On Wednesday October 9th, 2013, the 20- year old student Marwa Maalawi was sentenced to 3 months of jail on charge of addressing women’s minister Sihem Badi with derogatory word.
On the 27th of March, 2013, student Marwa raised a sign in a protest in front of the ministry of women on which she wrote:
In the era of terrorist Ennahdha, a chaste woman is raped because her minister is a whore.
Marwa’s imprisonment was severely condemned by the media, civil society and students, who see the the minister’s actions as “persecutive” and “anti-revolutionary” ministerial conduct. The arrest came after a series of recent cases of human rights violations and the suppression of freedom of expression.
It Is worth noting that the minister Sihem Badi has has been largely discredited over many scandals, such as taking a picture with Laila ben Ali‘s pair of shoes and failing to take seriously to the horrifying incident of raping a three year old girl in a public kindergarden. She has also been scathingly criticized by civil society activists for her improper language and disrespect for the Tunisian people – as when she addressed Tunisians in one of the TV programs saying “if they are not pleased then they can go drink from the sea water!”
Unfortunately, the current government’s policy of unequal retributions and human rights violations seems to likely to continue.
**seems to be likely to continue
What have we done to ourselves ? Why do we skip decency when we go emotional ? why do we use ‘perverted’ terminology when we want to express our protest to any given incident or any event, regardless what’s at stake ?
Yes, you must only be a perverted person, when you call a high government official “prostitute” . It’s a breach of all decency codes . So what does Marwa expect ? A purple heart for bravery, or rather a well deserved jail sentence, according to the rule of law . (Note : pls do not say the law against such allegations, doesn’t it exist in Tunisia . Although I don’t hear Maissa Arfaoui mention that aspect at all ! )
Marwa should have known exactly what the consequences are, for her tasteless choice of words that couldn’t go unpunished (by law of course) . In addition she made things worse, after making the stupid mistake of putting it all on a piece of paper, in her own hand writing, for the whole world to see, declaring thereby in her testimony that the senior minister is a “whore” . What will she call her teachers then ? pimps ? How did Marwa know about whores and whore houses, I wonder . A student, in the prime of her life, let herself go with such a wrath . It was absolutely uncalled for, a bit clumsy and it has a populistic tendency, since it proved to be the cheapest and fastest way to become social media star, and who-knows-what other opportunities it may bring . Suit yourself .
Pls don’t get me wrong, I’m not defending the Government and I’m not in a position to do so, but consider this thoughtfully : Are you suggesting that under the “zinochet” regime, Marwa would’ve opened her mouth to call a government member a maroon ? She wouldn’t even think about it, let alone calling the RCD “a terrorist party”, cos before she knows it she’d be a goner . Having said that, freedom of expression has never been so free as it is right now . A fact no one can deny unless one suffers from amnaesia .
This Government that all tunisians have ‘elected’, albeit indirectly via the Constituant Assemblee, is at least a legitimate interim government, something tunisian society has never experienced before, while back in the days, zaba and his gang were reckless when it came to freedom of speech, and everybody got the message loud and clear . Fear was stronger than the need to have free speech . The avarage man on the street would’ve mumbled : “freedom of speech is for fools…it’d be wiser if I mind my own business ! ”
But when this government took over, most of us became champions in human-rights-issues, instead of learning first how to cope with the new situation and bearing in mind that it’ll take some time before we understand how to deal with democratic values, in harmony with our geographic location, our cultural and traditional customs .
ايه مشكلة اخرى, يظهرلي الشعب التونسي الكل ميش نكتبو عليه حسب ماريت في اللافتة هذه الانسة ماوزنتش كلامها ولو كانت هي الوزيرة لصار نفس الشيئ وربما أكثر والحكم مازال ابتدائي على ماأظن
بالله براو اتوسطولها خليوها تعتذر وفكو علينا من المشاكل الفارغة على كل انا نعرف ان سهام بادي تكبش ياسر وشمايتية ولكنها قادرة ان تتفهم ان مثل هذه التجاوزات قد تقع في اطار المظاهرات ولكنها ستختفي بمرور الايام والتخلي عن القضية سيحسب لصالحها في نهاية الأمر
Kerim and slim ,
What l condemned above was already the unjust fact of unequal retribution and not the penalty that she was given ,how can a fair law convict a young lady for an act of over-expression and disregard a minister’s so many charges and scandals like those l mentioned above .
Thanks all for your comments .
It is ridiculous… this young women called the minister a whore (on top coming from a young women it is really chocking given that she should be the first to avoid to use sexist stereotypes). The minister used her right to sue the person who insult her, where is the problem? For me the real problem is the interpretation of freedom and the fact people under the concept of freedom are insulting others…. and I am not trying to defend the government we have the right to be against the government and this is the essence of democracy, but there are other ways to express opposition to a government….
