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Tunisia
السلفيون الجهاديّون في تونس: سر انتشارهم الواسع في الأوساط الشعبيّة
مثّلت حادثة السفارة الأميركيّة في 14 أيلول/سبتمبر 2012، (الاحتجاجات العنيفة على فيلم «براءة المسلمين» التي أدّت الى اقتحام وحرق بعض مباني تابعة للسفارة، وإلى سقوط 4 متظاهرين قتلى برصاص الأمن) منعرجاً فارقاً في تناول الظاهرة السلفيّة في تونس. إذ بدا واضحاً أنّ «الاحتواء المتبادَل الحذِر» الذي ميّز العلاقة بين حركة النهضة (الإخوانيّة) الحاكمة والتيّار السلفي الجهادي لم يعد قادراً على الاستمرار. فمع الاحتجاج الأميركي القويّ على ما جرى في تونس كما في مصر وليبيا وأقطار أخرى - اضطرّ الحاكمون الجُدُد إلى إبداء قدر غير مسبوق من الحزم في تعاملهم مع هذا التيّار الذي اتّهموه مباشرة بالوقوف وراء اقتحام السفارة. وقد أصدر القضاء التونسي لأوّل مرّة منذ خلع بن علي أحكاماً بسجن ...
Keep Reading »من يكتب أدب الثورة؟
![[غرافيني في القاهرة. مصدرالصورة السفير العربي]](/content_images/3/sm_cairografiti.jpg "[غرافيني في القاهرة. مصدرالصورة السفير العربي]")
لكل ثورة أدباؤها ولكل حدث بديع في تاريخ الإنسانية من يشتغلون على تدوينه، بشتى الوسائل المتاحة، حتى يخلد ويبقى إرثاً لا تطاله أيادي التقادم. ولأن رسالة الأدب، في المحصلة، تتجاوز الحيز الجغرافي الذي يُولَدُ فيه، ليعانق الانشغالات الإنسانية بمعزل عن المكان الذي احتضنه واللغة التي أُنتج بها والثقافة التي آوته بما يشكله من تعبير عن المشترك الإنساني في قوالب إبداعية تمنحه الخلود. فالأدب ينقل التجربة الإنسانية من مستوى الحدث العادي إلى المتخيل، والمسافة الفاصلة بين الواقع والخيال هي بالضبط التي تمنح لهذه التجربة مغزاها وتجردها من الزمان والمكان لتسمها بالخلود وتصبغ عليها طابع الأنسنة. كل الأحداث التي شكلت منعطفاً مهماً في تاريخ الدول والشعوب، إذا لم نشأ قول الإنسانية، استلهمت ...
Keep Reading »New Texts Out Now: David McMurray and Amanda Ufheil-Somers, The Arab Revolts
David McMurray and Amanda Ufheil-Somers, editors, The Arab Revolts: Dispatches on Militant Democracy in the Middle East. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2013. Published in association with Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP). Jadaliyya (J): What made you compile this volume? David McMurray & Amanda Ufheil-Somers (DM & AU): MERIP recently published an edited volume with Verso on just the events in Egypt, examining the initial eighteen days of the uprising as well as looking back on the political and social shifts of the previous two decades that gave shape to the revolt: economic reforms and restructuring, the activities of organized ...
Keep Reading »Wafa Ben Hassine on Social Media in Post-Ben Ali Tunisia
![[Image of Wafa Ben Hassine.]](/content_images/3/sm_ScreenShot2013-04-05at2.03.57PM.png "[Image of Wafa Ben Hassine.]")
[This post is part of an ongoing Profile of a Contemporary Conduit series on Jadaliyya that seeks to highlight distinct voices primarily in and from the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia.] Jadaliyya (J): What do you think are the most gratifying aspects of Tweeting and Twitter? Wafa Ben Hassine (WBH): The intellectual exchange of information. The most unique aspect of Twitter is the ability to form little niches about very particularized topics. You want to talk classical Arabic literature? Got it. You want to talk unemployment in Sidi Bouzid? Governmental reshuffle in Tunisia? Check. In using Twitter, one is guaranteed to find (mostly) meaningful exchanges ...
Keep Reading »Statement Supporting Topless Tunisian Feminist
![[Image from change.org]](/content_images/3/sm_aminaweb.jpg "[Image from change.org]")
[The following statement was published by FEMEN on 22 March 2013.] 19 year old Tunisian Amina who posted a topless photo of herself bearing the slogan “my body belongs to me, and is not the source of anyone’s honour” has been threatened with death. Islamist cleric Adel Almi, president of Al-Jamia Al-Li-Wassatia Tawia Wal-Islah, has called for Amina’s flogging and stoning to death saying Amina’s actions will bring misfortune by causing “epidemics and disasters” and “could be contagious and give ideas to other women…” We, the undersigned, unequivocally defend Amina, and demand that her life and liberty be protected and that those ...
