Ettadhamen, Tunisia – Ten years after Tunisians rose up against poverty and autocracy and removed a dictator, demonstrators are again demanding the social and economic reforms they were promised.
“We are out on the streets because we want social justice and work,” explained Chabib from Ettadhamen, a densely populated working-class district on the outskirts of the capital Tunis and one of the epicentres of the recent unrest in Tunisia.
Chabib, 34, is one of many who have taken part in night-time clashes with security forces in disadvantaged areas of Tunis and 15 other cities across the country since last Saturday. His name has been changed to protect from reprisals by police.
Poverty and hopelessness beget violence in Tunisia s suburbs
sfgate.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from sfgate.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Tunisia mothers decry wave of arbitrary arrests after unrest AFP 1/22/2021 AFP © FETHI BELAID Tunisian protesters block a street during clashes with security forces in the Ettadhamen city suburb on the outskirts of Tunis
Mothers in the Tunisian capital are accusing authorities of arbitrarily arresting their children in response to several nights of unrest, with rights groups saying at least 1,000 people have been detained. The policeman shoved the door of my building and arrested my son. My neighbours witnessed it, Meriem Ben Salem said after six nights of trouble on the streets between riot police and disaffected youths.
The 39-year-old mother said her son did not take part in the violence that gripped regions across Tunisia, including her working-class district of Kram-Ouest in Tunis.
Mothers in the Tunisian capital are accusing authorities of arbitrarily arresting their children in response to nearly a week of unrest, with rights groups saying at least 1,000 people have been arrested.
“The policeman shoved the door of my building and arrested my son. My neighbours witnessed it,” Meriem Ben Salem said after six nights of trouble on the streets between riot police and disaffected youths.
The 39-year-old mother said her son did not take part in the violence that gripped regions across Tunisia, including her working-class district of Kram-Ouest in Tunis.
“I work hard to earn money to enrol my children in extracurricular activities to make sure they keep busy and not loiter in the neighbourhood because it’s rife with drugs and alcohol,” she said.
Mothers in Tunisia are Standing Up and Strong
On Wednesday, mothers in the Tunisian capital rallied outside a courthouse to denounce the perceived arbitrary arrests by authorities of their children including many minors, for group anti-government protests that saw several nights of unrest in the country.
Meriem Ben Salem, the mother of an 18-year-old arrested in connection with urban unrest, is not standing for the situation at all. Why did they (the law enforcement) push open the door and take my boy like that, from inside? If they had found him outside, they would have had the right to take him, they would have had the right to take him if he had been outside. But from inside? Is this a land of justice? Sorry, but it is a country of injustice. An injustice that I saw with my own eyes.
vimarsana © 2020. All Rights Reserved.