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Tunisia
The Disintegrating Fabric of Tunisian Politics: The Niqab Ban and Tunisian Flag Desecration at Manouba University
![[A Salafi student speaks with a professor at Manouba University, March 7, 2012, after Salafis raised their flag in place of the Tunisian national flag on campus. Image by Yahya/Demotix.]](/content_images/3/sm_1093933.jpg "[A Salafi student speaks with a professor at Manouba University, March 7, 2012, after Salafis raised their flag in place of the Tunisian national flag on campus. Image by Yahya/Demotix.]")
It’s difficult to say how it started. For clarity’s sake, let’s begin on 28 November 2011. Enraged at the university’s enforcement of the niqab ban, a group of Salafists took the Dean of the College of Letters at Manouba University hostage. (Students at Manouba, and at universities around the country, are prohibited by presidential decree from wearing the niqab while in class).[1] Protestors, swelling at times to 200, came to the defense of female studentswishing to wear the niqab to exams.[2] They leafleted the campus with fliers crying, “Sister, What is Preventing You From Wearing the Niqab?” Leftist students, oftentimes members of the ...
Keep Reading »Time for a 'Bourguibist' Comeback? Essebsi Butters up Tunisians in Monastir
![[Image of rally held in Monastir. Image by Nawaat.]](/content_images/3/sm_IMG-20120324-01132.jpg "[Image of rally held in Monastir. Image by Nawaat.]")
The dome shaped room was a sea of red and white. It smelled of amber musk and sea. The attendees were mostly well over the age of forty, and the buzz of excitement was impossible to miss. You would think you were attending a Michael Jackson concert. What’s the occasion, you ask? Well, to celebrate and adulate the ultimate star of the show, Beji Caid Essebsi – or, as the attendees would proudly tell you, to “unite all political forces as Tunisian above all else,” and to “start a new era in Tunisia’s history.” There was nothing particularly new about the rally, however. Held in Monastir, which in the heart of Tunisia’s coastal region and home to the country’s first ...
Keep Reading »Call to National and European MPs: For an Audit of Tunisia's Debts to the EU
![[Image from CADTM.org]](/content_images/3/sm_auditoftunisiadebt.png "[Image from CADTM.org]")
[The following statement was issued on 16 March 2012 by a diverse group of European parliamentarians calling for an audit of Tunisia's debt to the European Union.] With dictator Ben Ali ousted from power since 14 January 2011, Tunisia bears the burden of a public external debt amounting to $14.4 bn, which is a major obstacle to the development of the Tunisian people since repayment (capital plus interests) drains on an average an annual sum 6 times larger than the health budget. While Tunisia urgently needs all its financial resources to face the current situation, the present governor of the central bank of Tunisia is considering devoting EU 577 million from the ...
Keep Reading »The Uprisings Will be Gendered
![[Protestors in Bahrain; Image From UPI]](/content_images/3/sm_Female-protesters-of-The-Arab-Spring_20.jpg "[Protestors in Bahrain; Image From UPI]")
Women's rights and the regulation of gender and sex norms in the Arab world have long been put under the spotlight by local and international activists in addition to local and international politicians and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). This year, the ongoing uprisings in the Arab world have brought into focus some dominant ways that sexual and bodily rights are framed, gendered, and politicized. These can be grouped under three loose themes, each of which deserves further study: One is the equation of gender with women and/or sexual and gender minorities. Two is the fear of Islamists. Three, is the use of gendered and sexed violence to discourage or discredit ...
Keep Reading »Legal Agenda on Jadaliyya!
![[Legal Agenda logo. Image from legal-agenda.com]](/content_images/3/sm_mufakkira1.jpg "[Legal Agenda logo. Image from legal-agenda.com]")
The Legal Agenda is a critical and multidisciplinary non-governmental organization, based in Lebanon, that monitors and analyzes law and public policy in Lebanon, specifically, and the Arab region, generally. The Legal Agenda publishes a quarterly magazine, organizes regional conferences, commissions studies, and hosts panel and open discussions. In doing so, the organization provides a forum for citizens, experts, and researchers to analyze, critique, and debate local and regional legal developments with an emphasis on public accountability. The Legal Agenda explores the law’s influence on and capacity to empower, marginalized groups, including refugees, prisoners, ...
Keep Reading »Le Kef Is Still on Fire: A Mountaintop View of the Anniversary of the Tunisian Revolution
![[Burnt car on the streets of Le Kef. Image by Laryssa Chomiak and Jillian Schwedler.]](/content_images/3/sm_Chomaik2.jpg "[Burnt car on the streets of Le Kef. Image by Laryssa Chomiak and Jillian Schwedler.]")