Keep Reading »Social Struggles in Tunisia: A Curse or a Revolutionary Opportunity?
![[Protesters march during a demonstration in Tunisia on 20 January 2011. Image by cjb22/Flickr.]](/content_images/3/sm_ScreenShot2013-03-25at6.13.05PM.png "[Protesters march during a demonstration in Tunisia on 20 January 2011. Image by cjb22/Flickr.]")
The Tunisian revolution was often painted as a sort of “divine” event during which the united and homogenous “Tunisian people” succeeded in getting rid of their “dictator.” As if by the force of some quasi-magical act, all it took was the coming together of the people screaming a unified dégage on 14 January 2011 for the dictator to suddenly take flight. In using this lens, the causes and consequences of the revolt itself are glossed over. Moreover, the historical context is abandoned in favor of a de-politicized narrative that revolves around young bloggers triggering a spontaneous movement, managing to succeed in dragging a whole population out into the streets ...
Keep Reading »Ennahda: A Party in Transition
![[Members of Ennahda hold a press conference in Tunisia, with their leader, Rachid Ghannouchi, in the center. Image by Monia Ghanmi/Magharebia.]](/content_images/3/sm_ScreenShot2013-03-22at10.25.39AM.png "[Members of Ennahda hold a press conference in Tunisia, with their leader, Rachid Ghannouchi, in the center. Image by Monia Ghanmi/Magharebia.]")
Since the assassination of Chokri Belaid, Tunisia is living the most difficult stage of its revolutionary transition. Even before the murder of Belaid, a long institutional crisis had kept the country in limbo with the prolonged absence of a constitution. Belaid’s death pushed it on the edge of chaos. Much has been written about the context within which the assassination took place, with the secular-leftist camp openly accusing the Islamist party, Ennahda, of having provided the ideological and political context for it. In order to bring the country back from the brink of a potential explosion of violence, on the night of the assassination, Prime Minister Hammadi Jebali ...
Keep Reading »Tunisia and the IMF: A Beggar State and an Impoverished People
![[An image from the Tunisian Investment Forum. Image by Houda Trabelsi/Magharebia.]](/content_images/3/sm_ScreenShot2013-03-14at12.24.35PM.png "[An image from the Tunisian Investment Forum. Image by Houda Trabelsi/Magharebia.]")
In November 2012, Tunisia signed a loan with the World Bank for a total value of five hundred million dollars. This was on top of other loans received in November from various lenders that totaled seven hundred million dollars. Following an interview with Reuters last month, Riadh Bettaieb, the Tunisian minister of investment, he affirmed that the loans from the World Bank and the African Development Bank had fully covered the state budget. He also declared that the government will seek another precautionary loan worth nearly two billion dollars from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), over concerns of the 2014 budget. It is important to note that since 2012 until the ...
Keep Reading »الخوف والغضب: المرأة وعنف ما بعد الثورة
![[الصورة: ديموتيكس. نساء يتظاهرن ضد الاغتصاب في تونس]](/content_images/3/sm_tunisdenizart.jpg "[الصورة: ديموتيكس. نساء يتظاهرن ضد الاغتصاب في تونس]")
أحد الملاحظات التي لا يمكن إغفالها أثناء انتفاضات ‘الربيع العربي’ في مصر وتونس أتت من النساء اللواتي ادعين أنهن شعرن أخيراً بالأمان في الأماكن العامة في مجتمعات سِجلّها من التحرش الجنسي ضد المرأة يدفع المرء لتمني الكثير من التحسن. إن اندماج المواطنين وتعبئتهم – الشاب والمسن، محجبات وغير محجبات، ذكر وأنثى، مسلم ومسيحي- في جبهة مدنية تطالب بحقوقها سيبقى صورة مثيرة – في حال زوالها بسرعة – للأحداث التي قادت لخلع أنظمة مبارك وبن علي. منذ ذلك الوقت، شاهدنا طوفاناً من الصور والمواد الإخبارية والتعليقات فيما يخص أعمال عنف ضد المرأة في الأماكن العامة. ولم نجد – إلى الآن– تفسيراً ملائماً لهذه الظواهر، ولا نقاشات سوية حول معانيها وتبعاتها. يبدو الأمر بأن سلخ قشور طبقات ...
