According to the Tunisian section of Amnesty International, the major controversial issues were the abolition of the death penalty, marital rape and ending discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

The Manifesto of Amnesty International (Tunisia) is as follows:

Ahead of the elections, I pledge to:

1. Rein in the security forces: There must be a fundamental overhaul of all police forces and other law enforcement bodies. Their structure and chain of command must be made public and an oversight body established to independently and impartially investigate reports of abuse.

2. Combat torture and other ill-treatment: All officers involved in arrest, detention and interrogation must know that torture and other ill-treatment will not be tolerated. There must be regular, unannounced, unrestricted and independent inspections of all places of detention.

3. Call for an end to incommunicado detention: Detainees must have access in law and practice to the outside world, regularly and without delay, including to their families, lawyers of their own choosing and independent medical care.

4. Uphold the rights to freedom of assembly, association and expression: Laws criminalizing the peaceful exercise of these rights – including provisions of the 1969 Law on Public Meetings, the 1959 Law on Associations, the Penal Code, the Press Code, and the 2003 Anti-terrorism Law – must be repealed or brought in line with international law and standards.

5. Reform the Justice System: The independence of the judiciary must be upheld in law and practice. Everyone charged with an offence must have a fair trial by a competent, independent and impartial tribunal established by law, where the rights of defence are fully respected. Civilians must not be tried before military courts.

6. Investigate past abuses: There must be an independent, thorough and impartial inquiry into human rights violations under the rule of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. It must make recommendations to prevent future abuses and to provide truth, justice and reparation to the victims.

7. Realize economic, Social and cultural rights for all: There must be no discrimination in people’s access to essential public services, including water, sanitation and health care. Workers’ rights and trade union freedoms must be upheld.

8. End discrimination: Legal provisions discriminating against individuals on the basis of race, colour, religion, ethnicity, birth, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, or other status, must be brought in line with international law and standards or abolished.

9. Stop Violence against women: There must be a law on violence against women, including on domestic violence and marital rape. Provisions for dropping proceedings or penalties where an assaulted spouse withdraws her complaint, or where the assailant marries the victim in rape or kidnapping cases, must be repealed (Penal Code Articles 218, 227 bis and 239).

10. Abolish the death penalty: The moratorium on executions must be upheld pending abolition of the death penalty.

More than 28 106 student have been denied their right to sit for the exams and pursue their studies for almost a week now and there is hardly any solution to tackle the problem. the dean of the university who had been kept as a hostage in his office opted for the easiest solution: the Suspension of studies.

Prior to January 14, the niqab has never been a visible issue in the Tunisian society and face covering has never been one of the goals of the revolution. If you go back to the videos of the protests that broke since December 2010, you will hear the same slogans repeated over and over again” more job opportunities, freedom and national dignity”.

The fashion of disrupting Tunisian college campuses lately has been one of the missions of these Salafists who aspire to inject the Wahhabi blood into the heart of the Tunisian society, the educated youth. Strangely enough, the heroism of these fundamentalists have been fostered just after the fall of Ben Ali. Given the vulnerability of Tunisia now, these networks of Salafists have envisioned the advantageous climate to disseminate their ideology.

Seeking to implement the gist of Islam, they opt for the same tools that the former regime endorsed to maintain its exclusivist character: violence and intimidation. This group have wiped out any possibility of dialogue from their washed brains and they nurture their convictions through the high-profile Salafi-themed TV channels on Nilesat.

Another similar incident broke out on September in the School of Arts and Humanities of Sousse when a large group of salafists stormed the campus to protest the rejection of the application of a female student wearing a niqab. The fundamental right of other students have never deterred the latter from interrupting the academic year.

What price should we pay after we uprooted with our blood the dictatorship of Ben Ali, another form of dictatorship sponsored by weak minds susceptible to brainwashing?

Let ‘ s clear things up Salafism is but a human interpretation of Islam and I respect the many different readings of Islam but I will not tolerate that some dogmatic minds jeopardize the future of Tunisians just for the sake of looking more pious than other muslims.

