“I feel like I’m walking to my own grave. » Nahla, 40, has been living under the beatings of her husband since his wedding night. Hit with bricks on the head in March 2021, she feared for her life and went to the Ben Arous police station, south of Tunis, medical certificate in hand, as well as her cell phone with the death threats received by text message. But the police, after talking with her husband, dissuade her from filing a complaint. A few months later, she will again be snubbed by police and magistrates and the few shelters for women victims of violence will not have room to accommodate her.
Today, Nahla still lives with this violent man. Ahlem too. When this 26-year-old young woman decides to file a complaint, in August 2021, the Sidi Bouzid police officers send her back on the grounds that her four medical certificates from 2020 and 2021 were too old… Ahlem and Nahla are among the hundred people questioned as part of the investigation into violence against women in Tunisia by the NGO Human Rights Watch, made public this Thursday, December 8 under the title “He hit you, so what? ».
187 reception places in the country
In this country reputed to be the most progressive in the Arab world, violence against women remains a scourge. Despite the adoption, in 2017, of the so-called “58” law, obtained after a hard fight, which provides for prevention, protection and prosecution measures with a view to eliminating this violence.
Certainly, since then, the filing of complaints has multiplied – 69,000 registered in 2021. But the lack of resources remains glaring. The ten accommodation centers still only offer a total of 187 places for women and children in only 8 of the country’s 24 governorates. The only public listening center dedicated to the psychological well-being of survivors of violence had to close in 2020 due to lack of funding. In addition, a number of discriminatory texts and laws that remain in force hinder the application of Law 58.
When women “deserve” to be beaten
Not to mention the very problematic behavior of police and magistrates who send the victims back to their homes, and the tenacious patriarchal models. Women don’t “deserve”not to be beaten? This is what 16% of men in Tunisia – but also 8.2% of women – claim, as the survey revealed on November 21 “Images, men and women for gender equality”conducted by UN Women with 2,309 people.
One in six men – and one in 59 women – also believe that a woman must tolerate acts of violence in order to keep her family together. Violence remains rooted from an early age: 78% of men and 61% of women surveyed said they had been beaten by their parents. Almost as many had suffered corporal punishment at school.