Le Kef, Tunisia: On the first anniversary of the Tunisian revolution, international attention largely focused on Avenue Bourguiba in downtown Tunis and on Sidi Bouzid, where the self-immolation of Mohammed Bouazizi on 17 December 2010 is said to have ignited the Arab Spring. But before the revolution ever reached Tunis, it unfolded in smaller towns throughout the country—spreading from Sidi Bouzid to Bou Zayen, Kassrine, Thala, Ghafsa, Le Kef, and Jendouba—well before the first large scale protest was held in the capital on 8 January 2011. Kasserine and Thala were the first towns to suffer from violent police crackdowns that fueled subsequent protest movements. In ...
Keep Reading »هوَجٌ يخدم الصهيونية
حين دعا نائب رئيس حكومة إسرائيل لهجرة اليهود التوانسة أجابه رئيسهم: لا دخل لأيّ أجنبي في الشؤون التونسية، نحن نحب بلادنا وسنبقى فيها.. أما النّفر الغبي الذي هتف قبل أيام في تونس "قتل اليهود فرض واجب"، فهو يقدّم هديّة مجانية لحكّام إسرائيل. لدى وصول الزعيم في حماس اسماعيل هنية الى تونس، قبل أيام، إختار نفرٌ قليل الخروج عن هتافات التوانسة الثورية الصادقة. فقد ارتفع وعلا هتاف “الشعب يريد تحرير فلسطين” في الاستقبال الشعبي لهنيّة، لكن ذلك النفر السّلفي كما يبدو اختار إعلان جهله من خلال الهتاف العنصريّ “قتل اليهود فرض عين”! في تونس، التي تضم يهودًا بين مواطنيها، أثار هذا الهتاف الغبي قلقًا واستنكارًا. فقال بيرس طرابلسي احد ممثلي الطائفة اليهودية التونسية: “لا ...
Keep Reading »Dog Hunting
![Police dogs [image from www.owni.eu]](/content_images/3/sm_1-chien-police-defense-www.owni.eu.jpg "Police dogs [image from www.owni.eu]")
Many years ago on a day like today, a hard-faced young man sits reading the newspaper in a café in some small alley. He opens the page and a small headline catches his eye: Campaign to Round Up 15,000 Strays in Capital. The young man smiles and reads on: As part of a plan to improve the quality of life for residents of the capital city, and to bolster Tunis’ image as a premiere tourist destination, the City Council has embarked on a campaign to catch fifteen thousand stray dogs. Headed by the Mayor, the council seeks to rid the city of approximately seven-hundred thousand dogs annually so as to ensure the safety and well-being of pedestrians throughout the municipality. ...
Keep Reading »Sidi Bouzid One Year On: Dignity, Stagnation
![[A car drives past a road sign in Sidi Bouzid. Photo Credit: Getty Images.]](/content_images/3/sm_610x.jpg "[A car drives past a road sign in Sidi Bouzid. Photo Credit: Getty Images.]")
One year has passed since Mohammed Bouazizi set himself ablaze in Sidi Bouzid. His act had inspired the revolutions throughout the region, most of which have subsequently been rolled back by military authorities, co-opted by religious conservatives, and overtaken by bitter violence. But in Sidi Bouzid on Saturday, the one-year anniversary of Bouazizi’s self-immolation, residents were able to finally demonstrate their joy and pride at the magnitude of the events their native son unleashed. A building-sized tableau of Bouazizi’s beatific face was unfurled over an advertisement for a national telecom company. The sign read: “Revolution of Freedom and Dignity.” “Dignity” is ...
Keep Reading »Tunisia's Election Results and the Question of Minorities
![[Attendees at an Ennahda political rally pause for prayer. Image by Emily Parker.]](/content_images/3/sm_ennahdarally.jpg "[Attendees at an Ennahda political rally pause for prayer. Image by Emily Parker.]")
Now that the votes have been tallied and the victors of Tunisia’s 23 October elections have been announced, the country’s Constituent Assembly is finally beginning to take shape. With the blue ink still fading from Tunisian voters’ index fingers, all eyes are fixed on the composition of Tunisia’s first independent governing body, and speculation is rife – especially since the moderate Islamist Ennahda Party has secured slightly more than forty percent of the Assembly’s seats. After decades of official secularism imposed by Tunisia’s first president Habib Bourguiba, understandably, the election of a clearly Islamist party has raised the alarm of national and ...