I believe that the if face covering veil be allowed in the Tunisian universities, the compromise will be disastrous for segregation will be the next mission for the salafis and heated debates will take other ugly forms and the attacks of the 1990s of throwing acid on the faces of women would bring back a gloomy era to the Tunisian scene.

Video of Bardo sit-in, December 6 (sit-inners chanting “the people claim the separation of powers”)

General Mobilization, a call from Doustourna:

“Doustourna, we’re from the street and we’ll come back to it”

Political activists from Doustourna have called via facebook to a “General Mobilization” in front of the National Constituent Assembly on December 30 from 9 a.m. to midday to criticize the draft law providing for the provisional organisation of the public authorities presented by the the majority tripartite coalition, which comprises Ennahdha Movement, the Congress for the Republic party and the Democratic Forum for Labour and Liberties. The sit-in actually continues until this minute. According to Doustourna, this draft law will re-establish dictatorship bcause of the following reasons:

- The powers of the prime minister are absolute and illimited (The Prime Ministeris from Ennahdha party).

- The powers of the president of the republic are very limited.

- The referundum on the constitution was not mentioned.

The goals of the “General Mobilization” and the continuing Occupy Bardo are mainly:

-  The seperation between the three powers.

-   50%+1 are necessary to nominate the three presidents (the president of the Assembly, the president of the republic and the president of the government)

-  The adoption of each article of the constitution requires a two-third majority

-  A two-third majority is necessary for the ratification of the constitution in case of a second reading.

- Insertion of the Code of Personal Status in the constitution

- Members of the Constituent Assembly should not hold positions in the government.

-  Live broadcast of the negotiations of the Constituent Assembly.

- 50%+1 votes are necessary to grant and repeal confidence from the government (the draft proposes 50+1 to grant confidence and 2/3 to repeal it.)

- Bringing killers of martyrs to court without delay.

- Granting the injured of the revolution their rights.

- Giving unemployed people from Gafsa priority over others concerning job opportunities in the field of phosphate.
- The independence of the judiciary

Representatives of the political parties and components of civil society as well as thousands of citizens are occping Bardo.

The Salafists Sit-in at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of Manouba, Tunis prompts a reaction on the part of Bardo secularist sit-inners:

Salafist students have been holding a sit-in in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities in Manouba, Tunis, since Monday, December 28 after a girl wearing niqab was prevented from sitting for the exam. Lessons were suspended and other students prevented from sitting for their exams. The number of girls wearing the full-face veil are 3 out of 40,000 students. Salafist students have been camping out in front of the Dean’s offic who said he was held hostage all night on the first day of the sit-in. Salafist students asked for the right of girls wearing the niqab tobe enrolled at universities and to sit for exams. They also asked for a prayer room at university and no gender mixing in classrooms. The last demand which challenges a whole tradition of education in Tunisia was denied later on. The Dean affirmed that he had been physically abused on Wednesday after salafists broke into the universities despite suspending lectures.

In response to violence against the Dean, university teachers, students, political parties representatives, trade unionists and citizens rallied in front of the Constituent Assembly in Bardo on Thursday, December 1, to add other demands to those claimed by the sit-inners. They emphasized the importance of respecting academics, separating between powers and not between genders and denounced extremism.

Testimony of a student who witnessed violence at the Faculty of Manouba and took part in the Bardo sit-in (Video shot in December 1)

The protest was an action part of the general strike decided by the General Higher Education and Scientific Research Federation stemming from the Tunisian General Labour Union, following the violence against the Dean of the Faculty of Manouba.

Among the sit-inners who were camping out in front of the Constituent Assembly, a number of citizens has come from the Gafsa, the Mining Basin to claim their right to work and denounce the maldistribution of wealth. Citizens also demounced mixing religion in politics and education which distracts Tunisians from the real issues such as employment, the independence of the judiciary and the injured of the revolution.

