educational levels of the majority of single mothers range between absolute illiteracy and elementary level, and at best secondary education, which makes them vulnerable to exploitation.

Like other victims of sexual exploitation and rape, Sumaiya has decided to protect her daughter from the harsh view of her family and conservative rural surroundings. Therefore, she decided to escape and search for a new life for both of them.

“My jobseeking journey started at affluent households and private companies,” she says. “I found a job at a private company for less than US $ 200 a month. That amount was enough to cover the house rent and part of my daughter’s schooling expenses. Her father abandoned her, although I obtained a court ruling that obliged him to pay me US$ 75 a month.”

Sumaiya declines to sue the father or force him to pay, in anticipation of a hoped-for settlement of the relationship between them. She seeks to persuade him to declare their marriage for a short period and then he can divorce. This is only to prove later to her daughter that she was a legitimate child.

“I do not want her to face the same fate I have experienced, and I am doing my utmost to enable her to continue her education, hoping that a university degree may be her last resort against a society that will not forgive her birth outside legitimate marriage,” says Sumaiya.

Sumaiya also counts on the support of charities helping single mothers. She gets US$ 80 a month, which covers the expenses of her daughter’s schooling and private classes, given that, with her modest educational level, she cannot help her daughter with her school homework.

Government supporting single moms

The government has developed many mechanisms to support children of unknown parentage who are born outside marriage — including childcare homes, a specialized support institute, and regional committees assigned to prove kinship and are convened whenever there is a birth out of wedlock.

These committees provide necessary protection to single mothers from the time the baby is registered and until the child’s father has been identified.

Minister of Women Family and Child Affairs, Samira Merai Friaa believes the economic empowerment of single mothers is the most important mechanism her ministry is working on. She stresses that creating jobs for them will help the government protect them from drifting into unsavory kinds of work.

According to the Minister, there are some domestic societies that provide protection for single mothers before and after childbirth, in addition to caring for children of unknown parentage.

Al-Sabil society, for example, provides care for 250 women and children, including baby supplies and facilitating mothers’ settlement within or outside their families.

These societies also provide awareness about single mothers’ rights, help them, and prepare them psychologically to face rejection by the community. They also help single mothers to settle the legal status of their children, give them a family title and hold the natural fathers legally and socially accountable.