More than a year and a half since the former regime’s fall, hunger strikes in Tunisia  continue. Early this month, members of the National Constituent Assembly went on a hunger strike, protesting a campaign of raids and arrests made against protesters from the city of Menzel Bouzaiane, where the first Tunisian revolutionary “martyr” was killed. […]

 President Moncef Marzouki’s Conference for the Republic Party (CPR), has proposed a bill to the National Constituent Assembly, which professional associations consider an obstruction of the freedom of media. This new media bill comes in the midst of an increasing debate about media between professional associations and their representatives on the one hand, and the interim […]

She mistakenly thought she was safe in the presence of police.  But as soon as she was alone with them, two policemen in civilian clothing raped the 27 year-old graduate student for over an hour. To make matters worse, she was accused of committing indecent acts when she tried to speak out. She is devastated […]

Six year-old Maryam slowly drags her bare feet on her way to school, carrying a bag with books from the Tunisian Association for Patients with Hemophilia (TAPH).  She clings to her mother’s hand as if she is clinging to life itself and she keeps her eyes on her feet, especially the bandaged toe.  Desperate for […]

It is not hard to spot Mrs Bahija, Tunisia’s most famous football supporter. Clad in yellow and black, the colours of her favorite football team, Club Athlétique Bizertin (CAB), Mrs Bahija shuffles around her town, loudly greeting passersby. It is not hard to spot Mrs Bahija, Tunisia’s most famous football supporter. Clad in yellow and […]

Jalloul Garki, like other Tunisian Berbers, spent a long time wishing he could speak Berber in public. That all changed on 14 January 2011. Some 18 months after the revolution, Jalloul Garki, General Secretary of the Tunisian Association for Berber Culture, took to the stage at the  20th Tamazrat Festival. He welcomed the audience with […]

Legend has it that Chaanbi Mountain, the highest in Tunisia, was named after an adventurer who went there to search for treasure, following his dreams. He repeatedly dug a hole but couldn’t find the treasure and instead planted a pine tree in each hole, giving rise to the area’s name Chaanbi (‘Pine’) Mountain. Legend has […]

Jacob Lilouch is a Jewish Tunisian who unsuccessfully ran for the National Constituent Assembly (NCA) elections in October 2011. He rejects discrimination on the basis of his religion yet he believes there is no need to include minorities’ rights in the new constitution, he says, because he is a Tunisian and has the same rights […]

When Jihadi Salafists bullets were fired on December 2006 in a southern suburb of Tunis, an argument broke out between elites and political activists about the scope of this violent current and the reasons for its emergence in Tunisia. Living in London at the time, Rashid al-Ghannushi, leader of the Ennahda Movement, said that what […]

Sakkah Hussami, a 53-year old artisan, has spent 40 years in his profession and laments that this traditional craft is on the verge of extinction.  “During the past few years, no one has become an artisan,” he says.  Pottery in Tunisia reached its prime centuries ago and prospered with the flourishing tourism sector. However, with […]