Phosphate production in Tunisia makes for an impressive part of the national income – around 25 percent by some counts. And much of that phosphate, used in agriculture and industry, comes via the Gafsa Phosphate Company (GPC) and the Tunisian Chemical Group (GCT). However, while the focus remains firmly on the two large businesses, other […]

In the darkest corner of a quiet café in downtown Tunis, two lovers sit holding hands. They gaze at one another just like any other couple in love. But they are different from most other couples who might hold hands in public in this country: Ashraf and Hamdi are men.  “I dream of getting married,” […]

Mustafa Ben Jaafar is a human rights activist who dared to oppose Ben Ali’s rule even when the dictatorship was at its strongest. He was the Secretary General of the Democratic Forum for Labor and Liberties (FDTL), which together with the parties of Ennahda and the Congress for Republic (CPR), forms one of the ruling […]

On the eve of each Hijri New Year, housewives in Nabeul, 70km southeast of Tunis, keep the tradition of cooking couscous with cured meat, stuffed intestines, eggs, and raisins. The whole family, relatives and neighbors meet and decorate the traditional couscous with whatever the host can afford of sweets, dried fruits, and of course, a […]

Sawsen Maalej has been chased by controversy since she started acting fourteen years ago.  Instead of a safe career as a lawyer after her studies, she instead pursued acting and has become the center of smear campaigns, porn jokes and nasty Facebook gags. On November 27th, the thirty-six year-old actress and mother of two was […]

The government used Borj Assalhi, known as the deaf village, to squeeze money from donor organisations. The village, however, has not profited from its fame. [ibimage==3031==Small_Image==none==self==null] Wind turbines in Borj Assalhi Beneath the spinning wind turbines where mountains roll down to sea level, the village Borj Assalhi sits on the horn of the Tunisian map. […]

With his eyes trying to encompass the Mediterranean’s endless expanse from above Bizerte Bridge, Muhammad Asharni deeply inhales a fall sea breeze.  He opens his arms, recalling a past as large as the Mediterranean’s horizons and struggles to reminisce about Bizerte before the building of the mobile drawbridge, which he refers to as the “cement […]

“We thought that torture, insult, and humiliation were practices that ended after the toppling of Ben Ali’s regime,” said Ramzi Haidouri, a 30 year-old from Imran village, Menzel Bouzaiane district in Sidi Bouzid state, who was detained for one month after protesting in the region. “It seems we were dreaming.” Ramzi says he and the […]

Wherever you are in west-central Tunisia, especially in Kasserine Governorate (218 kilometers southwest of the capital), you come across speeding cars with no license plates. The closer these cars approach, the stronger smell of gasoline becomes. Wherever you are in west-central Tunisia, especially in Kasserine Governorate (218 kilometers southwest of the capital), you come across […]

Fears in Tunisia are mounting due to frequent attacks by the Salafi current on individual and public freedoms, and their continued confrontations with state agencies, in addition to the creation of some Salafi youths patrols to guard their areas in prevention of what they consider “debauchery and shamelessness”; consuming alcohol, for example. The opposition has […]