The Commission on public authorities’ provisional organisation had adopted, on December 2, the draft law providing for the provisional organisation of the public authorities after some amendments that increased the prerogatives of the President of the Republic and reduced those of the Prime Minister. The amendments also ensured the adoption of the country’s new constitution with a two-third majority by the National constituent Assembly or else a referendum would be held.

Islmists pour to Bardo

On Saturday, December 3, thousands of islamists and secularists held parallel protests as islamists and salafists poured in hundreds to Bardo in answer to the sit-in in which has been staged there since Wednesday. They claimed that the people wanted an Islamic regime and that the Bardo sit-inners should accept the will of Tunisians who have elected the only religious Tunisian party Ennahdha in a relative majority and respect Islam which is the religion of the vast majority. Islamists waved Ennahda flags and black banners of the Salafist Hizb Tahrir which did not get a licence and did not take part in the elections held on October 23. Islamists asserted that secularist governments in Tunisia never gave them the full right to exercise the Islamic faith in total freedom and claimed the right to niqab for girls. They considered the attempt to ban the niqab at university to be much similar to Ben Ali’s ban of the hijab (the veil) in public places.

The Bardo sit-in is continuing. Keep up with all the developments and lively discussions on the ground via this live channel.

90 percent of the country’s 4.1 million registered voters (an estimated 60% of eligible voters) had cast their votes, which exceeded all estimations.

They elected 217 members of the constituent assembly who will draft a new constitution, appoint an interim president and government and fix a date for the presidential and parliamentary elections.

The elections were judged free and transparent by many observers despite some irregularities that do not undermine the outcome (NDI report,Carter Center report, European Union report (French) . Official results were issued on Thursday evening, October 27, because the counting of the votes was manual and slow and because the staff lacked experience.

During the counting of votes, polling staff showed the ballot papers one by one to the present observers to guarantee transparency.

Counting of the votes procedure in video (October 23)

The long-banned Islamist party Ennahdha won with a plurality of votes (90 of 217 seats, i.e. 41% of seats) in the constitutional assembly. Centrist Congress for the Republic party led by by human rights activist Moncef Marzouki is second with 30 seats (14% of seats). Third was the centre-left Ettakatol, or the Democratic Forum for Labour and Freedoms, led by Mustapha Ben Jaafar with 21 seats (10% of seats). It was a surprise that Ennahdha’s main competitor, the Progressive Democratic Party, or P.D.P. secured only 7% of the seats. P.D.P. militants declared they will be in the opposition. 44% of seats are held by women thanks to parity law.

The Ennahdha party ran an excellent campaign. The expertise of their militants showed in their typical organization. They also promoted the party door-to-door in many cases and reached all provinces in the country.

Most people voted for them because of the party’s long and well-known resistance against the deposed president as well as its religious ideology. The working class and a large part of the middle class could identify with Ennahdha militants and not with the often well-off secularist elite. Many people believed Ennahdha militants could be trusted in the fight against corruption because of their piety.

On the other hand, the P.D.P. has focused on criticizing Ennahdha for using religion to influence voters. It has accepted a portfolio in the first interim government created after January 14. This government was dissolved after protests because it included ministers from the former regime.  These reasons have probably led to the unexpected fall of P.D.P.

Other secular parties have focused their efforts on denouncing Ennahdha and frightening off voters from a future Tunisia similar to post-revolution Iran. Most of them did not run their campaigns throughout the whole country. Clearly, had the secular parties united, they would have won over the only Islamist party Ennahdha.

The protesters demanded the closing of the private broadcaster Nessma TV, which broadcast the film. Hundreds of attackers later attacked the house of Nabil Karoui station manager and set it on fire.

The film Persepolis from 2007 is based on a comic who lives in France. Iranian author Marjane Satrapi talks about her childhood and youth in Iran. She was nominated for an Oscar and won the Cannes Film Festival with a special price. Iranian filmmakers are becoming in internationally acclaimed works deal with the political and social reality of their country. Including Jafar Panahi.

