Forbidden Maternity: To Be a Mother without Being a Wife in Tunisia. Between Denial and Normification

In Tunisia, single mothers are conscious, from the moment they decide to assume the existence of their child that they will live outside the parental standard. In the light of our investigations, this article suggests to decrypt the context which the social construction of the mother-child's link is outlined. Far from the biological evidence, the appropriation of mother's role passes by a political recognition but also a social one. Beyond the implicit & explicit rules of the filiation, strategies of the parenthood can be updated in a context of strong social stigmatization of these unmarried mothers going from the total denial of their maternity to normification attempts. Adapted from the source document.