Demonstration in front of the seat of the court truth and dignity by the victims of the regime of Ben Ali. 5 January 2017. Chokri Mahjoub Zuma Press/PA Images. All rights reserved. While listening to the victims of tyranny in the relay sessions organized by the “Truth and Dignity Commission” in Tunis 17-18 November 2016, one can clearly see that repression during the era of the police state was shared by the vast majority of the people of Tunisia.
The repressive machine did not distinguish between women and men, or differentiate between the young and the elderly, leftists and liberals, nationalists and Islamists, or between trade unionists and human rights activists. They all shared suffering, torture, and marginalization and endured the systemic injustice that befell them from the agents of a totalitarian regime.
For decades after independence and before the revolution, one only needed to criticize the regime’s policies or think outside the prevailing pattern to become a suspect. When one joined a human rights association or belonged to an opposing political party, they would immediately be cursed by the regime.