In 2006 he received for his film Offside, the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in February that he would even sit on the jury of the Berlinale – but was allowed because he was under house arrest for not leaving Iran. Now he must go to prison for six years. As state media reported on Saturday, Panahi failed on appeal, his sentence was confirmed in this instance. The 20-year career and travel ban on Panahi has also been maintained.

If you saw the film you will understand it is a classic piece of art that needed to be shown all over schools in the Mideast ,many youth will find them connected with the tale of freedom against tyranny of radical mind ,the protester leaders may win points in the election but had lost for them self and the new tunisa points in respect ,open minded and the hope to build a model state to lead the Arabic future as they did when the lead the Arabic revolutionary movements , I believe they went out to stop the warning message of the movie against radical domination  of power in name of Islam ,and they used the God image as excuses.

It’s very difficult to see how difficult it is for some Arabs to travel from one Arab country to another. It’s very unfortunate to experience that.

The Tunisian Ministry of Interiors rejected the Palestinian bloggers’ VISAs, these Palestinian bloggers were invited to attend the third Arab bloggers conference in Tunisia.

Palestinian bloggers issue | Online campaign

why==>our goal:
1- to let everyone know about what happened.
2- to demand an explanation from the Tunisian Ministry of Interiors regarding this issue.
3- to show how Arab bloggers are united, and how much power they have.

How==> the procedure
on a regional level:

• there is a facebook page talking about this issue and will share all posts and articles about this issue. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tunisian-Ministry-of-Interiors-rejected-the-Palestinian-bloggoers-VISAs/164779623610692
• Twitter hashtag #VISArejected lets educate people about the hashtag and spread it.
• there is an event on Facebook to invite people to join and then they will receive a message asking them to sign an online petition to demand an explanation from the Tunisian Ministry of Interiors. http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=289739851036083

on personal level:
part one
As most of us are bloggers then please blog about this in your language, 5 lines would be very good about how do you feel about this issue.
include this link at the end of ur post “http://bit.ly/TunisiaIssue “ and tell people about it ina  note, this link takes people to this online google doument.
share the blog post link on your twitter using the hashtag #VISArejected
share the blog post to you Facebook account.
share your blog post on the Facebook Page wall and the admin will share it in the name of the Page.

part 2
share the Facebook Page to your friends on FB.
invite your friends – specially bloggers, social media activists and human right activists – to the event
sign the petition when you get the request.

part 3
share these articles to your FB now

http://www.elaph.com/Web/news/2011/10/686824.html?entry=newsarab

http://www.france24.com/ar/node/726183

http://blog.amin.org/dawabsheh/2011/10/04/tunisia-visa-rejected/

https://daliaothman.wordpress.com/2011/10/03/arab-bloggers-conference-and-the-visa-issue/

http://blog.amin.org/yafa1948/2011/10/03/%D8%AA%D9%88%D9%86%D8%B3-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AB%D9%88%D8%B1%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%81%D9%84%D8%B3%D8%B7%D9%8A%D9%86%D9%8A-%D9%85%D9%85%D9%86%D9%88%D8%B9-%D9%85%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AF%D8%AE%D9%88%D9%84/

http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/10/03/169999.html

http://www.nowlebanon.com/Arabic/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=317846

Lets do it..

The psychiatrist present in the show basically affirmed that those persons could “be cured.” In November 2010, a facebook page invited people to rally for an LGBT pride in Tunisia on June 28. A few months later, the event was cancelled after a number of cybercitizens expressed strong disapproval and created several opposed pages. It seems that homosexuals are not generally discriminated against in Tunisian society but how far is this true? What do young people think about LGBT individuals?

