Near Tunis, eight years after the revolution, “we have freedom but not dignity”
Written by admin on December 8, 2023
In Douar Hicher, in the popular suburb of Tunis where Sofiene lives, young scouts, dancers and budding comedians are preparing the show marking the eighth anniversary of the revolution that ousted Zine el Abidine Ben Ali from power on January 14, 2011.
They rehearse in the Maison des associations, one of only four places offering activities to young people in this city of 100,000 inhabitants.
If Tunisia is the only country to continue on the path of political democratization after the Arab Spring, economic power still remains concentrated in the hands of an elite and the inhabitants of peripheral areas feel excluded and abandoned.
“If the system does not change in 2019 (with the presidential and legislative elections, Editor’s note), all this will have been for nothing,” says Sofiène, who worked as a painter or street book seller due to lack of being hired. in his branch, computer science.
“The revolution was made with three slogans, +work, dignity, freedom+, but the first two were not achieved,” recognizes sociologist Olfa Lamloum, director of the NGO International Alert in Tunisia which works in the areas the most marginalized in the country.
Some progress has been made, she notes. The introduction of a mandatory quota of young people under 36 among municipal candidates thus “allowed them to enter municipal councils in large numbers” last year.
But, “nothing has been done to improve the daily life” of young people whose social situation has suffered “a real deterioration”, tempers Ms. Lamloum.
