Seven Years Later Tunisia's Ballooning Civil
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Volume 14 - Number 1 December 2017 – January 2018 £4 TTHISHIS ISSUEISSUE: TTUNISIAUNISIA ● TTunisia:unisia: sseveneven yearsyears laterlater ● TTunisia’sunisia’s ballooningballooning civilcivil ssocietyociety ● LLiteratureiterature unchainedunchained ● TThehe cculturalultural eenvironmentnvironment inin post-2011post-2011 TunisiaTunisia ● AAuthoritarianuthoritarian rrevivalevival andand eliteelite reconfireconfi gurationguration inin TunisiaTunisia ● AAl-Nahdal-Nahda ● WWomen’somen’s rightsrights inin TunisiaTunisia sincesince thethe 22011011 uprisingsuprisings ● RReformingeforming Tunisia’sTunisia’s informalinformal economyeconomy ● PPhotohoto ccompetitionompetition resultsresults ● PPLUSLUS RReviewseviews andand eventsevents inin LondonLondon Volume 14 - Number 1 December 2017 – January 2018 £4 TTHISHIS ISSUEISSUE: TTUNISIAUNISIA ● TTunisia:unisia: sseveneven yyearsears llaterater ● TTunisia’sunisia’s bballooningallooning ccivilivil ssocietyociety ● LLiteratureiterature uunchainednchained ● TThehe cculturalultural eenvironmentnvironment iinn ppost-2011ost-2011 TTunisiaunisia ● AAuthoritarianuthoritarian rrevivalevival aandnd eelitelite reconfireconfi ggurationuration inin TunisiaTunisia ● AAl-Nahdal-Nahda ● WWomen’somen’s rrightsights iinn TTunisiaunisia ssinceince tthehe 22011011 uuprisingsprisings ● RReformingeforming Tunisia’sTunisia’s iinformalnformal eeconomyconomy ● PPhotohoto ccompetitionompetition rresultsesults ● PPLUSLUS RReviewseviews aandnd eeventsvents iinn LLondonondon Nja Mahdaoui, Graphemes on Arches II, 2011. Ink on Arches About the London Middle East Institute (LMEI) vellum paper, 200 x 140 cm. Courtesy of Nja Mahdaoui © Nja Mahdaoui Th e London Middle East Institute (LMEI) draws upon the resources of London and SOAS to provide teaching, training, research, publication, consultancy, outreach and other services related to the Middle East. It serves as a neutral forum for Middle East studies broadly defi ned and helps to create links between Volume 14 – Number 1 individuals and institutions with academic, commercial, diplomatic, media or other specialisations. December 2017– With its own professional staff of Middle East experts, the LMEI is further strengthened by its academic January 2018 membership – the largest concentration of Middle East expertise in any institution in Europe. Th e LMEI also has access to the SOAS Library, which houses over 150,000 volumes dealing with all aspects of the Middle Editorial Board East. LMEI’s Advisory Council is the driving force behind the Institute’s fundraising programme, for which Professor Nadje Al-Ali SOAS it takes primary responsibility. It seeks support for the LMEI generally and for specifi c components of its Dr Orkideh Behrouzan programme of activities. SOAS LMEI is a Registered Charity in the UK wholly owned by SOAS, University of London (Charity Dr Hadi Enayat Registration Number: 1103017). AKU Ms Narguess Farzad SOAS Mrs Nevsal Hughes Mission Statement: Association of European Journalists Professor George Joff é Th e aim of the LMEI, through education and research, is to promote knowledge of all aspects of the Middle Cambridge University East including its complexities, problems, achievements and assets, both among the general public and with Dr Ceyda Karamursel SOAS those who have a special interest in the region. In this task it builds on two essential assets. First, it is based in Ms Janet Rady London, a city which has unrivalled contemporary and historical connections and communications with the Janet Rady Fine Art Middle East including political, social, cultural, commercial and educational aspects. Secondly, the LMEI is Mr Barnaby Rogerson at SOAS, the only tertiary educational institution in the world whose explicit purpose is to provide education Dr Sarah Stewart and scholarship on the whole Middle East from prehistory until today. SOAS Dr Shelagh Weir Independent Researcher Professor Sami Zubaida Birkbeck College LMEI Staff : SSubscriptions:ubscriptions: Coordinating Editor Megan Wang Director Dr Hassan Hakimian To subscribe to Th e Middle East in London, please visit: Listings Executive Offi cer Louise Hosking www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/affi liation/ or contact the Vincenzo Paci Events and Magazine Coordinator Vincenzo Paci LMEI offi ce. Administrative Assistant Aki Elborzi Designer Letters to the Editor: Shahla Geramipour Th e Middle East in London is published fi ve times a year by the London Middle Please send your letters to the editor at East Institute at SOAS Disclaimer: the LMEI address provided (see left panel) or email [email protected] Publisher and Opinions and views expressed in the Middle East Editorial Offi ce in London are, unless otherwise stated, personal Th e London Middle East Institute SOAS