Alarming accounts of the systematic humiliation faced by LGBTQI+ persons in prison expose the harsh reality that this community endures in Tunisia. An image very far from that which the government would hope to sell to its partners in the West.

Alarming accounts of the systematic humiliation faced by LGBTQI+ persons in prison expose the harsh reality that this community endures in Tunisia. An image very far from that which the government would hope to sell to its partners in the West.
Hungry, mistreated and lacking medical care, prisoners in Tunisia find themselves facing a double sentence: incarceration and—more insidious—the violence that it entails. A shocking report warns against the conditions endured by inmates inside Tunisian prisons.
Could the release of certain prisoners of conscience promise a new phase in which the regime decides to let up on its policy of repression? Nothing is less certain. Paranoia around the case involving those accused of “plotting to undermine national security”—a trial which opened with a remote hearing and which authorities have attempted to bury under an imposed media blackout—does not bode well.
3.2% of Tunisia’s incarcerated population are women. Asma is one of them. In an interview with Nawaat, Asma opens up about the appalling conditions inside women’s prisons. For many inmates, violence, whether socio-economic or psychological, is a fact of their past and present. A study by Beity and Lawyers Without Borders sheds light on their experience in prison and beyond.
As Tunisia’s biggest annual film festival, the Carthage Cinema Days (JCC) kicked off on Sunday, October 30, the traditionally desperate search for tickets began. But one group of people received their own private film screening: about 150 prisoners from the Oudhna Civil Prison, including 30 female prisoners who were brought in from the Manouba Women’s Prison facility.
When three young people were recently sentenced to 30 years in prison in accordance with Law 52 on narcotics, it sparked controversy. A debate has reignited over the repressive nature of the law and the fate of drug consumers locked up for smoking a joint. Meanwhile, collectives and associations have come out calling for the depenalization and decriminalization of drug consumption. Their demand is not a new one, but it remains hostage to political procrastination. In 2017, the law was amended to be less restrictive, but has its application followed suit? What changes have taken place since 2017?
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.
September 6-10, the Human Screen Festival dedicated its fourth edition to themes relating to women’s rights and art as resistance to the traumas of war and terrorism. Organized by the non-profit organization ACTIF, the festival’s most remarkable aspect is its manifestation before a more unconventional audience: prison inmates.
Under the slogan “a festival for all,” Ezzahra Festival management, including Sadok Ben Mhenni, had organized a concert performed by prisoners. Scheduled for Friday, August 5, the event, which would have been the first of its kind, was canceled by the Interior Ministry for security reasons. Recap of an all but forgotten struggle.
The National Museum of the State Security System is one of several artistic works that Egyptian playwright-director Laila Soliman and Belgian actor-director Ruud Gielens have created together. The artists were approached by the organizers of Dream City to create a project for the fifth edition of the event (November 4-8). Soliman shared some time with Nawaat to talk about the creative process behind their creation, a glimpse into the unofficial narrative of the state security apparatus that operated under the Ben Ali regime.
Abdelmajid Jdey was being held in preventative detention Sidi Bouzid when, on 13 May, the Ministry of the Interior announced his death; according to the statement, Jdey hung himself in his cell. In the weeks that have followed, civil society activists and organizations including Human Rights Watch and the Tunisian Organization Against Torture (OCTT) have contested the Ministry’s announcement. Notably, the victim had filed a complaint of torture to OCTT several days prior to his death.
Lawyers, academics, politicians, civil society, more than one-hundred fifty organizations, Tunisians and internationals were part of the movement to FreeAzyz Amami and Sabri Ben Mlouka: democratic transition demands that the misuse of judicial power inherent in police state be replaced by the precedence of an independent justice.
Thirty-one year old blogger and activist Aziz Amami was arrested yesterday, May 12, 2014 in La Goulette, a beachside neighborhood of the capital. Some time between ten and eleven o’clock Monday night, Amami and his friend, photographer Sabri Ben Mlouka, were purportedly pulled over and detained for the possession and consumption of marijuana.
Is the ‘Martyrs of the Revolution Affair’ that has inundated Tunisian media over the past week symbolic of an already-failing post-revolutionary justice system? Or does it instead reflect the reappearance of the same sort of political corruption that thrived under old regime? Either way, the gaping division between a recent decision announced by Tunisia’s military tribunal and public opinion has Tunisians up in arms or at least on edge about the political, legal, and moral integrity of the State.
Two themes that prevail in blogs, reports, news articles, and interviews about art and artists in Tunisia are the gap between politics and people, especially youth, and the criminalization and marginalization of art and artists that has continued after the revolution.
Reporters Without Borders, the Tunis Centre for Press Freedom, the National Union of Journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists and […]
Human Rights Watch – (Tunis, August 29, 2013) – Tunisian authorities should open prompt and thorough investigations into allegations of […]
Tunisia should mark its national day of internet freedom on 13 March by releasing immediately and unconditionally 28-year-old blogger Jabeur […]