Keep Reading »Poems from the Maghreb: Introduction and Selections
[To celebrate the publication of Poems for the Millennium: Vol 4, edited by Pierre Joris and Habib Tangour (University of California Press, 2013), a comprehensive anthology of the written and oral literatures of the Maghreb, Jadaliyya is publishing the editors' introduction and a selection of poems (Mehdi Akhrif, Omar Berrada, Ahmad Al-Majjaty, Djibril Zakaria Sall, and Cheikha Rimitti. For more information and to purchase the book, click here] Introduction This book has been incubating in our minds for a quarter century now, and we have been gathering material for even longer—with the aim of assembling and contextualizing a wide range of writing from North ...
Keep Reading »Call for Applicants: Summer Arabic & Politics Exchange (14 June - 12 July, Tunis)
![[Image from mideastwire.com]](/content_images/3/sm_mideastwirelogoweb11.jpg "[Image from mideastwire.com]")
Mideastwire.com and its partners - Université Paris-Dauphine I Tunis, Tunisia Live and the Bosphore Academy - are pleased to announce the first Summer Arabic & Politics Exchange June 14-July 12, 2013, in Tunis, Tunisia. The four-week course will immerse our participants in the language and politics of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), with a particular emphasis on direct engagement with some of the leading academic, political, intellectual and religious figures active across the spectrum in Tunisia. This summer's Exchange will also be opened by a two-day conference, June 15-16, led by more than a dozen MENA experts from the International Crisis Group ...
Keep Reading »Assassination, Resignations, and Reshufflings: Tunisia’s Latest Developments
![[News stand vendors wait for customers amid newspapers headlining on opposition leader Chokri Belaid's assassination, Thursday 7 February 2013 in Tunis. Image by Amine Landoulsi/AP Photo]](/content_images/3/sm_ScreenShot2013-02-11at7.13.08PM.png "[News stand vendors wait for customers amid newspapers headlining on opposition leader Chokri Belaid's assassination, Thursday 7 February 2013 in Tunis. Image by Amine Landoulsi/AP Photo]")
The Beginning: Rise of the Troika On 23 October 2011, Tunisians took to the polls resulting in Ennahda’s electoral victory. An Islamist party previously oppressed by ousted dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s regime, a majority of voters hoped this opposition party would bring much-needed change following the revolution that began a year prior. A coalition, more commonly referred to as the Troika, was quickly formed to lead the new government, with Ennahda’s Hamadi Jebali as Prime Minister, Ettakatol’s Mustapha Ben Jaafer as President of the National Constituent Assembly (NCA), and Congress for the Republic’s (CPR) Moncef Markzouki as President. The three parties that ...
Keep Reading »Alternative Worlds at the 2013 World Social Forum in Tunis
Last month, I attended my first World Social Forum (WSF) in Tunis, the capital of Tunisia. I study social movements and teach about the WSF and the very different and more established annual scrum of the powerful in Davos: the World Economic Forum. I was eager to attend the 2013 WSF (26-30 March) because of its location, chosen by activists during the February 2011 World Social Forum in Dakar to honor the Tunisian Jasmine revolution that overthrew the Ben Ali regime. The WSF slogan, “Another World is ...
Keep Reading »Salafism in Tunisia: An Interview with a Member of Ansar al-Sharia
The emergence of Salafi movements in post-Ben Ali Tunisia surprised both the international community and many in Tunisia itself. The astonishment was such that when the first Salafi demonstrations took place in downtown Tunis, journalists and observers were talking quite confusingly about the phenomenon. Some accused men of the former regime of having organized the demonstrations by these bearded men, others claimed they were members of the Tahrir Party (a pan-Islamist movement), and others still labeled ...
Keep Reading »World Social Forum Highlights Shock Doctrine in Tunisia
An estimated fifty thousand people from five thousand organizations in 127 countries spanning five continents participated in the World Social Forum (WSF) in Tunisia over the past week. By choosing to come together in Tunis, this year’s Forum evoked the sprit of the 2011 revolt that inspired uprisings around the world. The WSF also focused attention on the complicated status of that revolt, which in Tunisia has not brought the political or economic changes many hoped for. Conversations with local ...
Keep Reading »A qui profite la récupération des biens de Ben Ali ?
Pour marquer la fin de 2012, une année plutôt chaotique pour une Tunisie en pleine transition politique, le ministre des Finances tunisien a organisé un événement spectaculaire : une vente aux enchères publique des biens de l'ancien président Ben Ali provenant de son palais privé à Sidi Dhrif, une somptueuse demeure surplombant la baie de Tunis et la cité balnéaire de Sidi Bou Said. Cette manifestation baptisée sobrement Confiscation, a été largement médiatisée en Tunisie. Un site Internet a ...
