Night in Tunisia

Freedom of Speech

Yesterday I participated in a round table brainstorming session at the
Cooperacion Espanol (pardon the lack of accents), a major donor
operating in Tunisia. It is about the Spanish equivalent of CIDA, the
Canadian International Development Agency. NGO's from all over
Tunisia were asked to participate in this session to help the CE
decide on future spending priorities within the country.

We were divided into four groups - and I was placed in the group
called "vulnerable populations" while my two enda colleagues were in
"rural development" and "gender issues". I spent the better part of a
day with seven people I had never met before hammering out what we
thought a "vulnerable population" was and what the CE should do about
it.

Our group was a bit slanted in views. There were six people who
worked with the handicapped, including adults and children with mental
and physical disabilities. I work with the poor and economic
development, and the last person, a heavy-set young woman with
beautiful dark skin and eyes, worked in democracy and women's rights.

At one point, we were listing weaknesses in the development sector for
assisting vulnerable populations. All ideas were being collected and
listed on a large sheet of paper. The woman from the Women for
Democracy NGO stated that a lack of freedom of speech was a weakness
of the environment which effectively prevented her organization from
being able to achieve its goals (mainly communicating the injustice of
structural and physical violence committed against women and the
cover-ups that go with it). The group paused for a moment, and then
two of the members began to argue against it vehemently.

I didn't understand. This was a brainstorming session, and all ideas
were supposed to be included. Furthermore I agreed with her. If her
organization was being forced to publish their finding in Morocco
because the Tunisian government didn't want their population to know,
then freedom of speech is an issue. So I, very gently, said that if
she felt it was a barrier then it should probably be included. The
one other woman in my group agreed. That put the women against the
men, with one abstainer, Father Marcel, who seemed slightly amused by
the whole debate.

I caught on after a while, that the men's arguments were all logical,
but impotent, and the driver behind all the myriad excuses they could
find, was fear. The women, arguing heatedly with the men may have
seen it or not, but they argued to take apart their logic, not their
fear. I asked if anyone was uncomfortable with it, to which they
uncomfortably responded, not at all!

Finally the woman who had suggested it marked it anyway. And the men
became sulky, but settled on adjusting it to read: freedom of
speech??? (question marks included).

I hadn't realized how far this population had been pushed into fear;
fearing that even being part of a group that made this complaint,
would find them under surveillance. As one man later said - even
leaving that on the sheet implicates us.

Now imagine what the women from this democratic group are doing. They
illegally shelter women who have been beaten and abused or divorced
and left destitute. They publish their findings of sexual harassment
and abuse in all spheres of society. They call the government on any
activity that is discriminatory towards women regardless of their
level of poverty or influence. They are constantly under surveilance,
followed by "les flic" (police), have their letters opened, and a
number of them have probably been arrested. Other members of the
social sector get nervous when these women walk into the room, are
afraid to be seen with them. They are afraid of the calling down upon
their own heads a fraction of the persecution these women willingly
take on in the name of democracy and justice.

I was proud to sit next to her, and deeply sorry to regret that I
could not join her group. An act such as that would have me evicted
from this place in no time.

I hope that if ever my own country were to become like Tunisia, I
would have the outright guts to take in women who were abused and
neglected. I hope that I would have the strength.

posted by tiaraletourneau @ 9:07 a.m.