Keep Reading »Flowering of the Arab Spring: Understanding Tunisia’s Elections Results
![[Tunisian election workers count ballots at the end of voting for the election in Tunis. Image by Louafi Larbi of Reuters.]](/content_images/3/sm_tunisia_elections_ballot_vote_count.jpg "[Tunisian election workers count ballots at the end of voting for the election in Tunis. Image by Louafi Larbi of Reuters.]")
In early 1994 a small Islamic think tank affiliated with the University of South Florida (USF) planned an academic forum to host Rachid Ghannouchi, the leader of the main opposition party in Tunisia, Ennahdha. The objective of this annual event was to give Western academics and intellectuals a rare opportunity to engage an Islamically-oriented intellectual or political leader at a time when the political discourse was dominated by Samuel Huntington’s much hyped clash of civilizations thesis. Shortly after the public announcement of the event, pro-Israeli groups and advocates led by Martin Kramer, Daniel Pipes, Steven Emerson, the head of the local B’nai B’rith, and a ...
Keep Reading »De Blogueros a Redactores de la Constitucion
![[Amira Yahyaoui (image via her website) and Riadh Guerfali (image via Flickr)]](/content_images/3/sm_YahyaouiGuerfali.jpg "[Amira Yahyaoui (image via her website) and Riadh Guerfali (image via Flickr)]")
[This article was written in English by Mischa Benoit-Lavelle and translated/published in Spanish by www.rebelion.org] De Blogueros a Redactores de la Constitución [Traducción para Rebelión de Loles Oliván] En Túnez, el único país de las revoluciones de la primavera árabe con fecha fijada definitivamente para [celebrar] elecciones libres —el 23 de octubre de 2011— el consenso entre muchos activistas es que la revolución se ha estancado. El Ministerio de Interior, donde los manifestantes exigieron drásticamente la salida de Ben Ali, está rodeado en la actualidad de alambre de espino y vigilado por una fuerza policial a la que la prensa local ...
Keep Reading »Sonia M'Barek: A Musical Innovator Rooted in Tradition
Sonia M’Barek, Proshansky Auditorium, City University of New York Graduate Center, New York, NY, 23 March 2012. In traditional Arabic music, a vocalist is not just referred to as a singer, but is instead spoken of as a mutrib/mutribah. Literally translated, they are the people who bring tarab, or musical ecstasy. As such, the craft of a traditional Arabic vocalist is a demanding one. The singer must possess a pleasing voice, have clear diction, and sing impeccably in tune, all while comfortably ...
Keep Reading »Scandalous Flag Incident at Mannouba University: A Wake-up Call
The March 7th events at the University of Mannouba in Tunis drew my attention this week: could this be a wake-up call? A salafi who is not a student at the university took down the Tunisian flag from the rooftop of the university and replaced it with the salafi black flag – inscribed in Arabic with la ilaha illa Allah Muhammad rasul Allah (“There is no God but God and Muhammad is His prophet”). We Tunisians say this phrase many times a day; when we are surprised for ...
Keep Reading »القضاة التونسيون بين السلطة والجمعية والنقابة
إذا ما أراد المراقب المتعمق في الشؤون القضائية اللبنانية، (والتي تنفرد فيها السلطة السياسية، أو من ينوب عنها في قصر العدل كمجلس القضاء الأعلى، بالكلام عن القضاء وعليه)، بالذهاب إلى تونس اليوم، سيصدم بحيوية المنافسة، واحتدام النقاش العام بين جمعية القضاة التونسيين ونقابتهم. حيث يرى المظاهرات والنقاشات والمؤتمرات والمقابلات الصحفية والعلمية واللجان المشتركة والمواقع الالكترونية، ويلاحظ إن القاضي يتقاسم المنابر مع المحامي والصحفي والناشط والسياسي. ولكن الصورة طبعا ليست بهذا الصفاء الجميل، إذ هناك من يعترض ...
Keep Reading »The International Symposium on the Arab Spring Through the Eyes of Arab Novelists: Testimonies and Readings
In the grim depths of winter, the Arabic novel keeps the sun of the Tunisian Revolution shining. Although the sun of the Tunisian Revolution and the Arab Spring is still playing hide and seek, it is imperative that artists, writers, and poets find a venue to discuss the cultural and artistic sides of the revolution. On 18 and 19 January 2012, an international symposium on the “Arab Spring Through the Eyes of Arab Novelists” took center stage at the Ibn Rachiq Culture House in Tunis. The symposium ...
