After decades of dictatorship and two years of arguments and compromises, Tunisia has a new constitution laying the foundations for a new democracy. The constitution makes Tunisia one of the few Arab states whose laws are not based on Islamic law. The constitution was a approved by a nearly unanimous vote in the legislature (200 votes out of 216), and observers say it is groundbreaking as one of the most progressive constitutions in the Arab world — and for the fact that it got written at all. The constitution enshrining freedom of religion and women’s rights took two years to finish. The new constitution sets out to make the North African country of eleven million people a democracy, with a civil state whose laws are not based on Islamic law, unlike many other Arab constitutions. Unlike Egypt, where two constitutions — one influenced by the Islamist tendencies of the Muslim Brotherhood, the second, inspired by the anti-Brotherhood rebellion, more liberal — were quickly drafted by appointed committees and involved little public debate or input, in Tunisia, an elected assembly of Tunisian Islamists, leftists, and liberals worked on a detailed roadmap for their political future. Tunisians hope that the care in drafting the constitution makes a difference in returning stability to the country and reassuring investors and allies.