“A verbal mistake is thought to reveal a repressed belief, thought, or emotion,” said Sigmund Freud. But many in Tunisia are wondering if Ennahda’s repeated slips of the tongue are actually meant to send coded messages to their allies as well as to their adversaries.
“A verbal mistake is thought to reveal a repressed belief, thought, or emotion,” said Sigmund Freud. But many in Tunisia are wondering if Ennahda’s repeated slips of the tongue are actually meant to send coded messages to their allies as well as to their adversaries.
Former Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali (from December 2011 to March 2013) wins first prize in the ‘Freudian slips’ game. Jebali’s government, which resigned after the assassination of Chokri Belaïd this past February, made the first faux pas when it talked about “our emerging dictatorship.” This expression, used by the Secretary General of the Islamic movement while delivering an opening speech at the ninth conference of the party in July 2012, was the verbal stumble of a person who appeared not to be familiar with the term “democracy” – clearly a new vocabulary word in the political dictionary of the Ennahda Movement despite its many attempts to show its adoption of the term.
“The Sixth Righteous Caliphate and the divine signals”
The “Sixth Righteous Caliphate State and the Divine Signals” was uttered by Jebali when Ennahda first came into government in 2011. “My brothers, this a historic moment. Our party starts a new civilization, God willing. . .I see hints from God!”
Hypocrisy before reconciliation
Rashid Ghannouchi, head of the Ennahda Movement, said that we are “committed to Nifaq (hypocrisy)” instead of saying we are “committed to Wifaq (reconciliation).” This mistake was made during a press conference held on August 15 to announce Ennahda’s response to mediation initiatives and the withdrawal of the opposition from the National Constituent Assembly and its demand to dissolve the government after the assassination of MP Mohamed Brahmi on July 25.
Ghannouchi: an advocate of violence and tolerance
Rafiq Abdessalem Bouchlaka, former Minister of Foreign Affairs under Jebali and Rashid Ghannouchi’s son-in-law put his foot in his mouth when speaking about Ghannouchi, when he described him by saying that he is an advocate of “tolerance and violence.”
Politics and sexuality
Secretary of State for Immigration and Tunisian Expatriates Hussein Al-Jaziri made another slip in the world of politics. While it has become common to mix religion with politics, Al-Jaziri this time came with another mixture: politics and sexuality. He described passion to power as a “wedding eve,” which every man dreams of having repeated.
This metaphor certainly brings to mind Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, of the slips of the tongue as “an unconscious (“dynamically repressed”) subdued wish, conflict, or train of thought guided by the super-ego and the rules of correct behavior.”
“Rape is a human right”
MP Amal Azzouz, a member of the Ennahda Movement Party, described the rape crime as “a rightful word but meant to be used wrongfully,” in a session held to question the Minister of Women and Family Affairs about the three-year-old girl’s rape incident, on April 16, 2013.
In a statement issued by MP Azzouz on April 17, 2013, she said that she didn’t mean what she said and that it was all “a slip of a tongue.”
Power of life and death
In the old days, Arabs used to say that “the tongue of a man has the power of life and death.” The Ennahda Movement has often killed itself with the slips of tongues of its leaders. With every slip, the movement underplays the importance of the words uttered and focuses on the slip itself.
