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Tunisia: A revolution for dignity

Tunisia: A revolution for dignity

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Tunisia: A revolution for dignity
Sidi Bouzid
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Radhia Nasraoui
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Tunisia: A revolution for dignity: Sidi Bouzid
As the lights of the International Press have switch out, I have traveled to all the destitute villages to meet some of the Revolution’s protagonists. Few moths after the bloody riots that was toppled the 23-year autocratic rule of dictator Zine Ben Ali by protesters who expelled him on January 14 with his wife Leila. Tunisians gave the example of the ‘square’ to the Arab World as also to Spain, Portugal, France, and Greece. For the first time after 23 years, the Tunisians can speak freely about politics without being threatened of censorship, torture and prison. On October 23, Tunisians will vote for the first time after decades. The magazine of Tunis Airlines has as a main title: “The revolution of jasmine”. But there is no Tunisian who accepts this tourist wording. “We sacrificed our children to the revolution. Dignity is what we ask. At work, in education, in society”, says Ms Sahla Sadeou who lost her son from a police-sniper at his friend’s funeral, who has been killed by riot forces in Kasserine, the city with 37 martyrs –the highest number – and the city where the percentage of unemployment is almost 70%. The report is from Sidi bou Sid, where the sparkle of the revolution fired when Mohamed Bouazizi, set himself on fire, touching off a season of revolt across the Arab world. Erdeyef, the mine-city where the riots started in 2008 but Ben Ali’ forces have ‘drown’ it, Kassrine and Tela.
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Tunisia: A revolution for dignity: Redeyef
Redeyef is a town in the Gafsa Governorate, southwest Tunisia with population of 28,000. 3000 of them are graduates but jobless. I ‘ve met people of 50 years old, who had never a stabled job. City industry is mainly based on phosphate mining. On 2008 the miners decided to protest for their rights by demonstrations, hunger strikes and occupations. Women were fighting too. To escape from arrestment, workers had hidden in the caves outside the town where women brought them food. Ben Ali sent police forces to ‘drown’ the revolts. Men and women have imprisoned and tortured. Some of them got free after the 2010 revolution… Of course, there was no freedom for the press to speak about the 2008 miners’ uprising. Report & photography by Maro Kouri
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Tunisia: A revolution for dignity: Kassrine - Thala
Kasserine & Thala: Towns with a revolutionary tradition. On 22-24th December Kassrine and Thala’ people held their first solidarity march with Sidi Bouzid, where the first call in all of Tunisia was made demanding the fall of Ben Ali. Between 3rd and 12th January, Thala - a town of 15,000 inhabitants - was surrounded by 1,800 police. Supplies of water, bread were cut off. "YES to bread and water, NO to Ben Ali". 150 people were imprisoned. Young men, women and children were tortured and abused. But through Facebook and other social networks, the young were able to publish videos of the repression and publicise the police murder of 6 young people. Thala, won. Today, there are no police in town. Young people take it in turns to deal with security. Only the military presence reminds that there is a state.
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Tunisia: A revolution for dignity: Tunis
The tragic circumstances surrounding Bouazizi's self-immolation sparked protests in his rural hometown. The protests, which sometimes turned into violent riots, quickly spread to other areas and the capital, Tunis. The Tunisian government responded first with repression, unleashing state security forces on the demonstrators, killing, torturing, arresting activists, and shutting down the internet. Eventually, Ben Ali shuffled his cabinet and offered to create 300,000 jobs, but it was too little too late. Trade union activists, were focused on unemployment and the high costs of living. Others led to the looting of lavish property belonging to Ben Ali's relatives. Protestors came from various provinces to La Kasba, a place in Tunis, which contained the Office of the Prime Minister (PM) and the country's finance ministry. They slept in the open for days - Some established makeshift tent - in the midst of extreme cold temperatures. The protests and violence continued, and by January 14, the president and his family were on an airplane to Saudi Arabia.
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Tunisia: A revolution for dignity: Radhia Nasraoui
Radhia Nasraoui is a lawyer, human rights activist and president of the Tunisian Association for Combating Torture in Tunisia. 57-years old she defends the human rights of man independed his ideology. She is famous for her trials during Ben Ali regime, when she was defending members of the unauthorized communist party PCOT as also members of the unauthorized Islamist al-Nahda (“The Renaissance,” in Arabic) movement who were tortured. “The constitution and the laws will change totally”, she says. She is married and she has three daughters with Hamma Hammami, leader of PCOT
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Tunisia: A revolution for dignity: Lina Ben Mhenni
Human rights cyber activist and blogger Lina Ben Mhenni, reported every day from different towns of the country during the revolution. Her blog "A Tunisian girl" won the Deutsche Welle Blog Award 2011. 27-years old Lina Ben Mhenni she teaches linguistics in Tunis University
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Tunisia: A revolution for dignity: Murad Ben Cheikh
Murad Ben Cheikh, director of the film "No more fear". Ben Cheikh allows us to enter into the personal lives of three Tunisians struggling for freedom as they witness and experience the Revolution. And through these three characters, we are given larger insight into the entire country’s struggle. ‘No More Fear’ was given a Special Screening at the Cannes Film Festival this past May where Ben Cheikh was quoted as saying, “For a long time, my rage was silent, my eyes unable to look on with feeling. But that day of 14 January brought me strong feelings, I wept over it. The film had to seize this new, very particular, atmosphere that was in the streets and the slogans that have continued to reverberate since January 14th. After two days of filming, I knew that the main idea of the film was FEAR", he says.
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Tunisia: A revolution for dignity: Hamma Hammemi
Hamma Hammami, leader of the (unauthorized during Ben Ali regime) Communist Party of Tunisian Workers PCOT (Parti Communiste des Ouvriers de Tunisie), and director of the (ex-banned) newspaper El Badil ("The Alternative"). Hamma was hiding many times during Ben Ali regime, and also many years he was brutal tortured and imprisoned after unfair trials.
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Tunisia: A revolution for dignity: Sidi Bou Said, Sousse, Kairouan, Mahdia, El-jem, Matmata, Jerba
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