MUSLIM HATE IN TUNISIA
Tunisia: Islamic extremists attack university head over veil ban
OCT 9, 2011 by Katerina Nikolas
A group of extremist Islamists reacted violently to a university's refusal to enrol a woman wearing a niqab. They stormed the university in Sousse, attacking the General Secretary.
Extreme Islamists reacted with violence when a university in Sousse, Tunisia, refused to enrol a woman wearing a niqab. The Ministry of Education imposed a niqab (full-face veil) ban at the beginning of the academic year. Alarabiya reported that a group of 200 protesters stormed the university demanding students’ rights to wear the veil.
Moncef Abdul Jalil, a faculty head at the university, said
“The General Secretary of the university was attacked this morning with extreme violence by a group of religious extremists” adding “This serious incident caused a state of terror and panic in the ranks of college students and professors.”
In reaction to the incident a group of about 200 women formed a counter-protest in Tunis, arranged online, to protest against religious violence.
The full-face veil was previously alien to Tunisia’s predominantly secular society, but since the fall of Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali the influence of Islamists is growing. Tunisia will hold elections later this month and the Islamic Ennahada party is expected to win. The party, inspired by Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, was banned under Ben Ali’s rule, but was legalized earlier this year. France 24 reported the party was founded in 1981 by Rachid Ghannouchi, who returned to Tunisia from exile in London in Jan. this year.
During an interview with Reuters, Rachid Ghannouchi stressed that the party will not try to impose strict Islamic rules, saying
“All the values of democracy and modernity are respected by Ennahda. We are a party that can find a balance between modernity and Islam.”
On the issue of the veil he promised
"A woman's freedom and her freedom of dress has been established and we will develop it."
Tunisia has long been dependent on its tourist industry which relies on the country’s secular image. Tourism was dealt a devastating blow following the uprising which led to the ousting of Ben Ali, emphasizing the importance of maintaining a secular and tolerant attitude.
WHO warns of epidemics among refugees in Tunisia
(AFP) – March 3, 2011
TUNIS — The UN World Health Organisation warned Thursday of risks of epidemics among the tens of thousands of people massed in southern Tunisia after fleeing violence in Libya.
"There is not for the moment a humanitarian crisis in the proper sense of the term. But the risks of epidemics are real," a WHO assistant director general, Eric Laroche, told a news briefing.
"We have a concentration of several tens of thousands of people. There are all the ingredients for an epidemic explosion," Laroche said after a visit to the zone where refugees are camped.
He warned of "enormous overcrowding and a lack of hygienic conditions" and said "the pressing need is to have fewer and fewer people who are concentrated there."
"We need to repatriate them by plane and ship and to set up a system to monitor epidemics and provide early warning of contagious diseases."
Laroche praised the "incredible" solidarity of Tunisians with the refugees.
Three million dollars would be needed to cover the immediate requirements of the WHO in southern Tunisia, he said.
The health situation close to the border with Libya "can change from one day to the next," Laroche went on, warning of a large-scale catastrophe if the refugees were not rapidly repatriated.
Laroche announced that a WHO team was due in eastern Libya on Thursday to evaluate needs among the people in this part of the country, which is controlled by opponents of Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi.
Humanitarian organisations and the international community raced against time on Wednesday to prevent chaos and help the tens of thousands of people in precarious conditions on Tunisia's border with Libya.
The UN World Food Programme announced an emergency aid plan worth 38.7 million dollars (27.9 million euros) to help 2.7 million people in Libya, Egypt and Tunisia.
The European Commission decided to increase the amount of its emergency aid from three to 10 million euros.
Peddler's martyrdom launched Tunisia's revolution
Thu Jan 20, 2011
By Lin Noueihed
SIDI BOUZID, Tunisia Jan 20 (Reuters) - It began with a slap and an insult hurled at a vegetable seller in a small town surrounded by scrub and cactus. It ended with a revolution that has shaken authoritarian leaders across the Arab world.
Residents of Sidi Bouzid, where weeds grow in the dust that covers the streets, say anger had been building for years before Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire, igniting weeks of demonstrations that spread across the country and unseated Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali after 23 years of repressive rule.
In the centre of Tunisia, Sidi Bouzid is a world apart from the expensive coastal resorts that are home to Tunisia's elite.
Its infrastructure is falling apart. Its hospital lacks facilities, residents say, while joblessness and corrupt local officials have fed resentment.
Local authorities had confiscated Bouazizi's unlicensed cart several times before, but the turning point for the 26-year-old, and for his town and ultimately his country, came on Dec. 17.
