{"id":28962,"date":"2019-01-13T14:23:23","date_gmt":"2019-01-13T14:23:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=28962"},"modified":"2019-01-13T14:23:23","modified_gmt":"2019-01-13T14:23:23","slug":"8-years-on-tunisians-say-revolt-gave-them-freedom-but-not-dignity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=28962","title":{"rendered":"8 years on, Tunisians say revolt gave them \u2018freedom\u2019 but not \u2018dignity\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nDOUAR HICHER, TUNISIA: Young Tunisians say the revolution they staged eight years ago to oust their longtime dictator has failed to restore their \u201cdignity\u201d and ease the North African country\u2019s economic woes.
\u201cSince the revolution we have freedom but still no dignity,\u201d says Sofiene Jbeli, an unemployed computer technician who lives in the working class satellite town of Douar Hicher west of Tunis.
Like many of his compatriots Jbeli says he does not regret taking part in the first of the Arab Spring uprisings that shook the region and forced out veteran strongmen like Tunisia\u2019s president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
But he feels bitter.
\u201cIf the system does not change in 2019 (when presidential and legislative elections are due to take place) the revolution would have been for nothing,\u201d says the 35-year-old.
Sociologist Olfa Lamloum of the NGO International Alert shares some of Jbeli\u2019s assessment but disagrees that the revolution failed completely.
\u201cThe revolution\u2019s slogan was \u2018work, dignity and freedom\u2019 but the first two were not achieved,\u201d says Lamloum.
While Tunisia has been praised as a model of democratic transition, wealth and control of the economy remain concentrated in the hands of a small elite despite economic growth.
The country is grappling with an inflation rate of 7.5 percent and unemployment stands at more than 15 percent, with those worst hit being young university graduates.
In May, Tunisia held its first free municipal elections with more than 57,000 candidates \u2014 half of them women and young people \u2014 running for office.
The quotas for women and youth candidates in the polls \u2014 touted as another milestone on the road to democracy \u2014 \u201callowed a large number of young people to be elected to municipal councils,\u201d says Lamloum.
And yet, she says, \u201cnothing has been done to improve the lives of young people… Socially, their situation has really deteriorated.\u201d<\/p>\n

One thing the revolution did achieve, according to Lamloum, is to allow politicians, researchers and non-governmental organizations access to impoverished areas like Douar Hicher.
This, she says, has created space for debate, although politicians did not clearly use the opportunity to look into the problems facing the population to try and find solutions.
For Jbeli and other young Tunisians this has not been enough. They point to numerous hurdles, beyond their economic hardships, that are stifling their daily life.
Following a series of deadly jihadists attacks in 2015, authorities have prevented some citizens, mainly men and women under 35, from traveling to certain countries without parental permission.
\u201cBased on official statements, the measure is part of efforts to prevent people from joining extremist armed groups abroad,\u201d according to Human Rights Watch, calling it \u201carbitrary.\u201d
Sofiene said the measure was one of several \u201chumiliations.\u201d
\u201cWe launched a revolution in order to become full-fledged citizens but for me the only thing I got out of it was freedom of expression,\u201d says high school student Hamza Dhifali.
\u201cBefore (the uprising) I could not express myself freely, now I can. It\u2019s great, but no one listens,\u201d he adds.
Issam Elhali, a 31-year-old father of two, says the promises made by the revolution that toppled strongman Ben Ali and forced him to flee on January 14, 2011 were \u201conly on paper.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elhali says authorities have proposed loan programs to help young people set up projects.
\u201cI borrowed 7,000 dinars ($2,400) to set up a small hardware store but the interest rate is fixed at 21 percent and I simply cannot manage that,\u201d he says.
\u201cThe authorities say they are backing the young people but in truth they are ripping us off,\u201d he adds.
\u201cThere is no future for us.\u201d
Nevertheless, in Douar Hicher young people \u2014 scouts, dancers and would-be stand-up comedians \u2014 are keeping busy preparing a show to mark the eighth anniversary of Tunisia\u2019s uprising.
Others like Elhali work in community groups tasked with keeping their town clean.
\u201cWe are the rare few to still have some hope. Others feel let down and while the time away by just sitting in cafes,\u201d says Elhali.
He also took to task the country\u2019s politicians and the political struggles that have recently emerged between the prime minister and the president.
\u201cWe are in a boat whose captains are having a dispute while watching the boat sink,\u201d says Elhali.
\u201cI want to save myself and leave the boat\u201d and build a new life abroad.
Seventeen-year-old Zeinab Rannen agrees and hopes that by successfully passing her high school exams she will be able to rescue her \u201cdignity.\u201d
\u201cI believe the way out, here or elsewhere, is through education,\u201d she says.
\u201cBut most of all I would like to go abroad in order to win the respect and dignity I will never have here.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DOUAR HICHER, TUNISIA: Young Tunisians say the revolution they staged eight years ago to oust their longtime dictator has failed to restore their \u201cdignity\u201d and ease the North African country\u2019s economic woes.\u201cSince the revolution we have freedom but still no dignity,\u201d says Sofiene Jbeli, an unemployed computer technician who lives in the working class satellite…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":28963,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}