The first Arab state law in Tunisia aimed at preventing child abuse by prohibiting parental beating stirs controversy with fears it would downgrade the responsibility of parents to discipline their children and open doors for increased juvenile delinquency.

The Justice and Human Rights Minister al-Azhar Buani said that the law was part of Tunisia's efforts to prevent violence against children and to comply with international agreements against child abuse that the North African country signed."The law does not minimize the role of parents in raising their children but puts it in a legal framework that prohibits the use of violence," said Adil al-Shawish, Member of Parliament for the Tajdeed opposition movement.

Nazar Qasim, the deputy of the Democratic Union opposition party says that "criminalizing the punishing of children by their parents will open doors for increased and even more dangerous deviated social behavior."

The new legislation is likely to encourage juvenile delinquency by limiting the disciplinary role of parents at home, according to Qasim.

"Tunisia is the only Arabic and Islamic nation that has thus far criminalized parental child beating; we have to be of wary of taking such steps that are in contradiction with our culture,"Qasim said.

He added that the need for such a law was very limited because the Tunisian culture and the Islamic religion encourage people to be kind to their children and to not beat them.