I wrote a survey in which I posed some of the questions I wondered what Tunisians thought about and conducted it with the help of a number of friends in the first week of December 2010 and then in the first week of May 2011. We asked 141 students in those universities which brought together young people from all social classes from all over the country to tick the answers that best correspond to their opinions: Higher Institute of Management (ISG). Higher School of Commercial and Economic Sciences (ESSEC), Institute of Literary Studies and Human Sciences of Tunis (IPELSHT), Higher Institute of Techonological Studies (ISET), Faculty of letters and arts, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Tunis (ENS), Faculty of Human and Social Sciences of Tunis (FSHST), Institute of Advanced Business Studies (IHEC) and Higher Institute of Social sciences of Tunis (ISSHT). We had interesting discussions with many of them. Students are aged from 18 to 25 and answered the French version of the following survey:

This Questionnaire is anonymous.
Age: ……………. Sex : ………….. University: ………………………

1) What do you think about homosexuality (or bisexuality)?
- It’s repugnant
- It’s immoral. I don’t accept it.
- It’s an illness, a behaviour problem.
- It’s abnormal but I accept
- I accept homosexuality but not bisexuality.
- It’s totally normal just like heterosexuality. I perfectly accept it.

2) Do you know any homosexuals?
- Yes.
- Yes, unfortunately.
- No
- No, fortunately!

3) You think that people
- Are born homosexual
- Become homosexual

4) Homosexuals are:
- Just like everyone else
- Different
- Sick
- Perverts
- People who have problems integrating into society
- People who want to distinguish themselves from others

5) You think homosexuals
- Feel good
- Don’t feel good but live with it
- Suffer from a certain malaise and want to change

6) Are you for marriage between homosexuals?
- Yes
- No

7) Are you for the adoption of children by a homosexual couple?
- Yes
- No

8 ) In your opinion, how should society react to homosexuals?
- Execute them. We must absolutely put an end to this plague
- They are sick. Society and the government must help them receive treatment and get over it
- Accept them the way they are
- Grant them all the civil rights that heterosexuals enjoy

9) In your opinion, Society is generally,
- Intolerant
- Indifferent
- Tolerant

10) Your sister/brother announces to you that she or he is a homosexual. How do you react?
- You put an end to your relationship
- It shocks you and you take some time to accept it
- You try to change her or his sexual orientation
- It bothers you a bit but you do as if you learnt nothing new. It’s her/his private life
- You perfectly accept it

11) Do you think that SRS (Sex Reassignment Surgery or sex-change operation) should be facilitated for those who feel they belong to the opposite sex (transsexuals)?
- Yes
- No

12) Would you take part in an LGBT Pride in Tunisia?
- Yes
- No

13) Would you take part in an association whose goal is to defend homosexuals’ rights?
- Yes, I’d love to.
- Yes, why not.
- No, I don’t have time.
- No, I refuse

14) Does Islam condemn homosexuality?
- Yes
- NO
- Rather yes
- Rather no

15) You are rather
- Heterosexual
- Homosexual
- Bisexual

16) What if there are three genders (rather than two only: female and male)
- This is absurd
- That’s a weird idea
- I never thought about it
- This is interesting
- I totally agree
- I have always contested the classification of gender into two
- That has always been my opinion

Results:
Answers were really varied. A few of those who said they did not accept homosexuality said they accepted same-sex marriage. This probably means that they personally do not accept homosexuality and think it is morally wrong but do not mind or care whether homosexuals get married or not. Those who accepted adoption of children by homosexual couples did not always accept same-sex marriage. These students seem to think that homosexuals can provide children with a good and healthy upbringing just like everyone else but do not accept that homosexuality itself becomes recognized and tolerated in society. Others think that same-sex marriage is all right but that adoption of children by homosexuals leads the children to inevitably become homosexual themselves or have a behavioural trouble of any kind and think therfore that homosexuals should stay away from children or at least not be allowed to adopt children. Someone said that adoption can be allowed when the couple make sure children are also raised by someone else (a third person) who is heterosexual and from the opposite sex. A few people agreed with this idea. Some people refused the idea of becoming a member in an association for LGBT rights but said they would gladly take part in an LGBT pride or the contrary.

