Culture Vanessa Szakal 03 February 2018

Interview with Habibi Funk in Tunis [Video]

On the closing evening of the Goethe Institut’s Geniale Dilletanten in Tunis (January 20-28), the expo’s downtown venue was packed for a DJ set by Habibi Funk. Berlin-based Jannis Stürtz, co-founder of Jakarta Records, began younger music project Habibi Funk which revives long-forgotten or little-known songs of the 70’s and 80’s from Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, Sudan and Lebanon. As he gets set up for the evening mix, the man behind Habibi Funk experience talks to Nawaat about the travel, research, elbow-rubbing and ethical considerations that feed the project.

Politics Translation : Vanessa Szakal 27 January 2018

Interview with Hamza Meddeb: “The system keeps youth at the margins of society”

Tunisian political science scholar Hamza Meddeb published in 2015 “The state of injustice in the Maghreb: Morocco and Tunisia”. In one of the book’s chapters called “Waiting as a mode of governance in Tunisia”, he analyses the ways in which the Tunisian government diffuses social conflicts by inciting protestors to be patient and wait. At a moment when such manoeuvres seem to be reaching their limits, Nawaat sat with Hamza Meddeb to discuss the current protests. Interview.

بيئة صحفي : فانيسا سزاكال 24 جانفي 2018

سيدي بوسعيد: مشروع سياحي يهدد منطقة خضراء ذات قيمة أثرية

شرعت أوّل شهر ديسمبر 2017 شركة أكربول للسياحة والنزل في تهيئة وتوسعة قطعة أرض بالمنطقة الخضراء بسيدي بوسعيد قصد استثمارها في إقامة نزل سياحي ذو طابع مميز. هذا النشاط أثار احتجاجا في صفوف المواطنين ونشطاء في المجتمع المدني، تلاه قرار بلدي بإيقاف أشغال التهيئة والبناء. رغم أن هذه المنطقة صُنفت وفقا للأمر عدد 1246 المؤرخ في 07 أكتوبر 1985 كمنطقة خضراء ذات قيمة أثرية وتاريخية وطبيعية، فإنه تم الترخيص في 26 ماي 2016 لاستغلالها في إقامة مشروع سياحي.

Politics Vanessa Szakal 13 January 2018

“Fech nestannaw” anti-austerity protests continue in downtown Tunis

Friday, January 12 marked just over a week since protests broke out against the increased prices introduced by Tunisia’s 2018 budget. Unlike previous periods of contestation since the 2011 revolution, demonstrations in at least 18 regions across the country over the past week have been characterized by heightened tension leading to confrontations between protesters and security forces. Friday’s demonstration in Tunis, strained but peaceful, coincided with the court date of Ahmed Sassi, one of many campaign activists who has been arrested since January 4.

Politics Translation : Vanessa Szakal 12 January 2018

Map of protests: increased prices galvanize streets across Tunisia

Protests against the 2018 finance law, which began within parliament and media outlets long before hitting the streets, provoked tension around the approved increase in prices. Tunisians, already fed up with the repercussions of a prolonged economic crisis, have turned out into the streets. A new wave of protest movements began in January, and quickly turned into confronta-tions between protesters and security forces in 18 governorates. Clashes culminated on Monday night with the death of the first protester in Tebourba, just outside of the capital.

Droits Vanessa Szakal 09 Jan 2018

Carte d’identité biométrique: Entêtement sécuritaire et surdité parlementaire

Le projet de loi de la nouvelle carte d’identité biométrique sera soumis, cet après-midi, au vote de l’Assemblée des Représentants du Peuple (ARP) en plénière. En cas d’adoption, la nouvelle loi, qui apporte des modifications à la loi organique du 22 mars 1993, fera que chaque tunisien ait une carte à puce électronique contenant ses données personnelles et gérée par le ministère de l’Intérieur. Alors qu’une telle mise à jour pourrait constituer un pas vers la numérisation des services administratifs, elle présente également de hauts risques pour l’intégrité et la confidentialité des données personnelles.

Politics Vanessa Szakal 05 January 2018

Tunisia in 2017: The divide between local struggles and government policies

If many had hopes that 2017 might hold answers to the social and economic demands of the revolution, those hopes were short-lived. Tunisians faced an increasingly grim economic situation with an 8% drop in the value of the dinar and unemployment at 15.3%. The country’s long-awaited municipal elections, promising decentralized governance, are postponed until May 2018. Several months after the Prime Minister declared a « war against corruption », parliament passed the “reconciliation law” pardoning administrative officials implicated in economic crimes under the former regime. As much as resistance to changing old ways persists, protest movements represented a dynamic social force in 2017.

Rights Vanessa Szakal 29 December 2017

Detainee rights and Law 5: When practices don’t follow legislative reforms

In November, Lawyers Without Borders (ASF) and the Tunisian Bar Association (ONAT) launched a campaign to speed up the implementation of legislation intended to protect the rights of detainees. It has been almost two years since parliament voted to reform Tunisia’s penal code through the adoption of Law n°5-2016, known more simply as Law 5. And yet statistics and testimonies indicate that misconduct by officials and human rights abuses committed in police stations and detention centers remain commonplace. What will it take for old practices to be replaced by the procedures set out in the new legislation?