The breadwinner in a family of eight, Bouazizi argued with a policewoman who took away his goods and scales. The policewoman gave him a slap in the face and a slur against his father, who died when he was three.
Without telling his family, Bouazizi bought a can of petrol and set himself on fire outside the provincial headquarters.
"What kind of repression do you imagine it takes for a young man to do this? A man who has to feed his family by buying goods on credit when they fine him ... and take his goods," his sister Leila told Reuters at the family's home in a rundown suburb.
"In Sidi Bouzid, those with no connections and no money for bribes are humiliated and insulted and not allowed to live."
Bouazizi's mother and sisters sat on mattresses arranged around the wall, a cabinet the only other furniture in the living room, wearing Muslim headscarves rarely seen on the streets of the capital under Ben Ali's secular rule.
"I ask God that Ben Ali's people, and the Trabelsi family, who were ruling Tunisia, go completely," Bouazizi's mother Mannoubia said, referring to the family of Ben Ali's wife, whose huge and ostentatious wealth angered many Tunisians.
BIRTH OF A REVOLUTION
Tunisia's uprising began in a region residents say has been marginalised by successive rulers from the northern coast.
Small white houses line dusty roads, many of them unpaved, in Bouazizi's neighbourhood. On crumbling walls, graffiti tells passersby of the town's pride in his role in the revolt.
Near the spot where Bouazizi burned himself alive, residents have placed his picture over a statue erected under the old regime. Supporters have sprayed "The Martyr Mohamed Bouazizi Square" on a wall and called for the road to be named after him.
In the absence of clear leaders in Tunisia's uprising, Bouazizi has captured the imagination of millions and inspired copycat burnings in neighbouring Algeria, Mauritania and Egypt.
But it was his friends and family and the people of his home town that turned one angry man into thousands on the street.
In a country where the media was restricted and opposition parties restricted, local branches of trade unions first plucked up the courage to organise protests over the Gaza war in 2009.
"The fear had begun to melt away and we were a volcano that was going to explode. And when Bouazizi burnt himself, we were ready," said Attia Athmouni, a union leader and official of the opposition Progressive Democratic Party in Sidi Bouzid.
"Protesters demanded payback for the blood of Bouazizi and this developed into economic, social and political demands. We started calling for an end to corruption."
Bouazizi died of his burns on Jan. 4. Residents and family say thousands showed up for his funeral procession.
Athmouni was arrested for four days for his involvement in organising the protests, but when he was released he and other organisers stepped up contacts with residents in other towns.
Demonstrations spread across Sidi Bouzid province, and Athmani said groups of youths began to clash with police who fired tear gas at the crowds. Protesters hit back with stones.
An internet campaign called on fellow citizens and unions to set up committees to support the uprising in Sidi Bouzid. The first to respond was the lawyers' union, which went on strike.
"The unions got involved, teachers, lawyers, doctors, all sections of civil society, and set up a Popular Resistance Committee to back the people of Sidi Bouzid and back the uprising. The efforts meant the uprising continued for 10 days in Sidi Bouzid with no support," said Lazhar Gharbi, a head teacher and union member.
"As the protests spread, the headlines changed from bread to call for the removal of the head of state."
Tunisia's powerful main labour union held back in the early weeks but then swung behind the uprising and organised general strikes until Ben Ali fled on January 14.
Many Tunisians claim that Ben Ali took millions when he fled and that his wife, Leila, took kilos of gold with her.
Yet many in Sidi Bouzid say Ben Ali's ouster is not enough. They want the full dissolution of the ruling RCD party.
"For the Popular Resistance Committees, the issue today is that ... the revolution is at a crossroads," Gharbi said. "We want the revolution to continue to the end, to erase the remnants of the regime represented by the RCD."
The significance of the Tunisian uprising cannot be lost on leaders in other Arab countries accused of suppressing political freedoms, corruption and failing to create jobs.
"If you wanted to set up a company you could find all the graduates you need here: engineers, doctors, lawyers, teachers, all of them unemployed," said Rushdi Horchani, a distant cousin of Bouazizi.
"If you go to Sousse, which is the president's area, you would not find a graduate unemployed. It was all about corruption and bribes." (Editing by Andrew Roche)
President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali
President de la Republique
Palais Presidentiel
Tunis
Tunisia
Your Excellency,
We issue this joint statement to protest the deteriorating situation of human rights in Tunisia and the escalating attacks on academics advocating democratic reforms and the rule of law. In recent months, government critics have faced markedly greater levels of violence at the hands of persons believed to be linked to security forces, suggesting a systematic campaign to silence all critical voices. As organizations devoted to educational issues and academic freedom, we are particularly alarmed by the assault against Tunisia's educators and intellectuals. We urge you to use your powers to curb the increasing use of violence exhibited in this campaign and to safeguard the international human rights embodied in international covenants that Tunisia has pledged to uphold.
