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Ed Webb

Tunisia's first LGBTQ play lifts curtain on hidden violence - 0 views

www.france24.com/...fts-curtain-on-hidden-violence

Tunisia media theatre politics rights LGBT LGBTQ

shared by Ed Webb on 26 May 22 - No Cached
  • It's the first queer play to be staged in Tunisia -- director Essia Jaibi's latest work aims to challenge conservative attitudes in a country where same-sex acts are punishable by prison terms.
  • The work, co-produced by LGBTQ rights group Mawjoudin (translating to "we exist"), is played by six mostly amateur actors aged between 23 and 71, reflecting a decades-long struggle for gay rights in the North African country
  • Tunisia is seen as relatively liberal on social issues compared with other Arab countries, but nevertheless imposes sentences of up to three years in prison for "sodomy" for both men and women
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  • rights groups say the community is still vulnerable, with as little as a photo on a telephone potentially leading to arrest, physical violence and anal examinations.
  • The NGO also organised Tunisia's first queer cinema festival in 2018.
  • other problems facing all Tunisians: police and judicial corruption, impunity and the brain drain as people leave to seek better economic prospects in Europe and elsewhere.
  • Rights groups are continuing to campaign for an end to Article 230, first introduced by French colonial administrators in 1913.
  • United Nations Committee Against Torture has condemned Tunisia's use of anal tests
  • The country in 2017 committed to ending the practice, but it has continued nonetheless.In December, two men were found guilty of same-sex acts after they refused to undergo such examinations -- seen by judges as proof of their guilt.
  • The Tunisian president, whose July power grab allowed him to issue laws and seize control of the judiciary, has said he is opposed to jail terms based on sexual orientation -- but also to the full decriminalisation of homosexuality.
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