Angry, unemployed, and oppressed youth finally broke the long silence and fear and burst into the streets calling for Mubarak to step down. As more and more people poured into the streets calling for “Mubarak, leave, leave, leave,” Mubarak finally decided to agree to “not run for presidency in the next election” and pledged political reform. The protesters took no heed to it and continued to protests. Day by day, the Tahrir Square of Cairo was being filled with determined and ambitious people calling for Mubarak to leave. Mubarak, on the 17th day of protest, transferred some of his power to a newly appointed vice-president, Omar Sulaiman, but that did nothing to encourage the protesters, now in millions, to go back to their homes. During an interview with ABC’s Christiane Amanpour, Mubarak said that “he’s fed up with being president and would like to leave office now, but cannot; for fear that the country would sink into chaos”.

Dictators and autocrats like to think of themselves as the sole protector of the nation. They like the population to think that without them, there will be chaos and violence and that the country will shatter. Thus, they began to make such comments. This is in fact their illusions speaking, thinking that the mass would listen to them and stop with protesting and go back to their lives. The lives that were ruled with an iron fist, with violence and suppression by the government; the life that there exists no equal opportunities in employment, education, social services. If these leaders are so sincere in reformation, why do they speak of reform after the people take the streets? Why do they not speak of them and take actions sooner? Why after 20, 30, 40 years?

This is precisely what the Yemeni President Ali Saleh said on March 22nd: “Those who want to climb up to power through coups should know that this is out of the question. The homeland will not be stable, there will be a civil war, a bloody war. They should carefully consider this”. And this he said 30 days after the Yemenis started to protest and after mass defections by top generals, soldiers, government ministers, his son-in-law Yehia Mohammed Ahmed Ismail, as well as his own tribe taking stance against him. In other words, he said this while he is weakest and trying to use the card to defuse the protests, but he failed. On March 25th, the soon-to-be-ousted President Saleh announced that he does not want power but wants to put the power into safe hands. And it is very clear how the protesters responded to that.

Seif al Islam Qaddafi, the son of Muammar Qaddafi, did not wanted to be left out of this trend so he warned on February 20th that because of the demographic of Libya, civil war will peril. The warning however fell on deaf ears and the rebels and the people continued with their demands for Muammar Qaddafi to leave. Muammar Qaddafi also blamed the problem on Al-Qaeda telling Christiane Amanpour “my people love me, they would die for me.”

The Bahraini government on February 26th dismissed several of its ministers. The government also announced to cancel 25% housing loans that have already been given. But these concessions failed to appease the protesters and they defiantly continued to protest. The protesters are mainly Shia sect of Islam, a majority in Bahrain, being ruled by the Sunni minority. The Shias have long complained about poor treatment in employment, housings, education, infrastructure, while the Sunnis benefit higher status. The Shias are also prohibited from important political and military posts. The Bahraini government security forces have very brutally cracked down on the protesters killing at least 21 and injuring over 600. The government has gone as far as keeping the access to the hospitals blocked.

The brutalities seen by these governments against their own people, these oppressed people, is mind boggling; and it only shows that these governments and leaders are not sincere to their leadership and to the vanguard of their nation and its citizens, it is only to accumulate more wealth and to maintain the control of power.

The world was waiting for Syria to join in the mass Middle East protests, and it finally did. The story of the Syrian government in treating its people is like the rest of these governments: oppressive, abusive, unequal, dictatorial; and the faith of the Syrians are like the same faith of other nations. So then on March 24th, the Syrian city of Daraa finally erupted drawing thousands of people calling “Freedom, freedom.” And, as expected, Bashar al Assad, Syrian president, vowed to increase public worker’s salaries, greater freedom of press, and may lift the 48-years old Emergency Law. The opposition groups and protesters, as imagined, have refused the concessions and are continuing with the protests. Syrian forces have responded as abusively as did their counterparts in other countries with more than 61 killed so far with Syrian army opening fire on the protesters.

