In a country where words are formed by the Latin alphabet and frosty winters chill his bones, Kareem Jabbari revived the art of Arabic calligraphy in Canada, a country very far from his own homeland of Tunisia.  Arabic calligraphy gave Kareem Jabbari the opportunity to experience a new social life after a bleak childhood marked […]

Thirty-two year-old Khadija Bakourii is not your typical leftist, nor does she fit into any other particular party. She wears a veil, which she fought to wear despite expulsion from college during Ben Ali’s regime and she still wears her hijab during daily protests in Bardo Yard, where she and her cohorts demand that the […]

It takes two to tango, but the same number can also make a school. Near the Tunisian-Algerian border in southern Tunisia lies the Ain al-Qataa school, which this year is preparing to reopen its doors for only two students. School for two “For two years, I’ve been studying in the al-Qataa school with only my […]

Prime Minister Ali al-Arid, the head of the Tunisian government, has ignited controversy by announcing that an anti-terror law created during the Ben Ali regime will remain active. The announcement came shortly after eight Tunisian soldiers were ambushed and killed by an insurgent group in the mountainous Al-Shaanbi region in the Kasserine Province in late […]

The successive marathon negotiations involving Tunisia’s political and social players have failed to reach a consensus that is likely to lead the country out of its current crisis. Numerous initiatives and negotiations have so far failed to reach a road map at least. The successive marathon negotiations involving Tunisia’s political and social players have failed […]

The human cost of fighting terrorist uprisings in the Kasserine Province has been high but the environment has also paid the price. Fires in Al-Shaanbi mountains to oust terrorists The mountains in the Al-Shaanbi range have literally caught fire since military units landed and started shelling the alleged hiding places of terrorists with artillery. This […]

Before May 2011, the name Wided Bouchamaoui did not mean a lot for many Tunisians. Back then Bouchamaoui exceptionally assumed the presidency of The Federation of Industry, Trade and Artisanship (UTICA) – a business lobby – under extremely difficult conditions characterized by a tense popular mood in which the business community was viewed as demonic, […]

Nineteen-year-old Amina Alsubaie quickly went viral when her topless picture, bearing the words “We don’t need your democracy,” was published on social media sites.  On May 19, Alsubaie was arrested on the backdrop of writing Femen, the name of a Ukrainian-based women’s protest movement that uses nudity, on the fence of one of the graveyards […]

Correspondents met Amer Al-Arid, head of the political bureau of the Ennahda Movement, to discuss the ruling party’s assessment of the current situation in Egypt, the possibility of the Egyptian scenario reproducing itself in Tunisia, the relationship between the Ennahda Movement and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and Ennahda’s relationship with the global Muslim Brotherhood. […]

“Tunisia is one of the safest tourist destinations in the world,” French President Francois Hollande told a gathering of tourism stakeholders in Tunis in early June. If he had been talking about three years ago, nobody would have doubted his statement. Yet despite the recent political turmoil, officials are hopeful tourism is picking up again […]