Taeib Touili is a young novelist whose book ‘Naqmat al-Muhamasheen’ (‘The Curse of the Marginalized’), has already received acclaim.  The hero of the story is a poor, unemployed man who dreams at night of philosophers and kings. He ends up killing a sheikh and taking all his wealth, convinced that death changes life.

Touili, born in 1979, holds a doctorate in sociology and wrote his thesis about education and employment. Since 2004, he has conducted field research on unemployment and its impact on  Tunisian youth. 

Taeib Touili is a young novelist whose book ‘Naqmat al-Muhamasheen’ (‘The Curse of the Marginalized’), has already received acclaim.  The hero of the story is a poor, unemployed man who dreams at night of philosophers and kings. He ends up killing a sheikh and taking all his wealth, convinced that death changes life.

Touili, born in 1979, holds a doctorate in sociology and wrote his thesis about education and employment. Since 2004, he has conducted field research on unemployment and its impact on  Tunisian youth. 

[ibimage==9733==Small_Image==none==self==null]

Taeib Touili

Taeib Touili, your novel ‘The Curse of the Marginalized’ followed a desperate, unemployed man who ended up killing and justifying his act. Do you think that the prevailing conditions in Tunisia have given rise to a culture of violence?

In my novel, I wrote about the psychological stress suffered by the unemployed and the marginalized groups of society. I also talked about cases of financial and administrative corruption prior to the revolution and social discontent of the circumstances of favoritism, bribery and corruption, which were prevailing in the Tunisian society and which deprived the youth from benefiting from the wealth of their country. 

I was keen to have the story end with the scene of the January 14 revolution and with the death of one of its heroes, to suggest that all the worries and social inequalities suffered by the people in the novel have ended with this defining moment. The martyr has taken away with him all the sorrows of the past to present us with a beautiful future and a more just society.

But I see this end is only possible at the novelist dramatic level. At the social level we are live in, this revolutionary moment on the 14th of January, was in fact the beginning of another novel, not less tragic than the first one. We did not notice that anything changed on the economic and social levels. We see that people are still burning themselves in order to remind and revive the memory of Bouazizi. We still see that there are people getting richer and others getting poorer and we also see that there is complete and evident political impotence. These social and economic conditions that we are witnessing today are very fertile for the emergence of the violence ideology.

This means that the prevailing social conditions in our country and the absence of regional development might lead to one kind of revenge or the other, such as people taking revenge by burning themselves?

The feelings of deprivation and marginalization were key turning points and the main reason for the eruption of the revolution, which can be described as a behavioral reaction expressing feelings of frustration and deprivation among the Tunisian youth. This reaction released the young peoples’ energy in reaction to the moral violence practiced by the state, as reflected in its marginalization of the youth and its lack of attention and care of their competencies.

Social unrest generates a desire for revenge or vengeance motivated by marginalization and poverty. It also leads to other form of behavioral disorders depending on the nature of individuals and communities. The Tunisian revolution is a form of revenge reaction to the state institutions and those who are running them. These were considered by the Tunisian people as the major causes of their daily suffering. Other forms of reactions appear in the form of blocking roads and the many sit-ins where some individuals prevent workers of a certain institution to enter their work place until the institution accepts to negotiate with the protestors.  This is one form of retaliatory reaction.

The unemployed man here took his revenge from a worker but revenge could also take other forms, such as suicide, and this is when the protestor feels that he is unable to take revenge from those who have caused him harm and thus he practices self harm by committing suicide and by being violent against himself.   

The state bears the full responsibility for all that is happening because it is supposed to find real solutions to society’s problems and its needy and disadvantaged classes, in order to reduce tensions and feelings of inferiority and marginalization in the Tunisian society.

Do you think that we are going through a phase of instability, and that the Egyptian scenario will be repeated in Tunisia?

It is not possible to predict what will happen. However, indicators reinforce the possibility of reproducing the Egyptian scenario. There are some Tunisian activists who want this scenario to happen as quickly as possible but I personally prefer that we wait and see how things develop in Egypt and assess the size of losses which the Tamarod (rebellion) is going to produce. We should remember that the Egyptian people did not revolt against Mubarak in the first days of the Tunisian revolution. They waited and watched to see the repercussions of the revolution and its price. When people found out that the price was not so high, they revolted. Thus, the revolution of the Egyptian people in the beginning was well calculated, and we should calculate our steps carefully, especially since the situation in Tunisian is far different than the situation in Egypt.  The Egyptians revolted in order to get rid of Morsi, who was supposed to stay in power for the coming years.  In Tunisia, we do not have to wait that long. The government should leave in the coming few months. 

This means that the social conditions in Egypt will have a social impact on the conditions in Tunisia, because of the similarity of the revolutionary situation?

The situation in Tunisia and Egypt is so similar and one can say that the conditions in the two countries are almost identical. The Egyptian revolution derived its momentum and its strength from the success of the Tunisian revolution. This similarity will continue between the two revolutions until the completion of the revolutions’ phases in the two countries.  We can see that there are so many similarities in the two countries in the protest methods, fiery statements and social violence. But, the most important similarity between the two countries is the acquisition of power by political Islam and its social, economic and political failure in carrying state’s responsibilities.   

Given the huge similarities between the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions, we see that the two countries look as if they are competing on the results of the revolutions.  Sometimes, Tunisia leads by creating new results and Egypt follows and in other times the opposite happens. This is why the media in Egypt was on alert when Chokri Belaid was assassinated. It is because the Egyptian elite are very much aware of the repercussions of this assassination on Egypt. We also know that the Tunisian Tamarod Movement did not wait for more than one day after the Egyptian Tamarod.  It was quickly initiated on the Web. All this proves that the two revolutions inspire each other positively as well as negatively.

What about the movements, which are announcing their rebellion in Tunisia?

The movements that have emerged in Tunisia such as Khanqtona and the Tunisian Tamarod are natural movements that should emerge in a society, which is living its revolution. The revolution has created two sides: one side is trying to put the revolution into ideological and philosophical frameworks and is also trying to protect it against those who they consider as apostates; the other side is trying to utilize the revolution culturally and socially and accuse others of being forces of reaction. This is why each party is trying to impose its own ideology on the other. The party which is resorting to violence is the party which is incapable of leading a dialogue and preserving and defending its beliefs peacefully.

What about the prevailing tensions within the National Constituent Assembly?

The tensions within the Constituent Assembly are positive signs. It is unreasonable that the revolution produces a static or homogenous assembly.  The Constituent Assembly reflects the tensions and differences and even the conflicts between the Tunisian people. It is a mirror that reflects the images of all the Tunisian people on the one hand and the social and human aspects of male and female MPs on the other. The words wrongly said by one MP or the other, are the real reflection of his personality and his political and social ideology.

Journalists and artists have been imprisoned recently and many forms of restrictions on freedom of expression were imposed.  Are we witnessing another form of violence and revenge: state violence?

Freedom of expression is a red line that should not be crossed. But we must also understand that freedom of expression has its limits and these limits should be set by laws, and they must also be in line with international standards of freedom of expression.

The state is the only entity that is monopolizing violence and practicing it according to the laws. However, it must not over exercise this right in a way that restricts freedoms.

Generally, we must all support freedom of expression for playwrights, writers, poets, filmmakers and other creative groups in this country who form the essence of this nation’s intelligence.