Muhammad al-Sughayer, a former Member of Parliament once sat helplessly in front of the staircase of the National Constituent Assembly, impatiently waiting for his two colleagues to carry him to the first floor where legislative sessions take place.
Al-Sughayer had nominated himself in the October 23, 2011 elections for the Ennahda Movement and won a seat. Yet during this period, he became ill and was left paralyzed—now he is bound to a wheelchair. Before his illness, Al-Sughayer said he never noticed before that Tunisia’s parliament is completely inaccessible to the disabled.
Muhammad al-Sughayer, a former Member of Parliament once sat helplessly in front of the staircase of the National Constituent Assembly, impatiently waiting for his two colleagues to carry him to the first floor where legislative sessions take place.
Al-Sughayer had nominated himself in the October 23, 2011 elections for the Ennahda Movement and won a seat. Yet during this period, he became ill and was left paralyzed—now he is bound to a wheelchair. Before his illness, Al-Sughayer said he never noticed before that Tunisia’s parliament is completely inaccessible to the disabled.
In the most recent legislative election, Al-Suhghayer decided not to run, “to leave room for young and healthy members of the Islamic movement’s sons.”
A blind eye to the disabled
Chapter 48 of Tunisia’s Constitution stipulates that the state is obliged to protect people with disabilities from all kinds of discrimination. It has also guaranteed the rights of every disabled citizen to benefit, each depending on the nature of his disability, from all measures which ensure his full integration into society— and that the state shall take all the necessary measures to achieve this end. However, none of these laws have yet to be enforced for the 1.4 million (or 13.5%) Tunisians.
Since then the founding lawmakers have not made any efforts to advocate for people with disabilities in the three years following the 2011 revolution.
Even the Ennahda Movement, with one of its members having suffered from a physical disability, failed to nominate a disabled person.
Aminah Kahwaji, a human rights activist and a member of the Tunisian Organization for the Defense of Persons with Disabilities, told Correspondents: “The social and economic programme of the Ennahda Movement for the coming five years has mentioned almost everything except issues concerning people with disabilities, she said. “All other parties have dealt with this issue in a very superficial way in their electoral programmes.”
Yet the Takatol Party for Labour and Liberties said it would stress the importance of reviewing the “law on the advancement and protection of disabled people,” which stipulates that 1% of disabled people should be integrated and employed in the public sector. The party, in its programme, proposed increasing this percentage to 3%.
Ridiculed candidates
Muhammad Rahamniyey, a disabled candidate, and the head of the Tunisian Party List in the Manouba province, west of the capital city of Tunis, carried the slogan “scissors,” and he announced the launch of a campaign to clean all internal state institutions, the judiciary and government departments. Yet he and his campaign became a source of ridicule on social networking sites and he only won 346 votes, i.e., 0.31%, according to official results of the elections.
Sayed Bugaleh, head of ‘Voice of the Disabled’ independent list in the Kairouan District in central western Tunisians was another courageous disabled person who nominated himself in the current elections because “nobody cares for our feelings or our concerns and nobody thinks about our tragedies or understands our needs.” Bugaleh said that the voice of Tunisia’s disabled population has been silenced by successive governments for over 50 years.”
Bugaleh, who is wheelchair-bound, said that he represents thousands of disabled people in his province and he will be their voice in calling for equality and for the rights of this marginalized sector of society.
He tried to win a seat in the parliament, however, the Voice of the Disabled List only won 579 votes out of 123,267 voters who participated in Kairouan Province.
Importance of visibility
In 2011, Union for Tunisia, a left-wing partisan coalition, nominated Tomana al-Tabib, a visually impaired female candidate on its lists.
However, Union for Tunisia incurred heavy losses in recent elections and failed to win a single seat in the parliament. When the election results were announced, Tabib’s dream of becoming the eyes of the visually impaired all but vanished. “I won the honor of trying to reach the parliament and I did not hide behind the curtains and let my disability stop me.”