Keep Reading »القيمة الأخلاقية للثورة العربية
عام ٢٠١١ كان عام الثورات العربية بدون أدنى شك. ويبدو أن عام ٢٠١٢ سيكون هو الآخر عام الثورات العربية، جديدها وقديمها. فالعديد من الثورات التي تفجرت في العام المنصرم مازالت متقدة تشتعل، والبعض منها هدأ قليلاً ثم عاد للانتفاض أو هو موشكٌ على الثوران مجدداً إما لإدراك ثواره أن ثورتهم لم تكتمل أو لاكتشافهم أن ثورتهم قد سرقت منهم وأن السارقين هم أنفسهم من كانوا قد ادعوا بأنهم حماة الوطن أودعاة الثورة أو مؤججيها الأصليين. والبعض مازال في المخاض الأول ويمكن له أن يفجر ثورته في أية لحظة ضد أي من الأنظمة ...
Keep Reading »A Postcard from Tunis: One Year Later
Tunis - Saturday, 14 January 2012. This morning I woke up at 8:00 in the Majestic Hotel on Avenue de Paris just off Avenue Bourguiba in the center of Tunis. It was quiet from the time I awoke until the time I left the hotel after breakfast at 10:30. I thought how unusual it was, given that today is the first anniversary of the Tunisian revolution and the day President Zin al-Abdin Ben Ali fled the country, "like a coward," as a few of my skeptical Tunisian friends like to put it. I ...
Keep Reading »Tunisian Film Festival in Hollywood, 10-12 January 2012
Today is the opening of the first Tunisian Film Festival in Hollywood. It is first and foremost a commemoration of the Tunisian revolution, which surprised and shook the world, ushering in insurrections and revolts whose reverberations were heard from Cairo to New York. Secondly, it is also an opportunity to bring together Tunisians in the United States and Tunisia around a common project of exchange and dialogue with American audiences in the mecca of the film industry, Hollywood. The festival opens on ...
Keep Reading »The Tunisian South: Regionalism, Marginalization, and Unfulfilled Revolutionary Expectations
Approximately a year after the outbreak of Tunisia’s revolution, the proliferation of graffiti with slogans such as “Live free or die trying,” “Don’t give up,” and “Stand up for your rights” are poignant reminders of the struggle Tunisians embarked upon last December and January. Although Tunisians succeeded in ousting Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, most citizens’ expectations of improved livelihoods have yet to be fulfilled. This reality is most evident in the country’s south, where unemployment, poor social ...
Keep Reading »Global Dimensions of the Arab Spring and the Potential for Anti-Hegemonic Politics
I remember a journalist asking a few weeks ago: has the world become a better place because of the Arab spring? I think what he meant was: are we living today in a better world because the Arab peoples have gotten rid of, or are getting rid of, some of the worst authoritarian leaders in the world? The question implicitly referred to the matter of democratization. Of course, the issue of democratization has dominated the study of political change in the Arab world over the last twenty years. However, a ...
Keep Reading »Films for the Classroom: Silences of the Palace
Silences of the Palace [Samt al-Qusur], directed by Moufida Tlatli. France/Tunisia, 1994. As a lover of film, I am often asked about my favorites. And as a lover of Arab film in particular, I am usually expected by friends and colleagues to begin with a paean to the Egyptian cinema. Growing up in the home of an Egyptian immigrant to Canada, I was weaned on a steady diet of Fatin Hamama, Rushdy Abaza, and Samia Gamal, and perhaps unsurprisingly, the cinema of the 1950s and the 1960s became a ...
Keep Reading »The New Hybridities of Arab Musical Intifadas
"My music may be soft, but I'm a warrior on stage." So declared Tunisian singer Emel Mathlouthi as she explained how a girl who started off playing covers for melodic death metal bands like In Flames, Dark Tranquility, and The Gathering wound up electrifying her fellow protesters in front of the Municipal Theatre during the Jasmine Revolution with a folk song. Mathlouthi’s haunting voice inspired the crowd but folk music is not generally thought of as the music of Arab “youth” who, ...
Keep Reading »The Battle for Tunisia
Only days prior to the 23 October elections for a national constituent assembly, Tunisia continues to be an embattled and profoundly polarized terrain. Since the ouster of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in January, peaceful and less than peaceful demonstrations and sit-ins have routinely taken place throughout the country, particularly in the capital, Tunis. The most memorable of these remains the second sit-in protest in the Qasbah Government Square (Feb. 20th to March 3rd), which led to the resignation of ...
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