“Practically, realistically, it is inevitable that we move towards PPP,” said Minister of Development Yassine Brahim during a June 14 conference on Finance, PPP, and Sustainable Development at the IACE. “Let’s work instead on how to pursue them while minimizing the risks … it’s a good way to accelerate the country’s development.”
Assessing Tunisia’s resistance to political and economic reforms, the Atlantic Council observes that “old guard networks are present throughout the political system, the business world, and security institutions,” and proposes that Western donors adopt new support strategy to help Tunisia progress in its democratization process.
Ennahda’s 10th Congress took place between May 20th and May 25th, bringing reforms which sparked conversations about where the party is headed next. Media coverage highlighted Ennahda’s separation of “mosque and state” as a step towards better governance in Tunisia. The portrayals of what this “separation” truly means varies in Western and Tunisian news coverage, with some reports being more skeptical than others.
Members of the Coordination of Associations for Immigration and Tunisians Abroad (CAITE) gathered in Tunis last Thursday to articulate their demands for a representative body. The association has criticized the associated Draft Law 015/2015 concerning the creation of a National Council, which CAITE members “cannot accept in its present version.”
Oued El Khil, a few kilometers from Medenine, is situated on the chain of mountains which cross the Tunisian southern cities of Beni Khedach, Chenini, Matmata and Beni Zelten. The small village defies the vastness of the desert and exclusion from the surrounding modern urban ugliness that has polluted and destroyed pearls such as the thirty-three Ksurs of Medenine, bombarded in the early sixties, and the oasis of Gabes, contaminated since the seventies by the chemical industry.
Amidst a circle of union representatives, business-owners, farmers, and researchers, reservations and concerns regarding the impact of a free trade agreement on Tunisia’s agricultural sector were part of a debate that was ultimately less about whether or not than how to proceed with a “greater integration into the European economic space.”
Chartered buses from l’Institut Français headed towards Gafsa to assemble at the 6th Youth Forum, which each year, celebrates decentralized cooperation between France and Tunisia. Behind the “support” of civil society appears to be the dissemination of a doctrine; one which claims that what will help boost start-ups is a solution for mass unemployment and marginalization. In light of some “success stories”, how many are left behind?
On May 10, Tunisian polling institution SIGMA Conseil and German foundation Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) presented the results of their survey “Religion and Politics in North Africa.” How accurately do study findings reflect society’s views on issues as elusive and multifaceted as religious and national identity?
In the arid semi-desert governorate of Medenine, media attention was recently drawn to a small village called Gosbah. Inhabited by a small black community, the ‘Abid Ghbonton. Gosbah lies next to another village inhabited by the white Ghbonton; the two territories are separated by a small river.
On the morning of May 13, more than thirty individuals from Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Spain, Italy, and France gathered in a small conference room in Tunis. Their assignment: to discuss the practice of journalism in the south and north of the Mediterranean. A non-exhaustive overview on some of the points made and questions raised throughout the day.
The recently revealed emails of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton shed light on a cast of key characters and their roles in informing the decisions, diplomatic phone calls, and initiatives that constitute US response to what was unfolding in Tunisia at the time of revolution.
The 20th edition of the National Festival of Experimental Theatre of Médenine is the first of these seasonal events. Coinciding with the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, this year’s festival is dedicated to the British poet and playwright. For one week, the stage will be set for plays—of varying degrees of intensity and fidelity—dealing with Shakespearean themes and characters.
Les organisations arabes des droits humains soussignées, dénoncent l’obstination de la Fédération internationale des journalistes (FIJ) à aller de l’avant, conjointement avec l’Union des journalistes arabes, dans l’établissement d’un « Mécanisme régional spécial pour la liberté d’information dans le monde arabe », sous le parapluie de la Ligue des États arabes.
46 Groups, Celebrities, Cartoonists Press for Rights-Respecting Approach
Acknowledgement: The State of Surveillance in Tunisia is the result of an ongoing collaboration by Privacy International and Nawaat.
Just after few days from the end of a Jazz Festival, the city of El Kef hosted one of the most important artistic event of the country, the “24-hours theatre non-stop”. The event took place in the frame of a theatre festival which lasted from the 23rd to the 28th of March, and which included, a part from theatre and music spectacles, seminars and workshop on dramatic arts.
I was curious about how today’s generation thinks about gender roles and I figured that the best way to do so is to leave it for Tunisians (28 students in my case) to answer a one question survey : What are the things that you would like to do, but you can only do them if you were a member of the opposite sex ?
In contrast with the triumphant discourse of officials and mainstream news outlets in Tunisia, a more foreboding tone has been adopted by foreign media.
