Hundreds of thousands of Libyans fled to Tunisia after the 2011 revolution that toppled Muammar Gaddafi. A visit with those who mourn the fallen dictator, including his relatives.
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Rising From Its Ashes
Tunisia’s economy was flourishing in 1970, a time when the country was opening itself up to tourism. This was particularly clear in Sfax, the country’s second city, a large portion of which had been destroyed during World War II.
After last weekend’s terrorist attacks that left four dead, Tunisia’s Interior Ministry has taken to Facebook to announce that it is cracking down on the niqab. Proponents of heightened surveillance suggest that jihadist men use the full-body garment and face veil to disguise themselves while traveling, especially when being pursued by police. One alleged male […]
BIZERTE — Tunisia’s youth are posting videos on social networks of themselves dancing to Pharrell William’s song “Happy” as a kind of gleeful response to post-Arab spring tensions that the country still faces. The first video appeared in early January, and was approaching 200,000 views on YouTube. “We’re happy in spite of everything,” said Fairouz, […]
Two revolutions, two months apart, that launched the Arab Spring. Three years later, the respective quests for democracy in Tunisia and Egypt are in very different places.
Change is afoot again in Tunisia, with a new constitution, a new technocratic government, and a Parliament in full celebration mode. Three years after triggering a wave of popular upheaval across North Africa and the Middle East, marked by decidely mixed results, Tunisia is again offering a snapshot of democratic hope. “Nothing can describe my […]
GÄVLE — Under the dark of a freezing arctic night, Jimi arrived at his destination. They welcomed him with a plate of Swedish meatballs, before showing him to a soft, white bed in a room that sleeps eight. “Welcome to Sweden,” says a man of African origins, shaking his hand. Jimi, 25, who is from […]
ARABICA: Your weekly shot of what the Arab world is saying, hearing and sharing.
Your weekly shot of what the Arab world is saying, hearing and sharing.
TUNIS — It is a tale of sex and sheikhs, war and religion, all fueled by a combustible mix of the Internet and ideology. There are YouTube clips of Saudi sheikhs counting men’s celestial sexual partners, devout Muslims offering to adopt illegitimate children, and Tunisia’s anti-Islamist news outlets busily looking for ways to use the […]
Over the past decade, the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa has become one of the main points of European entry for illegal immigrants. Even though the 90-mile open sea journey from Tunisia has already killed thousands, a new wave of refugees from Syria are following the same route. LAMPEDUSA — Two Syrian mothers with young […]
AFP (France), TUNIS AFRIQUE PRESS (Tunisia) Worldcrunch TUNIS – The General Union of Tunisian Labour called for a general strike Friday, after thousands took to the streets to protest the killing of secular opposition leader Mohamed Brahmi, the state-run news agency TAP reports. People gathering in Mohamed Ali Square in Tunis (Photo – Ochlocratie via […]
DJERBA – Otto Dix in Tunisia? Sounds like a mistake, a geographical accident, as if somebody or something got on the wrong plane. Not so. There really are some 100 works — sketches, drawings, oils — by famed German New Objectivity artist Otto Dix (1891-1969) on exhibit on the holiday island of Djerba. On the […]
KASSERINE – Sitting on his doorstep, squinting under his straw hat, the shepherd looks closely at the military tank that crosses his land with a deafening rumble. “For now, we let them, but if it goes on, we, the people, we will revolt and stop this joke by all available means,” says Ridha Messaoudi. Early […]
It’s more than just an easy target…
Unable to live up to the first wave of optimism, the uprising in the Arab world is nonetheless destined to change history.
Thousands of young Tunisians who tried to emigrate to Europe after the Arab Spring have disappeared. Their families are desperate to know what happened to them.
