Tunis, Tunisia – On Monday afternoon, a suicide bomb blast struck Habib Bourguiba Avenue, one of the most iconic and heavily protected places in the heart of the Tunisian capital, Tunis. A female attacker reportedly used a hand-made explosive device to target a police van, wounding at least nine people. This was the first such …
Nidaa Tounes and Ennahdha are facing shifting political alliances and balances of power ahead of next year’s elections. One month after the end of the national consensus was announced, Tunisia’s two largest parties are reckoning with a weakened four-year government alliance and power realignments in a political scene which is shifting rapidly …
BEN GUERDANE, Tunisia — The main street on Ben Guerdane, a frontier town in southeast Tunisia that is about 30 kilometres from the Libyan border, is lined with goods stockpiled outside shops as trucks, vans and cars transport everyday products from Libya. On July 10, Tripoli closed the border with Tunisia, but …
Women are watching closely to make sure the transitional justice process will give dignity to those who suffered violence and abuse. As Tunisia’s Truth Commission nears the end of its mandate, women are stepping up to make sure their calls for justice are addressed. Established in 2013 and formally launched in 2014 …
SBEITLA, Tunisia — In the countryside outside Sbeitla, in the Kasserine governorate of western central Tunisia, lies a small hill at the foot of Mount Semmama framed by a sunset sky. Vehicles of the National Guard lined up and a smattering of soldiers could be seen on Darwish hill. The hill, named after …
Post-revolutionary Tunisia continues to push the debate about gay rights into the public sphere, braving a repressive law, gender-based discrimination and homophobic violence. Tunisian activists have taken increasingly bold steps in the last three years to open up real, public debate on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI) issues. Recent …
TUNIS, Tunisia– Tunisian activists are stepping up their campaign in support of new laws that grant men and women equal inheritance rights. More than 1,000 people, mostly women, took to the streets of Tunis on Saturday in a national demonstration organized by the Tunisian Coalition for Equality in Inheritance. The women, and …
Southern Libya, a human trafficking hotspot, has long been overlooked. Italy is now trying to tackle the problem, but faces the region’s political vacuum and its booming black market. Typically sidelined in most Libya-related discussions that revolve around the east and the west, for the first time the south has been brought …
Egypt has long thrown its weight behind Khalifa Haftar in Libya, but there are signs that it is opening the door to dialogue with his rivals. Will they listen? In December 2016, Cairo hosted a summit gathering 120 representatives of Libyan tribes and sects that resulted in the Cairo Declaration. It was one …
BEIRUT, Lebanon -Since the outbreak of Syria’s war in 2011, professor Nasser Yassin has been working to understand the ensuing refugee crisis. As Lebanon’s refugee influx intensified, Yassin began exploring how civil society and informal networks could influence government policy and humanitarian programmes. With more than one million officially registered Syrian refugees, Lebanon hosts the largest refugee population per …