Your Excellency, as Tunisia celebrates the 45th anniversary of its independence this week, its citizens increasingly seek to exercise their internationally recognized rights to free expression and free association. Speaking on the occasion of this anniversary, on March 20, you stated that Tunisia has "chosen democracy both as a principle and a practice." A central characteristic of a democracy is the ability of its citizens to receive and impart information freely about their own society, and independent academic and scholarly work are crucial to fostering this ability. When Tunisia acceded to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, it made a commitment to guarantee all individuals the "freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds." Yet independent thinkers who challenge your government's policies in a peaceful manner have suffered sharper and more violent responses when exercising these rights.
Over the last few weeks, to name but a few examples, unknown assailants have attacked journalist Jalel Zoghlami on February 3 and again on February 7, apparently because of his effort to publish an independent newspaper. On February 21, four representatives of the international human rights group Reporters Sans Frontiers who were trying to distribute copies of this newspaper (including the organization's secretary-general, Robert Menard) were attacked by a group of nearly twenty men; the NGO representatives were later expelled from the country. On February 22, Naziha Boudhib, a member of the Tunisian Association of Democratic Women (ATFD), was attacked by several men who forcibly took her documents chronicling the human rights situation in Tunisia.
Your Excellency, we are especially troubled by reports of two recent attacks against Prof. Khedija Cherif, a sociologist at the University of Tunis and a prominent advocate of women's rights. On March 1, Prof. Cherif was beaten, sexually harassed, and verbally abused as she was attempting to attend an informal meeting at the former headquarters of the CNLT in Tunis. Eyewitnesses identified her attackers as plainclothes police officers, and photographs taken during the attack seemed to identify one of the attackers as the chief of police of the Medina section of Tunis.
In the same incident, the assailants also attacked Prof. Abdel Kader Ben Khemis, a professor at the University of Sousse, and physically prevented him from attending the CNLT gathering. Several others attending the meeting, including Sihem Bensedrine, a prominent journalist and the CNLT's spokesperson, were also attacked. Ultimately the attackers succeeded in stopping the meeting from taking place. Prof. Cherif and Prof. Ben Khemis have filed complaints with the local prosecutor's office, but have not received any acknowledgement of or response to their case.
Prof. Cherif was attacked again on March 10 on the steps of the courthouse. An unidentified man in civilian clothes attacked Prof. Cherif and tried to take a dossier from her hands that contained the details of her complaint about the earlier attack she had suffered. When she resisted, the assailant pushed her to the ground, pried the dossier from her hands, and ran away.
We also remain concerned about the ongoing harassment of Prof. Moncef Marzouki, the CNLT's former spokesperson. Prof. Marzouki was arbitrarily blocked from leaving Tunisia on March 10. In December of 2000, he was sentenced to one year in jail on spurious charges of "belonging to an illegal organization" and "disseminating false information," stemming from his former activity with the CNLT. This sentence has been suspended pending appeal, and the relevant judicial authorities had indicated to his lawyers that he could leave the country. Prof. Marzouki was invited by the medical school at University of Paris VII to assume a two-year teaching position, beginning on April 1, after he was improperly dismissed last year from his position teaching public health at the University of Sousse. He has been prevented from teaching or publishing in Tunisia and therefore cannot earn a livelihood, and he is under constant surveillance and is only allowed intermittent telephone contact.
Your Excellency, we ask that you demonstrate your government's oft-repeated commitment to human rights by immediately initiating a thorough and objective judicial investigation into the assaults on Prof. Cherif and Prof. Ben Khemis. We also ask your government to halt the use of arbitrary judicial and administrative proceedings against its critics, among them Prof. Marzouki. Finally, we urge you to exercise your authority as the chief executive of the republic to rein in the security forces' campaign of violence and intimidation against academics and other critics of the government.
We look forward to receiving your comments, and we thank you in advance for your consideration of these important matters.
Sincerely,
Dr. Yolanda Moses,
President, American Association for Higher Education
Co-Chair, Human Rights Watch Academic Freedom Committee
"As Tunisia celebrates the 45th anniversary of its independence, its citizens are increasingly unable to exercise their internationally recognized rights to free expression and free association"
Saman Zia-Zarifi
Academic Freedom Program Director of Human Rights Watch