FRANCE 24 (France), AL JAZEERA (Qatar), REUTERS Worldcrunch TUNIS – Tunisia’s political turmoil continued on Wednesday following Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali’s resignation, after he failed to appoint a non-partisan cabinet of technocrats. Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki is meeting Wednesday with Rached Ghannouchi, leader of the country’s leading party Ennahda to ask him to nominate a […]
FRANCE 24 (France), AL JAZEERA (Qatar), REUTERS Worldcrunch Tunisia’s ruling Islamic Ennahda party has rejected Prime Minister Hamdi Jebali’s proposal to dissolve the government in a bid to restore calm after the killing of opposition leader Chokri Belaid in Tunis. Hours after Wednesday morning’s assassination, which sent protesters onto the streets across Tunisia, Jebali had […]
TUNISIALIVE, MOSAïQUE FM (Tunisia), BBC NEWS (UK), AFP Worldcrunch TUNIS – Chokri Belaid, a senior leader in Tunisia“s left-leaning opposition Democratic Patriotic party, was shot dead as he was leaving his house in Tunis. “My brother was assassinated. I am desperate and depressed,” Belaid’s brother Abdelmajid Belaid told the Agence France Presse news agency. Chokri […]
– Editorial – PARIS – A revolution is a riot that has succeeded. A riot is a revolution that has failed… For the second time since 1990, Algeria has missed another rendezvous with history, the Arab Spring. Like Saudi Arabia, it remained mostly extraneous to the unrest that overwhelmed the Arab world and led to […]
SIDI BOUZID – In town to commemorate the anniversary of the death of Mohamed Bouazizi, who set himself on fire two years ago, Moncef Marzouki and Mustapha Ben Jaffar were greeted with stones and tomatoes. The President of Tunisia and the Head of the National Constituent Assembly had to leave the stage that was set […]
ASSABAH (Tunisia), FRANCE 24-ARABE (France), Worldcrunch TUNIS – With protests mounting against the Islamist-led government, Tunisia’s leading labor union called Friday for the first general strike since the fall of the Ben Ali regime nearly two years ago. Slated for Dec. 13 in the capital of Tunis, Sfax and other major cities, the strike has […]
TUNIS – Overnight, the name of their organization, Ansar al-Sharia (Partisans of Islamic Law), became famous. They were brought into the spotlight after the deadly attacks on several U.S. embassies that they were accused of organizing after the broadcast of the Islamophobic movie “Innocence of Muslims.” In 2011, in the course of just a few […]
PARIS – If the images didn’t show a large scar on Ghazi Béji’s chest, the photo collection of his journey might pass for a mere holiday album. Yet the 28-year-old Tunisian has a very different tale to tell: in seven months, Béji traveled across seven countries in hiding, facing hunger, fear, cold and physical violence. […]
TAP (Tunisia), RT (Russia), AFRIK.COM Worldcrunch TUNIS – Tunisia’s Ministry of Women and Family Affairs has filed a complaint against Kaws Kouzah (“Rainbow”), an Arabic-language children’s magazine that published disturbingly detailed instructions of how to make a Molotov cocktail, Tunisia’s news agency TAP reports. The article, published under the “Knowledge Garden” section of the #302 […]
LE MONDE (France), TUNISIA IT (Tunisia) Worldcrunch A Tunisian television station stopped running a satirical puppet show that regularly mocked politicians and members of the ruling Ennahda party because of pressure from authorities, according to Mongi Khadraoui, secretary general of the National Tunisian Journalist Union (SNJT). The authorities appreciated neither the form nor content of […]
TUNIS – Dorra Bouzid is elated as she faces the slogan-chanting crowd. “It’s the first time I’ve seen an audience at such a fever pitch,” says this emblematic journalist, who wrote the first feminist column in 1955. She feels validated in her opinion: “I’m from the generation that built independence, I’ve always believed in my […]
LE MONDE, LE COURRIER DE L’ATLAS (France), AFP TUNIS – A Tunisian university dean risks a five year prison sentence for allegedly slapping a student who refused to take off her veil, Le Monde reports. The case is the latest development in the bitter row at Manouba University between secularists and Salafi students who follow […]
TUNIS TRIBUNE (Tunisia), FRANCE 24 (France) TUNIS – Former Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was sentenced to 20 years in prison, for “incitement to public disorder, murders and lootings on the Tunisian territory.” The sentence was handed down Wednesday morning by a Tunis military court, following a trial focused on the days around […]
Bypassed as a tourist site since the revolution, the southern Tunisian city of Douz looks to regain its hold as an entryway to the Sahara. The country’s tourist industry as a whole has been hit hard by the political unrest.
“Tunisia Has Not Become Islamist…” So declares newly installed President of the Republic Moncef Marzouki, a longtime opposition leader, now considered the secularist counterweight to the majority Islamist party, Ennahda.
A R A B I C A ارابيكا By Kristen Gillespie TUNISIA TURNS PAGENewly sworn-in Tunisian President Monsef al-Marzouki said his primary task is “building the republic into a pluralistic democracy and tolerant society.” The challenges ahead are due largely to the “enormous devastation left by dictatorship,” with Marzouki pledging to strive for the “development […]
An exclusive interview with Rached Ghannouchi, whose Islamist party Ennahda was the big winner in Tunisia’s recent landmark election. He vows to work with secularist rivals, promote women’s rights and let far more radical Islamists have their say
As Tunisians head to the polls for the first free vote after the ‘Jasmine Revolution’ and fall of the Ben Ali regime, tribal infighting, strikes and protests are multiplying. The region of Gafsa, the hotbed of a 2008 uprising, is on the verge of chaos.
Tunisia’s Nahda party is working to improve its image amongst foreigners and skeptical secularist voters. But it does not renounce its desire for a democracy based on Islamic values.
A R A B I C A ارابيكا JORDAN: ROUGH POLITICSIn Jordan’s Lower House of Parliament, largely wedded to the status quo, Prime Minister Marouf al-Bakhit barely managed to win a 53-50 vote of confidence following accusations of involvement in a murky casino deal involving King Abdullah’s closest advisers and confidantes. The representatives already voted […]
A R A B I C A ارابيكا Syria: Controlling The Message *A video clip is circulating of two funeral processions in the eastern Syrian desert town of Deir Azour one day after security forces fired on protesters and killed two people, a 16-year-old and 17-year-old boys. The group broke out into chants of “the […]
Former Guantanamo inmate Adel Ben Mabrouk is back home in Tunisia after a decade behind bars. He speaks of his respect for Osama Bin Laden and his plans to write a book on his prison experiences.
Anti-corruption officials in Tunisia are looking into French companies linked, willingly or not, with the clan of ousted President Ben Ali.