Archive for the ‘North Africa’ Category
Feminist Amina, Arrested in Tunisia for ‘Offending Morals’.
Tunisian Feminists Show Great Courage.
The FEMEN movement activist in Tunisia, Amina, was arrested on May 19 in Kairouan. Amina tagged the name of the “FEMEN” group on the wall of Uqba Ibn Nafaâ mosque.
This act earned him the resentment and anger of the inhabitants of the places which forced the police to make arrest.
According to a statement published on the FB page of the Ministry of the Interior, it announces the arrest of a woman who “would run contrary gesture of modesty” and that after consultation with the prosecutor.
This arrest is therefore due not an offence, but the intent to commit one, according to own statements of the Ministry of Interior.
From here.
En Tunisie, même pas besoin de soulever son T-Shirt. Taguer “FEMEN” sur un mur semble déjà considéré comme un attentat à la pudeur ! … http://fb.me/uv01oCds
In Tunisia you don;t even need to lift up your T-shirt: Tagging FEMEN on a wall seems already considered as an indecent assault.
The Minister of the Interior claims that Amina was about the carry out a “geste contraire à la pudeur” a gesture contrary to morals, the group Femen being known for their “topless” actions.
It is also claimed that this arrest was for her own protection. She was caught in Kairouan, where the Salafists intended to carry out their own actions (from Elle and see previous post here).
More from the French version of the Huffington Post.
The English version says this,
There are reports activist Amina Tyler has been arrested after daubing the word ‘Femen’ on a cemetery wall in Tunisia.
Tyler, who was threatened with death by stoning for baring her breasts online, was pictured being led away after police and Salafists clashed in Kairouan this weekend.
One protester was killed and 15 policemen were wounded after fighting erupted between hardline Islamists and security forces in response to the ban on Salafists from staging their annual congress.
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Tunisia: Fights Between Salafists and Police, One Dead.
Agence France Presse reports (an hour ago),
One dead in Tunisia showdown with IslamistsTUNIS — Security forces and hardline Islamists fought street battles in Tunis on Sunday, with one protester killed and 15 policemen wounded, after the authorities banned the Salafists from staging their annual congress.
The confrontations infuriated moderate Islamist Prime Minister Ali Larayedh, who for the first time linked the Salafist Ansar al-Sharia group which is considered close to Al-Qaeda to “terrorism”.
“Ansar al-Sharia is an illegal organisation which defies and provokes state authority,” Larayedh told Tunisian state television during a visit to Qatar.
“It has ties to and is involved in terrorism,” he said.
Sunday’s fighting erupted when Ansar al-Sharia (Partisans of Islamic Law) urged its followers to mass in the capital’s suburb of Ettadhamen in defiance of a ban on their gathering in the central city of Kairouan.
Salafists advocate an ultra-conservative brand of Sunni Islam, and Ansar al-Sharia, whose fugitive leader fought with Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, does not recognise the authority of the Tunisian state.
Background on Ansar al-Sharia’a recent actions,
They have been involved in “attacks on a television station that showed the movie Persepolis in October 2011, attacks on a controversial art exhibit in June 2012[5] and an attack on the US embassy in September 2012.[6]
Libération reports on the Tunisian government’s new harder line,
Ennahda a longtemps été accusé de laxisme pour avoir toléré les groupuscules jihadistes. Il a cependant considérablement durci sa position depuis que 16 militaires et gendarmes ont été blessés entre fin avril et début mai par des mines posées par des groupes armés traqués à la frontière avec l’Algérie. Ansar Ashariaa accuse de son côté Ennahda de mener une politique anti-islamique et a menacé le gouvernement d’une «guerre».
For a long time Ennahda has been accused of being soft towards jihadist groupuscules. They have howver cosndierbaly hardened their position after 16 soldiers and gendarmes were injured – between the end of April and beginning May - by mines left by armed groups they were tracking on the Algerian frontier. Ansar Ashariaa (the Salafists’ leader) has for his part accused Ennahda of anti-Islamic policies and has threatened the government with “war”.
I suppose I should have asked the Suffolk police in case I have offended Tunisian Salafists but here it is anyway.
Parti de Gauche Builds Links with Arab Left.
A Tunis, le Parti de Gauche jette les bases de l’Euro-Méditerranée
At Tunis the Parti de Gauche forges Euro-Mediterranean bonds.
La délégation du Parti de Gauche présente au Forum Social Mondial (FSM) à Tunis a rencontré le 28 mars une délégation représentant une dizaine de partis et d’organisations progressistes du Maghreb, prolongeant ainsi la récente tournée de Jean-Luc Mélenchon dans la région.
The delegation of the Parti de Gauche was present at the World Social Forum meeting at Tunisia. It met up with a dozen representatives of progressive organisations from the Maghreb, extending the recent tour of the region by Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
They discussed the construction of broad unity against the financial oligarchy and the diktats of the European Union.
The PdG presented its 18 theses for Ecosocialism and an alternative for the ‘Euro-Mediterrean’. (full report on site link above).
It is encouraging to see this kind of initiative take place.
Tunisian State Detains Rappers for Being Rude about the Police.
Not to Islamists’ Taste.
More repression by Tunisian Islamist Government.
Alakhabar reports.
Tunisian authorities have detained two people and charged them with insulting security forces in a rap video uploaded to the Internet, the interior ministry said on Tuesday.
“The rap video posted on YouTube called ‘Boulicia Kleb’ (The Police are Dogs) has words and gestures that are unethical, abusive and threatening towards security forces and magistrates,” the ministry said.
“A police investigation identified those who made and released the video… there are eight of them. On Sunday, March 10, two of them, a young man and a girl, were arrested,” the ministry added.
The Ben Arous court in Tunis authorized their detention, the ministry said.
Media outlets reported that the two were a cameraman and an actress seen in the clip, adding that the rapper, Weld El 15, was being sought.
Interior ministry spokesman Riahi Adel said the two were arrested for slander and rebelling against officials, and that they could face up to five years in prison.
In the video Weld El 15 is heard saying “I will slit the throat of policemen like sheep,” and “give me a gun, I’ll shoot them.”
According to this report the law under which they are being prosecuted is for ” la calomnie et la rébellion contre les fonctionnaires”, slander and revolt against state employees”.
The Interior Ministry has justified its action by saying that the words of the songs, « contient des expressions et des gestes contraires à la morale, injurieux et menaçants envers les agents de la sécurité et les magistrats ». They contain expressions and gestures contrary to morality, that are insulting and threatening towards the Police and Magistrates.” (Jeune Afrique).
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Harlem Shake from Tunisia to Egypt.
There have been quick condemnations by the Islamist Ennahda-led government and other religious figures. The Minister of Education, Abdellatif Abid, a member of the once ‘socialist‘ party, Ettakatol, who has called the dancing ‘indecent‘.
From Tunis to Beirut or Cairo, Arab youths have posted YouTube videos where one person starts dancing before the video cuts to a large group of people, in costume or in their underwear, moving frenetically to electronic music.
While in the West the “Harlem Shake” is the latest bizarre — and hilarious — internet trend, the break-dancing performances have turned into a light-hearted way to protest against Islamists in several Arab countries.
Dozens of Tunisian university students scuffled this week against Salafi extremists, who were trying to prevent them from filming what they regard as “indecent” dancing.
There doesn’t appear to be much the Islamists can do to stop young people enjoying themselves and demanding freedom.
