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Rachida el-Charni Letter from Tunis As expected, the Islamist Ennahda party won the elections and other wellknown political parties, awakening to news of their bloody defeat, began the scramble to create alliances both inside and outside the Constituent Assembly. In the aftermath of the elections, countless issues have been raised, some of which have nothing whatsoever to do with the real problems that sparked the revolution. A vast section of the population has been steered towards debates of ideological or faith-based issues, such as religion, identity, the full veil (niqab), and single mothers. Meanwhile, the downtrodden classes have continued to demand economic security – some mothers erected a tent on the railroad tracks, forcing a cargo train carrying phosphate to turn back. In another incident, a father of three set himself on fire, to protest his inability to find work that would allow his family to live in dignity. The situation has been even more complicated by the number of random strikes in various sectors, which have brought the country’s economic activity to a grinding halt, and seem to be deliberately aimed at preventing the new government from doing its job. When Salafists occupied the Faculty of Arts in Manouba for a month, with the help of other Salafists who had no relation with the university, and held the Dean hostage in order to protest against the Scientific Council’s decision to forbid fully veiled women from enrolling, a state of chaos and tension was created that brought a stop to studies. Resentment quickly poured onto the Tunisian street, provoked by the increasingly common sight of women in the niqab and bearded men, a worrying phenomenon in a society known for its openness and its championing of women’s rights and independence. The electoral victors are currently weighed down by the issues of unemployment, poverty, the martyrs, the wounded and the dead, as well as by the problems of development, corruption, bribery, restitution of the country’s plundered wealth and pillaged archaeology. They are working in an atmosphere charged with exaggerated emotions, struggles and provocation. Dozens of forces on the inside and the outside are working to sabotage the country’s democratic experiment. Some parties seem unable to comprehend the country’s precarious economic situation. Most of the Tunisian people want to overcome this critical period; they realize that the left would be no better than Ennahda, since it has been torn apart and split up. It has formed some suspicious alliances and adopted some ideological positions that seem to run counter to its nature. For this reason, the people will allow Ennahda the ceasefire called for by Dr Mouncef al-Marzouki, the interim president, hoping that in the meantime the aims of the revolution will be met, the wheels of the economy will begin turning and the true face of the country will emerge in this nation built on openness, tolerance and forgiveness. The situation could lead the educated elite to incite a new revolution in order to sweep away the forces of backwardness if the latter continue to besmirch Tunisia’s beautiful image . . .

Rachida el-Charni is an award-winning short story writer living in Tunis where she works as an inspector of primary schools

224 BANIPAL 43 – CELEBRATING DENYS JOHNSON-DAVIES