Tunisia's president proposed equal inheritance for daughters and sons, died before parliament voted, and his successor called the debate false

Tunisia's Code of Personal Status of 1956 banned polygamy but kept Islamic inheritance shares: a son takes twice a daughter's share, and a will can dispose of only one-third of an estate. On 13 August 2017, National Women's Day, President Beji Caid Essebsi created the Commission on Individual Liberties and Equality. Its 235-page report in June 2018 recommended equal inheritance. On 13 August 2018 Essebsi told the nation he would send parliament a bill making equal shares the default, while letting any person choose the Islamic shares by will. He said it should have been done in 1956. Thousands protested outside parliament. On 26 August Ennahda's Shura Council rejected it as contrary to the Koran and Sunna. A poll found 63 percent of Tunisians opposed equal inheritance. The cabinet presented a draft to parliament, and it stalled. Essebsi, Tunisia's first freely elected president, died on 25 July 2019, aged 92. His successor, Kais Saied, said in his National Women's Day speech on 13 August 2020 that the inheritance debate was false and misguided. Human Rights Watch reported in 2022 that the draft had faded away.