In a world where most countries have established a form of democratic system, the majority are curious and can’t believe dictatorships still exist… or rather, immediatly think of Kim Jung Un. But in reality, there are, and were, a few alternatives and we’re going to discover one of them today.
I grew up in Tunisia, a country that is not that well-known to people. Tunisia is located in Africa, and more precisely in the “Maghreb”. As far as I remember, Tunisia has always been, to a certain extent, under a dictatorship. Bourguiba (president from 1959 – 1987) ruled for 28 years. Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali’s regime lasted from 1989 to 2011 (22 years). I was twelve when his regime came to an end due to the Tunisian Revolution.
First of all, let’s go back in time.
My parents never talked politics with me, which is normal seeing how young I was at that time. However, they had never once been vocal about their beliefs. Therefore, I thought we were living in utter peace and happiness. I was in a French elementary school where most kids came from rich French families and emigrated to Tunisia because of their parent’s work. The political situation didn’t matter to them so their kids didn’t care that much either. When I was 7, I remember telling my father in the car that I never wanted to leave Tunisia, because back then I thought Tunisia was the safest country compared to all of those countries suffering from earthquakes and tsunamis (Haiti and Japan in particular). I felt lucky that none of that happened in my country.
Politically, I didn’t know much but I thought that we had a great president taking care of of ‘us’ : I thought of Tunisia as a big family. That, gladly, didn’t change. However, I didn’t know anything about what was happening in the backcountry. A whole country was trying to bite their tongues in fear. If one dared to resist and speak their mind, torture and even death would come their way. Every 7th of November, rallies took place in the honour of Ben Ali’s overthrow of Bourguiba’s ‘reign’… It even became a public holiday. The number 7 and the colour purple were symbols of his dictatorship, which after the revolution became taboo.
Fastforward to 2011, the year of the Revolution. I was in 6th grade, only a few weeks into the school year. I was 12 and only aware that something was happening because of the amount of cops and tanks in the city. The revolution started when Mohamed Bouazizi set fire to himself in the streets. At first, people were angry. Ben Ali even went to visit Bouazizi at the hospital thinking that would calm things down. Far from that, people got even more infuriated.
Riots, protests and demonstrations occurred all over the country. These were becoming serious as many people were injured and lost their lives. My mother nearly lost her life in a demonstration because of police macing everybody. I remember being in French class one day when a man suddenly burst into our class and told us to call our parents and to go back home as soon as possible. I found the situation thrilling, as horrible as it might sound. Nothing ever happened in my city, I didn’t think of what was happening as a serious matter. I thought we were in an action movie and that everything would be back to normal the day after. I understood how serious the situation was when I got home and a day off turned into two weeks. Our school was being threatened. In those two weeks I realised what was happening as my father and mother told me everything they had been holding in. It took some years for me to fully understand what happened in 2011. During that time, I forgot what sound birds usually made as gunshots were the only sound that woke me up in the morning.
My idea of the ‘perfect Tunisia’ tumbled down, and I opened my eyes to everything that has ever happened. I suddenly was aware of everything the government hid from us: people were dying of hunger, families being split because of so many people getting jailed, corruption… it goes on. Since then, I never saw my country the same way as when I was 7 years old. From time to time, I hear people bemoaning Ben Ali’s regim saying it was safer when he was there and the economic situation wasn’t as catastrophic as it is now.
Overall, the Tunisian Revolution targeted a lot of social issues. One of them being freedom, and more specifically freedom of speech. That has been established. During Ben Ali’s regim, websites like Youtube, Facebook and Twitter weren’t available. Now every Tunisian uses their right to freely express themselves and that is already a big win.
