The Challenges Of The Secular/Religious Dichotomy In Tunisia’s Political Trajectory
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2446-5240.malala.2025.235121Keywords:
Islam, Secularism, Tunisia, religionAbstract
The recent rediscovery of religion by International Relations (IR) points to a deeply negligent field in recognizing faith as a political factor, grounded in a vaguely defined secularism. Founded upon such the religion/secularism dichotomy, IR has historically produced analyses that perceive religiosity as having a pernicious character in political environments. This essay challenges the naturalization of the concepts of religion and secularism while proposing the study of Tunisia as a productive counterpoint to these constructions. In this sense, it is argued that, in the case of the Tunisian democratic transition, such conceptual frameworks present more obstacles than advantages for IR analysts.
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