Culture Vanessa Szakal 25 December 2017

In a town where « nothing has changed »: Documentary Film Festival of Redeyef

This year’s Documentary Film Festival of Redeyef (RFDR) takes place December 20-24, in the town whose name is almost synonymous with Tunisia’s phosphate industry and its deleterious effects on the surrounding populations and environment. Although the mining basin revolt of 2008 is considered a precursor to the Tunisian revolution in 2011, in 2017 residents affirm without hesitation that here in Redeyef, « nothing has changed ». Now in its fourth year, the RFDR, funded by the Rosa Luxembourg Foundation, is pushing to establish a perennial film festival here, a so-called difficult terrain that is parched for sustainable cultural outlets.

World Vanessa Szakal 19 December 2017

American aid: In spite of Trump’s cuts, Congress bets on Tunisia’s “success”

How much will US Congress carve out for Tunisia in 2018? The jury is still out, and even though the fiscal year began October 1, Washington has yet to approve the new budget, including foreign funding amounts. An article* published earlier this month on The Hill urges senators to remember Tunisia while finalizing the budget for the coming year. « Tunisia is an American ‘soft power’ success story—let’s keep it that way », the author writes, arguing that with US foreign assistance « there is reason to believe that the rule of law and democratic institutions will prevail », whereas cuts in funding to the country would represent « a serious mistake ».

Environment Vanessa Szakal 04 December 2017

Celebrating Mouled : Harvest season begins in Tunisia’s Aleppo pine forests

On December 1, Tunisians celebrated the birth of the prophet Muhammad with assidat zgougou, a pudding-like dessert garnished with nuts, dried fruits, and candies. For one day out of the year, families savor this uniquely Tunisian treat made from zgougou, seed of the Aleppo pine tree that grows abundantly throughout the Mediterranean. With some 360 thousand acres of Aleppo pine forest in Kasserine, Siliana, Kef and Bizerte, Tunisia is the only country where the tree’s black-grey seeds are harvested for human consumption.

بيئة فانيسا سزاكال 01 ديسمبر 2017

الزقوقو: ستة أشهر من العمل الشاق من أجل الاحتفال بيوم واحد

يُصادف أول يوم من شهر ديسمبر لهذه السنة، ذكرى المولد النبويّ، الذّي يحتفل به التونسيّون عادة بإعداد ما يعرف بعصيدة الزقوقو. موسم جني الصنوبر الحلبي، المعروف محليّا باسم “الزقوقو”، انطلق منذ بداية شهر نوفمبر الجاري في شمال البلاد أين تتواجد أشجار الصنوبر بكثافة. إثر لقاء جمعنا بمحمد مختار، مدير وكالة استغلال الغابات، التابعة لوزارة الفلاحة، والتّي تقدّم كلّ موسم عرض طلب لاستغلال مقاسم غابات الصنوبر الحلبيّ، توّجه فريق نواة إلى أحد غابات بنزرت أين انتقلت خمس عائلات بأسرها لتعمل حتّى شهر ماي في جني حبوب “الزقوقو”. في قصّة الباي، بمعتمديّة ماطر، وعلى امتداد 50 هكتارا، تنتشر بعض الخيام الرثّة التي تأوي العملة وعائلاتهم خلال موسم الجني الذّي يتزامن مع فصل الشتاء الصعب في تلك المنطقة الجبليّة.

Society Translation : Vanessa Szakal 22 November 2017

“Skadra”, a short documentary by Nawaat

Mohamed Aziz Khlifi, 16 years old, is from the delegation of Bir Lahfay in Sidi Bouzid. Walid Lahmar, 27 years old, is from Bir Ali Ben Khelifa in Sfax. Mohamed Ali Ferjani, 32 years old, is originally from Chneni, Gabes. The three of them were on board a boat to cross illegally from the coast of Kerkennah to Italy on October 8, 2017. These are three survivors of the collision with a Tunisian military ship. After the “Skadra” incident, they have returned to the reality they had set out to escape.

Environment Vanessa Szakal 20 November 2017

Zabaltuna: Bringing orientalist figures back to life in Tunisia’s dirtiest landscapes

A buxom young woman steps lightly from the water, carrying a jug at her hip and holding her sefsari above her head. Hooped earrings hanging down to her throat, bangles on her wrists, gold coins across her chest. She emerges, barefoot onto a muddy shore strewn with—red bottle caps, a packet of Camel blue cigarettes, empty plastic bottles. A fare 18th century maiden in a most unlikely environment. The scene is one of many diffused via Zabaltuna, a digital campaign that denounces Tunisia’s waste management problem, an increasingly noxious environmental and public health issue especially since 2011.

Rights Vanessa Szakal 17 November 2017

New security draft law portends return of police state in Tunisia

On November 15, after nearly two weeks of fervent critique and promises of public demonstration, the Interior Ministry stepped in to stay a polarized debate around a bill concerning the repression of abuses against armed forces. In an attempt to appease security unions backing the measure and civil society groups opposing it, Interior Minister Lotfi Brahem insisted before parliament’s General Legislation Commission on Wednesday that the Ministry is taking the concerns of all sides into consideration. Brahem proposed the creation of a joint committee to draft a new law that will protect security agents and their families « with consideration for human rights principles and in respect of constitutional provisions ». For now, the current controversial text remains in parliament for further examination.

Culture Vanessa Szakal 18 October 2017

When cartoonists meet students and prisoners to see Tunisia from “different angles”

Over the next year, Tunisian cartoonists will take turns drawing and debating with students and prisoners throughout the country. « Dessinons la paix et la démocratie » [Let’s draw peace and democracy], is a collaborative project of Cartooning for Peace, the Arab Institute for Human Rights (IADH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT). A two-day training which took place September 6-7 at the IADH in Tunis marked a first exchange between after-school educators, prison staff and six cartoonists.

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