Tunisia

Tunisian Islamists attack artists

In June Salafists — hard-line Islamists — attacked a Tunis art gallery, sparking riots that left one person dead and more than 100 injured. During the riots trade union buildings, courts and police stations were also attacked. The government then banned Islamist marches apparently organised by the groups Hizb ut-Tahrir and Ansar al-Shariah. Salafists are now systematically attacking cultural events they regard as “un-Islamic”. Five people were injured on Thursday 16 August when Islamists armed with swords and clubs disrupted the Bizerte music and theatre festival. Eventually the thugs were...

Islamists versus workers, art and freedom in Tunisia

Tunisia has seen a series of Islamist outrages against the labour movement and freedom of speech in recent weeks, while workers’ struggles for jobs and public services heat up. On 26 May, Salafists started riots and fights in Jendouba — a provocation which began with attacks against alcohol vendors but quickly became a confrontation with the police. On the following day at dawn, Salafists raided the premises of the al Hilwar television station – other attacks also took place against Sfax regional radio and there was a sit-in protest in front of the national radio station in Tunis. The Union...

International news in brief

Islamist parties have taken to the streets to oppose the ratification of a law which would penalise domestic violence in Pakistan. Women’s rights campaigners confronted the bigots outside parliament last week. The Islamists’ arguments against the legislation include: preventing domestic violence is “Western”; and that the Bill is a copy of Indian legislation. A spokesperson for Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl said, “We will not let these senseless women, who depend on American dollars, to work against the Constitution and Islamic Shariah,” The anti-violence Bill, first introduced in 2009, advocates...

Fight for women's rights in North Africa

On 10 March 16-year-old Amina Filali killed herself by swallowing rat poison. Amina had been badly beaten during a forced marriage to Mustapha Kellak, a man who had raped her. Although there have been some limited legal improvement in the position of women in Morocco, the state still allows a rapist to marry an underage victim as a way of avoiding prosecution. The law — known as Article 475 — says a “kidnapper” of a minor can marry his victim so that dishonour is not brought on her family. Legislation designed to outlaw all forms of violence against women, planned since 2006, has yet to appear...

Loumamba Mohsni, 1963-2011

At 1am on 24 November, Loumamba Mohsni — a long-time Tunisian Trotskyist activist — died of a heart attack following a long illness. Loumamba spent years in exile, and suffered spells in jail, where he was tortured. Acting in secrecy, living the nocturnal life of an underground agitator, Loumamba made a great contribution to keeping Trotskyism alive in a country where the Marxist left was dominated by Stalinist and nationalist ideas. After the long years of darkness, that organisation has burst out into the light as the Left Workers’ League (LGO). The emergence of a visible Trotskyist current...

An Iranian road?

Mustafa Abdel Jalil, chair of the National Transitional Council in Libya, has declared that post-Qaddafi Libya will be governed by Islamic sharia law, and so polygamy will be legalised and usury banned. In Tunisia’s Constituent Assembly elections at the end of October, the Islamist party Nahda won over 41% both of the votes and of the seats, a better result than had been predicted. An October opinion poll in Egypt (Al Masry Al Youm, 11 October) found fully 67% undecided, 10% refusing to answer, 13% opting for liberal or secular parties, and 9% for Islamist parties. (Though on Egypt’s peace...

Islamists gain in Tunisian elections

After elections in Tunisia the neo-liberal, Islamist party Nahda will probably be the biggest party in the new Constituent Assembly. As of 25 October the votes are still being counted, but Nahda is estimated to have won around a third of the vote. The following article was written by Wafa Guiga, a Tunisian activist and member of the Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste (NPA) living in France. Some days away from the election of the Constituent Assembly, the political debate is focused on the question of religious identity, in order to hide the social and democratic problems which persist despite the...

Tunisia's left seeks independent profile in election

Oussama, an activist of the LGO (Workers’ Left League) in Tunisia, spoke to Solidarity in September about the 23 October election for a Constituent Assembly in Tunisia. It follows the fall on 14 January this year of the old dictatorship of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. The “High Instance” [a sort of government advisory council] has declared that political publicity is forbidden — posters, TV, etc. The law has created some ridiculous situations. The other day two activists of the PCOT [Worker-Communist Party, a group looking to the late Albanian leader Enver Hoxha] were painting “PCOT” on a wall...

New Islamist violence in Tunisia: support the left!

Oussama, a militant from the Ligue Gauche des Ouvriers, a Trotskyist organisation in Tunisia, spoke to Workers' Liberty about the recent spate of Islamist violence in Tunisia. Tell us about the recent Islamist violence in Tunisia. Oussama: “It started last Sunday 26 June. There was a film showing, “No God No Master”, a documentary, at a cinema in central Tunis. Before it was shown at the Afric'Art cinema, there was a big demonstration of Salafists and Islamists with placards and slogans proclaiming God is Great and Salafist slogans, calling the director an enemy of God and so on. The Afric'Art...

Tunisian film-maker attacked by Islamist thugs

Nadia El Fani, a Tunisian film-maker, has been targeted by violent religious extremists. In the context of the resurgence of political Islam in Tunisia following the revolution, the Left internationally should take the defence of freedom of speech and secularism, and the defence of leftwing forces against religious reaction, very seriously. The following report is from UK socialist Andrew Coates. French news magazine Marianne writes: “Nadia El Fani has already been the target of threats... On Sunday the 26th of June a commando attacked the projection of her film, “Ni Allah Ni Maitre’, at the...

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