Sawsen Maalej has been chased by controversy since she started acting fourteen years ago. Instead of a safe career as a lawyer after her studies, she instead pursued acting and has become the center of smear campaigns, porn jokes and nasty Facebook gags.
On November 27th, the thirty-six year-old actress and mother of two was awared the prestigous second prize, the Silver Tanit, at Tunisia’s biannual Carthage Film Festival, which could be seen as both a blessing and a curse.
Sawsen Maalej has been chased by controversy since she started acting fourteen years ago. Instead of a safe career as a lawyer after her studies, she instead pursued acting and has become the center of smear campaigns, porn jokes and nasty Facebook gags.
On November 27th, the thirty-six year-old actress and mother of two was awared the prestigous second prize, the Silver Tanit, at Tunisia’s biannual Carthage Film Festival, which could be seen as both a blessing and a curse.
Maalej’s role as a prositute in the film ‘April 9, 1938,’ landed her the Carthage prize but also caused an uproar and controversy during the film festival. The film narrates the events of the national movement in the face of the French occupation and focuses on women who were driven by economic circumstances to live in a brothel.
The title of this movie points to the first Tunisian protest against French occupation, on which tens of people were killed. Since then, that date has been marked as a ‘Martyr Day’ by Tunisians.
But many were not pleased by the film portraying a prostutute’s participation in the resistance movement. “She is a Tunisian woman whom I am obliged to defend,” Maalej says about her character, “because women used to be sold like merchandise. She participated in the national movement and helped the resistance liberate the country.”
Maalej’s eyes were wet with tears from laughter, while speaking sarcastically about her milieu. Her round face, dreamy eyes, and small body, give her a childlike appearance. But when she speaks about history and women’s role, she turns into the tough woman that she is. “We should not rewrite history to suit our interests,” she says. ”It does not harm the history of a national movement to talk about a prostitute resisting occupation.”
A knack for being controversial
It is not the first time Maalej played a starring role in a movie that stirred controversy and criticism in the conservative camp. Two years ago, during the last Carthage Film Festival under Ben Ali, Maalej acted in a movie entitled ‘Confusion’ by film director Najwa Salameh Limam. The movie narrates the story of a young emancipated woman named ‘Lilia’ who lives a state of loss, and her conservative sister Zainab, who is veiled, unsociable, and narrow-minded.
The theme projected in this movie, the first during Ben Ali’s era, addresses the question of the veil, and the state of ‘confusion’ a young Tunisian man faces about marriage since he prefers emancipated women, but ends up getting married to a veiled woman.
In the wake of introducing her film, distorted photos of Sawsen were published on websites and she also faced a smear campaign, in which her image was portrayed as immoral and offensive to Islam.
It is no coincidence, Maalej says, that in two movies in which she plays a leading role have stirred media frenzy and triggered a relentless war, primarily launched against her on social networking websites, Facebook and Twitter.
The truth hurts
“They fear the truth, especially if it comes from a woman”, says Sawsen, “but this does not worry me or discourage my efforts to continue working. It is my duty to dig out hidden facts.” Such has been Maalej’s response to her criticizers. Both movies have crossed red lines and challenged taboos.
“With each battle fought between creativity and those who have installed themselves guardians of morality and virtue, the line ebbs and flows,” she says. “We have not yet agreed on the role played by each party in this country, but art and creativity can never be in favor of one party alone; it is for men as a whole.”
Maalej is still hoping to build a new Tunisia and believes that the tug of war and the attempts of domination and rebellion in Tunisia are normal and healthy. The only problem, in her opinion, is that Tunisians are still not taught to accept difference.
Tunisia, which Maalej dreams of, must accommodate all. It must bring together under one sky Arabs and Berbers, Muslims and Jews, and Islamists and secularists, she says. “Artists creatively assimilate all these differences and diversities and should talk about others’ concerns, and those that the others refrain from talking about.”
