14April 2021
The football stadium of Kef – a town in the north-western mountains of Tunisia – has been given more attention in the last few months than at any time in its history. Up until January 29, the public facility had been neglected for years – never repainted, maintained or used for official sports competitions.
Then, a group of guys were caught smoking hash in a small space beneath the commentator stand. It became front-page national news when three of them were given a 30-year prison sentence. 20 of those years were specifically due to where the smoking took place – in this stadium, because it is a “public establishment”. Sami Bargaoui, a lawyer for the youngest of the accused, told Dazed of the case: “Everyone in Kef knows that (the judge) Madame Saida’s sentences are a bit severe.” A Tunisian Twitter user put it less mildly: “We need to ask ourselves if Tunisia hates its youth.”