I have dreamed – like all other participants in the Tunisian revolution who have suffered the bitterness of assaults, kidnapping, arrests and trials – of enjoying just a simple portion of security and safety.

I am a journalist stuck between life and death in a country where death sentences are issued by extremists rather than by God.

I have dreamed – like all other participants in the Tunisian revolution who have suffered the bitterness of assaults, kidnapping, arrests and trials – of enjoying just a simple portion of security and safety.

I am a journalist stuck between life and death in a country where death sentences are issued by extremists rather than by God.

Two days ago at the early hour of dawn, I received a phone call from a security patrol inquiring about my whereabouts and whether I was home or not and asking me to immediately call them in case I felt suspicious about anything. I calmly thanked them and hung up, but I could not hide the content of the call from my wife who was terrified to know that the caller was the Ministry of Interior.

I went back to sleep and two hours later my eight-year-old sick son woke up and asked for a cup of water after being hit with a fever due to a toothache. I rushed to the kitchen that overlooks the balcony to bring him water, but a glass dropped on the floor and broke into fragments making a louder noise than that of the earlier ominous call. My wife panicked and I heard her body hitting the floor as she fell from the bed, in a  rush to check on me after hearing the glass break, thinking I had been shot by those who had threatened me earlier. Her fear was justified— the Ministry of Interior informed that I was listed among those threatened to be assassinated by religious extremist groups unforgiving of the investigative reports I conducted in their mountainous hiding places in Kasserine, Rouhia, Kef, Jandouba, Sajnan and other Tunisian towns.

The Ministry of Interior has allocated a protection patrol for me and performing their duties from a distance, but I informed the interior minister that the surveillance is not serious and I was still being threatened, especially following the events of Kablat where terrorists hit security assistants in northern Tunisia on October 6. Security resources informed me that I am on the top of a list of figures to be assassinated in Jandouba Governorate where I live and I placed 17 at the national level.

Instead of bringing water, I found myself compelled to take both of my feverish son and fainted wife to the hospital, leaving my six-year-old daughter asleep at the house. For a moment, I forgot the risk of the dark roads in a city considered strategic and safe for terrorist groups.

Before I left the house, I looked out from the balcony to ensure the safety of my two children whom I take to school every morning. I look out for strange figures or a potential ambush. I look back at the house to find my wife on the balcony following us with fearful eyes and an encouraging smile while she prays God to keep us from any harm.

The pain and fear at night is no different from the suffering of the day. Minutes before the kids are out, my wife or I sneak around near the school to scan the place for any suspicious activity. Every day, we warn our children to not leave school before one of us comes and to never leave with anyone but us.

How annoying my phone has become as it rings all the time!  Where are you? When are you coming back? Stay away from their places and do not respond to their provocations! I receive calls from everyone including family, official parties and friends.

Prison instead of death

All fearful and troubled questions become futile when the threat of prison becomes a temporary alternative for being killed. It does not matter since everything in our country is temporary, even the government. Claims are followed by summons to appear before the court for old fabricated cases under Ben Ali. These cases were brought forward again for the same interest of the old and the current regimes for being irritated to the level of taking vengeance on a journalist who has always believed that freedom is a daily practice or it shall never be.

Cases have been stacked on shelves against a journalist whose only fault is saying the truth. His fault is believing that field and investigative work, in addition to uncovering the truth, is a must to the mission of the journalist. Such are the crimes of a journalist threatened with assassination and imprisonment.

It was my fate to live the police pursuit under the former regime and to face the assassination threats after the revolution. My fate is to dream of a better future.