Kurdistan region of North Iraq is also not immune to these protests. Although the situation in the Kurdistan region is much different and better than most of the Middle East, the region has also been plagued with corruption, nepotism, high unemployment, and rotten social services. There have also been increased attacks, assaults, and murder on journalists and members of the opposition groups. Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) must take great notice of these mass protests in the Middle East and do what these governments have not done by creating better institutions that is based on justice, equality, liberty; and to stop doing what these governments are doing, in repressing their citizens and curtailing basic freedoms. Kurdistan Regional Government, too, used the same excuse; excuse of pointing their fingers for their problems on somewhere else: Iran.

Many government-controlled media outlets blame Iran and its influence behind the protests. Do they mean Iran is behind the corruption, nepotism, high unemployment, attacks on those who criticize, and all the other problems in Kurdistan? Do they mean that those tens of thousands of people in the street are being influenced by Iran and not protesting because of frustration and they no longer will tolerate the injustice by the government? While it does not take rocket science to know that Turkey, whose prime minister Reccep Erdogan, is scheduled to be in Kurdistan region in a day or two, and Iran, whom just received Nechirvan Barzani, the former prime minister of Kurdistan region, would love to see Kurdistan region destabilized and would even help in its destabilization, neither does it take rocket science to know that those people in the streets are sick and tired of government taking them as fools by making empty promises of tackling corruption and providing better services such as clean water and electricity and yet nothing ever gets done. The Kurdish people endured much in the hands of Saddam Hussein and continually are being suppressed today in Syria, Iran, and Turkey; the people do not need to suffer any more under the rule of their own government.

The people must not stop until their legitimate rights are respected and responded; this is an opportunity that was long missing and must not be passed on easily. The liberty and equality of the people must in all ways be attained, and this battle must be won by the determined and revolutionary people of the Middle East. The world must condemn these nations and governments who suppress their citizens; and those who are responsible for assaulting peaceful protesters and journalists must be put behind bars. They must be brought to the Hague and face their crimes.

Morocco, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, we are waiting for your bravery and courageous steps to be taken in this fight of liberation, of dignity, of honor.

(1) R. Clemente Holder (1994-08). “Egyptian Lawyer’s Death Triggers Cairo Protests”. Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.

In front of the Municipal Theatre

Tunisian Zouhair Yahiaoui Square

Zouhair’s tomb. May he rest in peace!

Zouhair Yahiaoui was the operator of the first Tunisian electronic satirical journal Tunezine. The title is a combination of three parts: “Tun” stands for Tunisia, “e” for electronic and “Zine” is the dimunitive of magazine. Zouheir Yahiaoui’s uncle, Mokhtar Yahiaoui, has been dismissed from his position as magistrate and harassed on several occasions for writing an open letter to the ex president in which he called for the constitutional principle of the independence of the judiciary to be respected on June 6, 2001. The letter was published on Tunezine. Of course, Zouhair Yahiaoui knew that a dissident journal would never be authorized under Ben Ali and therefore wrote under a pseudonym. On June 4, 2002, he was arrested in a cyber café in Ben Arous while he was working on an article and taken to the much-dreaded ministry of the interior. His house was searched and computer equipments confiscated by security forces. A lawyer was finally allowed to visit him on June, 11. On June 20, he was sentenced to over 2 years in prison for “dissemination of false news” and “theft of telecommunication services.” Yahiaoui’s real and only “crime” was self-expression and criticism of the government. Indeed, Tunezine was a space where people could read on the political situation in Tunisia and exchange their views about it. It is no secret that journalists who crossed the red lines and ventured dissenting opinions faced real risks of imprisonment, torture and death. Zouhair Yahiaoui was outrageously ill-treated. In January 2003, he went on a hunger strike in protest at the bad prison conditions he had to endure. After a national and international campaign, he was released from prison on November 18, 2003. The government probably understood that he may die in prison after his health considerably deteriorated. In 13 March, 2005, Zouhair Yahiaoui died in his thirties as a result of the awful treatment he received in prison.
Today, Tunisians and especially Tunisian cyber activists who spoke up against Ben Ali’s iron-fisted regime remember him with gratitude and admiration.