views of authors and do not refl ect the views of their University of London organisations nor those of the LMEI and the MEL's MBI Al Jaber Building, 21 Russell Square, London WC1B 5EA Editorial Board. Although all advertising in the United Kingdom magazine is carefully vetted prior to publication, the T: +44 (0)20 7898 4330 LMEI does not accept responsibility for the accuracy E: [email protected] www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/ of claims made by advertisers. ISSN 1743-7598 Contents 4 16 EDITORIAL Womens rights in Tunisia since the 2011 uprisings 5 Zoe Petkanas INSIGHT LMEI Board of Trustees Tunisia: seven years later 18 Baroness Valerie Amos (Chair) George Joff é Legacies of neglect: reforming Director, SOAS Tunisia’s informal economy Professor Stephen Hopgood, SOAS 7 Max Gallien Dr Dina Matar, SOAS Dr Hanan Morsy TUNISIA European Bank for Reconstruction and Development Tunisia’s ballooning civil 20 Professor Scott Redford, SOAS society Photo competition results Dr Barbara Zollner Mohamed-Salah Omri Birkbeck College 22 9 BOOKS IN BRIEF Literature unchained Mohamed-Salah Omri 24 LMEI Advisory Council IN MEMORIAM 10 Javad Golmohammadi Lady Barbara Judge (Chair) Professor Muhammad A. S. Abdel Haleem Th e cultural environment in H E Khalid Al-Duwaisan GVCO post-2011 Tunisia Ambassador, Embassy of the State of Kuwait Nathanael Mannone 25 Mrs Haifa Al Kaylani Arab International Women’s Forum EVENTS IN LONDON Dr Khalid Bin Mohammed Al Khalifa President, University College of Bahrain 12 Professor Tony Allan Beyond the ‘Revolution’: King’s College and SOAS Dr Alanoud Alsharekh authoritarian revival and elite Senior Fellow for Regional Politics, IISS reconfi guration in Tunisia Mr Farad Azima NetScientifi c Plc Anne Wolf Dr Noel Brehony MENAS Associates Ltd. 14 Professor Magdy Ishak Hanna British Egyptian Society Al-Nahda: from preaching Mr Paul Smith Chairman, Eversheds International circles to politics Rory McCarthy December 2017 – January 2018 The Middle East in London 3 EEDITORIALDITORIAL © Khaled Abdelmoumen, Flickr: Tunisian Revolution one year comm Tunisian Abdelmoumen, Flickr: © Khaled emoration, CC BY 2.0 emoration, CC BY DDearear RReadereader Graffi ti seen during the 2011 Revolution in Tunisia. Photograph by Khaled Abdelmoumen George Joff é, MEL Editorial Board n December 17, 2010, Tunisia in his discussion of the role played by the now play a key role despite attempts by the became the forerunner and the Union Générale des Travailleurs Tunisiens. president and Nidaa Tounes to dominate Obeacon of the Arab Awakening He then looks at the rebirth of Tunisia’s the gender agenda. with the self-immolation of Mohamed literary scene and the emergence of the Max Gallien addresses the crucial Bouazizi in Sidi Bouzid and the dethroning novel in dialectical, as opposed to literary, role played by the informal sector of the of the Tunisian president, Zine El-Abidine Arabic. Th is is a theme also addressed by economy which now employs 60 per Ben Ali 28 days later. Today, seven Nathanael Mannone in his discussion of cent of working men and 83 per cent years later, Tunisia is the sole example Tunisia’s post-2011 cultural environment of working women under the age of remaining of the hopes and aspirations where he highlights the tensions that exist forty, particularly in the impoverished engendered by those events. Th is edition between state and author. south of the country, and produces more of Th e Middle East in London on Tunisia Anne Wolf describes the frustrations than one third of the country’s GDP. Its comes, therefore, at a particularly of the secular political scene and the continued dominance within the economy apposite moment in the evolution of the danger that the crisis within Nidaa is a measure of the failure of the formal political and security architecture of the Tounes – the dominant party in the economy to respond to the economic crisis region where early aspirations for radical ruling coalition – and its predilection that followed the events of 2011 and of the liberalisation have been rolled back for politicians and political actors from key role that it will play in the future. It is in Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Syria and Tunisia’s authoritarian past represents for a feature that highlights the combination frustrated in Algeria, Morocco, Jordan and the liberalisation achieved in 2011. Rory of hope and despair that characterises the Gulf. McCarthy identifi es the role and ambitions Tunisia today and tells us much about In Insight, I provide an overview of the of Tunisia’s powerful religious movements, the immense diffi culty of achieving real current political and economic situation in particularly of al-Nahda and chronicles revolutionary change in a hostile world. Tunisia, concluding that Tunisia’s political, its transformation into a national Lastly, in this