Nawaat, please check this page on a mobile phone. It’s terrible. The social collection take up way too much space and the alerts make the entire text shift up and down, making it hard to read.
صاحب التعليق الاول والثاني ماشي في بالو الحكومة هي الي جابت حرية التعبير, الحكومة تعرف الي حرية التعبير هي الي جابتها وكان موش المعارضة والمجتمع المدني راهي مشات على روحها حرية التعبير ماتنساش صديقي ان اللافتة رفعت في سياق معين ومضمون اللافتة لايساوي شيئا أمام ماتسببت فيه هذه الوزيرة من انتهاكات لحقوق الانسان والاسوء من ذلك انها رأت ذلك امرا عاديا ولم يصدر منها اي تنديد وهذا هو سبب هذه المظاهرة ومثماش دخان بدون نار ومع ذلك قلنا ان مروى أخطأت في اختيار العبارات لكن تنجم تقعد التصويرة تدور في الانترنات الى مالانهاية له الى ان يصدق الناس ذلك
@Maissa
It’s all too easy to blame it on what you call “unequal retribution” . How unequal ? By dragging the minister into custody, for cross-interrogation ? It doesn’t make sense because it’s Marwa who is in breach, and not the minister . To be more specific, the law-suit was against Marwa, for calling the minister a prostitute, in public . Remember? !
Yet you still think it’s the other way around . Would you care to explain how does this equation work ?
Allow me to put your formula into the following situation, just to illustrate how it’d have worked, but let’s scale things down first, to make it perceivable enough to the reader :
Let’s then suppose that the minister is a police officier, in duty, and duringwhich he happened to have stopped Marwa for speed excess, on a routine control, and gives her a ticket . Let’s also include you ( Maissa) to be a passer-by, and you saw the police officier writing the ticket, while Marwa bursts in anger and uses that famous word (…) again, towards the police officier upon which another ticket has been handed out to Marwa, this time, for insulting a civil servant on duty, considered by law as a federal offence . Now, it’s your turn to investigate, so you step forward, and you tell the officer that Marwa, from your point of view, isn’t guilty of anything, and you encourage Marwa to press charges against the officer , for intimidation (or whatever other suitable motive) . You know you couldn’t have been right, because your point of view can only be biassed . You don’t need no one to tell you that . It’s all there, and even if we scale things up again, but keeping the same equation and applying the same mold, the outcome would be identical . Go ahead, measure it the way you want to . Unless you wanna keep your bias .
I’m only trying to help you out getting rid of being perhaps too partial in your judgements, in a time we all badly need to teach ourselves the principals of fairness, in all its dimensions . I know it ain’t easy for some, but I assure you it’s all a matter of will !
eli yi9oul kelmet el7a9 yda5louh lgalbou ama hya ki 9alet eghtisab lebnaya fih fawa2ed 7ad ma kallamha… vremon cha3b yisa5af wallah wallitou lkol t7ebouha sihem badi tawa w tdef3ou 3leha ti fi9ou ha za7i lebled mechya l hewya wentouma makomch 3arfin raskom men se9ikom.. ti mela 3lech 3malneha thawra a7na maw bech tmout dectatourya wel 5ouf wel dholm… vremon chay yi7acham wllh w toul 7yetkom tab9aw bayou3in .. je vous emmerde ya bayou3in
imo, this student must be punsihed, but the sentence seems to be harsh.
A suspended sentence would be acceptable, providing the defendent has no criminal record.
Tunisia is at a crossroad – a dangerous one might I add – we are discussing the detail of a slanderous word and analyzing it to death – wait let’s look at it from a woman’s perspective – no better yet – let’s analyze this from a social angle – I will accept these points and raise you some – When would it be acceptable? If a man called her a whore? Or perhaps the word Bitch is more acceptable here given that it really is in every movie? Seriously?? Is this really our top priority? Whether it was acceptable for a young student to call a minister a ‘prostitute’? For god sake, why settle for crumbs when we have issues as big as the mountains?? Where is the reform we were promised in 2011? Why is the justice system ‘active’ and ‘inactive’ and ‘fair’ and ‘unfair’ or better yet – why is the justice system still playing housewives with the gov? If we had an EQUAL, INDEPENDENT, and REAL justice system this story would not even have made the deadlines. That’s the real problem – not the failures of the minister we grew so accustomed to, neither this young, newly freed student who is perhaps still finding her way in this dark era we are moving into. … Peace and Tahya Tounes.
This is the level of our today student :-( They think freedom of expression allows slandering. We need more intelligent people. as for the sentence it may be a bit harsh.