Keep Reading »الأطر النظرية لفهم النماذج التنموية في مراحل ما بعد الثورات
عندما سأل أحد الأِشخاص "ماو تسي تونج" يومًا عن رأيه في الثورة الفرنسية، فكان رده "إن من المبكر الحكم عليها". ويذكرنا هذا بأن الحكم على حَدَثٍ في التاريخ بأنه كان ثورة من عدمه ليس جدلا أكاديميًّا أو نظريًّا بقدر ما هو جزء من الظاهرة التاريخية ذاتها محل التشكل في زمن كتابة هذه السطور. ورصد وتسجيل وكتابة التاريخ جزء من الثورة كعملية تحول (أو احتواء للتحول فيما يعرف بالثورة المضادة)، ويكفي تذكر كلمات الفيلسوف "وولتر بنيامين" عندما قدم تشبيها للتاريخ بأنه مَلَك فاتح جناحيه يمضي ...
Keep Reading »The Urban Subalterns and the Non-Movements of the Arab Uprisings: An Interview with Asef Bayat
This interview was conducted with Asef Bayat via electronic correspondence. In it, Bayat discusses the inside-out character of neoliberal cities in the Arab world and its influence on the recent wave of protests known collectives as the Arab uprisings. In addition, Bayat elaborates on the notion of urban subalterns, and the existence of social "non-movements" of the poor and the youth. Nada Ghandour-Demiri (NGD): You recently published an article in City & Society entitled ...
Keep Reading »The Tunisian Constituent Assembly's By-laws: A Brief Analysis
[The following report was issued by the Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance on 26 February 2013.] The Tunisian Constituent Assembly's By-laws: A Brief Analysis Executive Summary In response to the Jasmine Revolution, Tunisia is in the process of developing a new constitution. The institution charged with drafting this new constitution is the National Constituent Assembly (NCA). The functioning and processes of the NCA will directly affect the shape of ...
Keep Reading »Self-Immolations Continue in Tunisia
On 12 March, Adel Khadri, a twenty-seven year old cigarette street vendor, set himself on fire on Tunis’ main street, Habib Bourguiba Avenue. According to eyewitnesses, Khadri shouted: “This is a young man who sells cigarettes because of unemployment,” before setting himself on fire. Khadri passed away early this morning at Ben Arous’ Burns Hospital. Collective blog Nawaat reports [fr]: Le jeune vendeur à la sauvette qui, désespéré par ses conditions de vie, s’était immolé, est décédé ...
Keep Reading »A Betrayed Revolution?: On the Tunisian Uprising and the Democratic Transition
On the evening of 14 January 2011, a single man was shouting on Bourguiba Avenue, "Ben Ali hrab!" (Ben Ali has fled), celebrating the stunning victory of a revolution. In this cry, the admiration for the people, love for freedom, and sorrow for the dead was heard. He was alone in the dark, on an avenue that an angry mob invaded a few hours earlier. He was a lawyer, one of the many lawyers who supported the revolt with all their strength. On 8 February 2013, more than two years later, a crowd ...
Keep Reading »Tunisia: Violence and the Salafi Challenge
[The following report was issued by International Crisis Group on 13 February 2013.] Tunisia: Violence and the Salafi Challenge Executive Summary The assassination of Chokri Belaïd, a prominent opposition politician, has thrown Tunisia into its worst crisis since the January 2011 ouster of President Ben Ali. Although culprits have yet to be identified, suspicions swiftly turned to individuals with ties to the Salafi movements. Founded or not, such beliefs once again have brought this ...
Keep Reading »إغتيال عيد العرب
تونس ليست لبنان. قلتها فانهالت علي الشتائم والتهم. لكني أعيدها، تونس ليست لبنان من حيث الإغتيالات السياسية. فقد عانى لبنان في الستين سنةً التي تلت استقلاله عشرات الإغتيالات المدبرة، حصدت أرواح رؤساء وزعماء أحزاب ووزراء ورجال دين وغيرهم من القيادات. أما تونس ما بعد الإستقلال فقد شهدت جريمةً واحدةً من هذا الحجم، تلك التي استهدفت صالح بن يوسف، منافس الحبيب بورقيبة رئيس الدولة آنذاك، سنة 1961. وتمت العملية في ألمانيا. أصبح الإغتيال السياسي منذ ذلك الوقت يعني، بالنسبة للمواطن التونسي، سجناً مؤقتاً وأحياناً ...
Keep Reading »Assassinat de Chokri Belaid : Onde de choc internationale
Les capitales occidentales et l’ONU dénoncent un assassinat politique Très rapidement, dès la confirmation de la mort du charismatique leader de gauche Chokri Belaid, c’est François Hollande qui est parmi les premiers à réagir en dénonçant le meurtre « d’une des voix les plus courageuses et les plus libres » de Tunisie dans un communiqué de l’Élysée. « Ce meurtre prive la Tunisie d’une de ses voix les plus courageuses et les plus libres », estime le président français, qui ajoute que « la France ...
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