In October 2000, Ramzi Waslati did not expect that a report about the status of rural women in Tunisia would turn his life upside down and lock him up for well over a decade.

At that time, as an employee at the Ministry of Social Affairs, Waslati had been asked to prepare an official report about women in rural areas, to be presented during an official ceremony attended by the then former President Ben Ali.

In October 2000, Ramzi Waslati did not expect that a report about the status of rural women in Tunisia would turn his life upside down and lock him up for well over a decade.

At that time, as an employee at the Ministry of Social Affairs, Waslati had been asked to prepare an official report about women in rural areas, to be presented during an official ceremony attended by the then former President Ben Ali.

“It was a rare opportunity for me, so I thought, to address the suffering of women in rural areas including their being subjected to all kinds of exploitation,” said Waslati, who conducted a field survey for several months in the isolated border villages.

“In the villages of Friqassan, Moajn, Sraya, Ein Sanusi, Fajjeh, Souk Joumah and other remote isolated border villages, I observed numerous inhumane conditions, and following several months of examination, I prepared a critical, but objective and scientific report.”

The National Day of Rural Women ceremony was attended by former President Ben Ali and Waslati took advantage of the president’s attendance to present his report, which revealed the plight of women, including their housing conditions in insect-ridden huts that impacted their children’s health, sharing accommodations with animals, walking tens of kilometers to fetch water, working at landowners’ fields for ten hours at extremely low wages and returning home to perform their household responsibilities.

Before the President, Waslati elaborated on the difficult conditions of these women in hope that ‘his honor’ (as Ben Ali’s followers used to call him) would take actions to help these women. However, Waslati was not aware that the ceremony was also attended by representatives of international organizations to learn about the rosy image about the gains of women, and their supposed equal status with men.

“Hours after the presentation of the report,” recalled Waslati, “Policemen stormed into my house and took me at night to my work location where state security agents were waiting for me.”

Waslati was taken to one of the police stations in Tunis where he was tortured for days. Then, he was referred to the public prosecutor to be trialed for numerous false accusations including, “defrauding and cashing checks which I have never seen in my life. They fabricated a case out of nowhere. It was a play well-directed which ended in sentencing me to 48 years in prison.”

Fourteen years of torture

Waslati spent time in Messadine, Nador, Blarigaa and Siliana prisons, in deplorable conditions: dark cells in which dozens of prisoners were crammed together and obliged to take turns sleeping, the toilet in a torture room, in which all new prisoners vomited. “They stuffed rotten substances in our noses. The obnoxious orders were repulsive at the beginning, but then I managed to overcome them when I lost my sense of smell,” he explained.

He also recalls how a prisoner used to rub his back against the cell’s wall to ease the pain of scabies. “I slept on my back for years for fear of getting harassed by prisoners and particularly those attempting sodomy.”

Prisoners’ heads were dunked in a barrel of waste mixed with the urine of prisoners, said Waslati. He recalls the electric shocks and the stings of the cold water in winter and the hot water in summer. He remembers the hours and days he spent in the ‘dungeon’ in the early morning, where the drops of foul water penetrated through the walls’ cracks and holes especially made for that purpose.

Waslati spent 14 years of his life behind prison walls being transferred from one facility to another in which he suffered all kinds of anguish, agony and deprivation including being deprived from attending his father’s funeral despite his mother’s pleas.

“My jail time was not all suffering, as I was acquainted with several prisoners who were assigned as ministers after the revolution and denied their friendship with me,” he said sarcastically. “I also acquired a certificate in media in 2009.”

In limbo

Waslati’s relationship with prison dates back to 1997 when he was a leftist student sentenced to six months in prison after distributing a flyer that called for solidarity with Iraq and denouncing the war against it.

Waslati never expected that his report would reveal the financial and administrative corruption in the non-governmental organizations employed by the former regime to generate money from home and abroad to serve its political agendas.

Furthermore, his sentence in 2000 was different from those who were tried in political cases, and because those whom he exposed for corruption were still influential figures in the administration. Post-revolution, his situation did not improve since hundreds of prisoners were included in the legislative amnesty of the 14 January Revolution while he remained in undetermined state until the correspondence relating to reconsidering his case were completed.

Waiting for amnesty

Waslati, like many others, waited to be included in the legislative amnesty especially since he was given an amnesty permit in 2011 and waited, like the rest of the prisoners in Tunisian jails, for his release. Since his case was different from those who were released, he realized that the power of those who feared to release him, who tampered with public money, who fabricated accusations against him and who scapegoated him was perhaps more influential. He complained to the prison director and convinced him to correspond with the Ministry of Justice in regards to his file and even seek the help of international organizations.

It took a long time, Waslati said, since reconsidering his case required submitting certain documents which needed great amount of time and effort to be obtained. It was difficult for his old mother to follow up this process. Therefore, he chose to use the prison’s administrative mail for his correspondences.

Because of this choice and in light of the bureaucratic nature of the Tunisian government, he remained adjourned between hope and despair and considered killing himself, as many other inmates did, before he was released by a special amnesty issued by the President.

He feels agonized for the years wasted in prison. Every step reminds him of his late father who used to wake up early in the morning to work and provide a decent living for his family. He looks up to the sky, recalls the past days and thinks of the future with a bitter smile. “I was extremely prejudiced for a long time. According to my qualifications, I dreamt of becoming a university professor, but the power of injustice destroyed my dream and left me unemployed,” he explained.

Waslati demands his return to his former job at the Ministry of Social Affairs by merit of Decree No. (1) for the year of 2011. “Some prison inmates have become members in the Council of People’s Deputies after obtaining a public amnesty permit, which is the same permit I was granted before being released despite the fact that their cases had small differences with mine. Perhaps there is no transitional and social justice, but I will have my victory,” he concluded.