Although a year and a half has passed since the Tunisian revolution broke out, Tunisian journalists say they experience very little press freedom and almost no legal recourse to protect their profession. Although a year and a half has passed since the Tunisian revolution broke out, Tunisian journalists say they experience very little press freedom […]

Since 14 January 2011—the largest protest that signaled the end of Ben Ali’s rule— Tunisia has seen an overwhelming wave of political opinion polls; a new tradition that has come about in the wake of the revolution.  But many have questioned the integrity of the institutions carrying out such opinion polls, their impartiality and how […]

In January 1988, a few months after Ben Ali came to power, political activist and journalist, Naziha Rjiba wrote her famous essay entitled “Cacophony”, in which she challenged Ben Ali and predicted that he would become a dictator who would assault Tunisians. Having refused the post of a minister in the current government, Naziha Rjiba […]

Tareq Al-Dezeiri lies covered in white sheets in a remote room in St. Augustine Hospital in Tunis. His face is worn and his tired, worried eyes wander about aimlessly. He doesn’t typically receive visitors, except for some members of his small family and others like him, who are casualties of the revolution. Tareq Al-Dezeiri lies […]

December 17, 2010: The spark Young street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi sets himself on fire in front of the governor’s office in Sidi Bouzid, to protest the municipal authorities’ seizure of his vegetable cart, leading to clashes between the residents of Sidi Bouzid and security forces. December 18- 24, 2010: Protests spread December 17, 2010: The […]

Salim Ben Hamidane is a founder of the Congress for the Republican Party (Congrès pour la République – CPR), and a descendant of the “Youssefi” family–supporters of the Tunisian national leader Saleh Ben Youssef–who ran against Tunisia’s first elected president, Habib Bourguiba.  Youssef was eventually assassinated and his supporters were prosecuted and severely punished. Salim […]

“Oh Lord! Save Tunisia from harm,” prayed Michelle Lescia—a Tunisian Jew living in France—her wish written on an egg she threw at the cave inside the prayer wall of the Ghriba synagogue. Lescia is one of 1,550 Jews who came on the annual pilgrimage this past May to the Ghriba synagogue in Djerba, some 500 […]

Tunisians are now free and the media is no longer censored as it was under the dictatorial regime of Ben Ali. The media reports on corrupt business people and government authorities and on the misconduct of the presidential staff. The judiciary investigates corruption and human rights abuses. All of this was unimaginable before January 14, […]

Although she now performs in the political arena, Salma Bakkar has presented her ideas as courageously today as when she was a film director.  She continues to challenge taboos, especially those related to the economic, social, and sexual rights of women. Although she now performs in the political arena, Salma Bakkar has presented her ideas […]

  In the lead up to parliamentary and presidential elections next year, a number of political parties are banding together to stand a chance against the Ennahda party, which won 40% of the vote in Tunisia’s first democratic elections after Ben Ali’s fall from power in 2011.     In the lead up to parliamentary […]