I’m also being considered to be a human rights activist in Tunisia, and I am married to a political opponent of the government. Thus, I have always encountered problems, either because I defend political opponents, or because I’m the wife of an political opponent. My husband has always been tried, sentenced and jailed for his political opinions, and because of this I too have always been harassed by the Tunisian police.

Then I’ve had several problems, especially during the last few years, because I’ve worked on very sensitive cases. I have had to defend activists who had been tortured, I have been compelled to denounce torture, because I believe this is a practise that must be banned by the end of this century. I believe it is totally unacceptable to torture people, and to torture them because they have different opinions. As a consequence of this I’ve had a series of problems. For example, my car, which for me is a essential for my work, was stolen. This happened to prevent me from doing my work. And then there’s my office, which has been vandalised twice. The last time this happened was on the 30th April 1997 (note from the International Secretariat: Radhia Nasraoui’s office was once again burgled in February 1998). The front door of my apartment was set alight, and a disaster was only avoided by chance. A child who was passing noticed that the door was ablaze and started shouting, so the neighbours tried to extinguish the fire. I’ve also been followed by the police. There are always police officers in front of the building [where my office is], to check up on who comes to visit me. The same thing happens in front of my house. At times I am followed by four policemen in a car. I’ve been the victim of practises of this kind, and what is really incredible is that every time I make a complaint against “X”, because I don’t know the name of the person, there is never an enquiry. It’s really remarkable. The guilty person is never found, as if by coincidence.

I’ve been making complaints for years. For example, I complain about the policemen who arrive at my home after midnight, who force the door open in order to terrorise me in the wake of a political trial. I make a complaint, but an enquiry is never held. These practises are forbidden by law, but I have never felt protected by the law in the way I should have been. Therefore I have been lead to think that these people could only have been police officers.

The father is always the legal guardian; the woman can only take this role in his absence, that is if he has died or she can prove that he has disappeared for some reason or other. In the work place, I would say that the work of a woman is considered as additional; it’s the man who has to work first of all. Women are seen as superfluous.

In education, it’s the same thing. The thinking in certain regions is such that girls should go to school, but if necessary, should stay at home. It’s the boys who should go to school first of all. You only need to look at the rate of unemployment and illiteracy amongst women, which is always much higher than that of men.

The magistrates in our country should demand that this council is elected. We should elect the people onto this council, because it examines the documents for the disciplinary committee and decides on issues of promotion.

The principle of irremovable magistrates is not being respected in our country. A magistrate who dares to make a decision according to his conscience, can find himself sent to a court in the south of the country if his decision doesn’t please the authorities. This causes enormous problems for the magistrates. They are afraid of this situation as they have families and children at school or university. They certainly don’t want to be forced all of a sudden to leave their families and move to a remote area as punishment. This is very disturbing and it makes magistrates feel the weight of any conscientious decision. The problem of the independence of justice is very serious. We demand that magistrates should be completely independent. That is very important for Tunisians, and it is a demand which has been voiced over and over again. Lately, a paper on this matter was signed by 202 public figures in Tunisia and there has been a lot of publicity on the independence of magistrates.

You can always ask yourself the question: why is what is happening in Tunisia not being denounced by people who are concerned about human rights?

I believe that if humanitarian organisations and international organisations maintained their level of pressure and if people redoubled their efforts to denounce even more strongly the inhumane practises and all the anti-democratic measures which exist in our country, it would give results. It would certainly support the democratic movement in Tunisia which would be a good thing for us.

I’ve also had cases where the situations have been really serious. I’ve had two pregnant women who had been arrested in connection with a trial against activists of the Tunisian Workers Communist Party (PCOT). I remember that they were obliged to release on of them, because they had beaten her so severely on her abdomen that she almost aborted the child. When they realised the danger, they let her out, and left her outside the police station, so that she would have to manage all alone. She succeeded in getting home, and her parents took her to hospital, where she received treatment. Medical experts who were at the court said that there was a great risk of aborting the child. Even pregnant women are not treated with respect. Here, they are usually treated more gently and more humanely. People find it unacceptable that a pregnant woman is beaten on her stomach, with such terrible results.

This woman was only free for two days, long enough for her to receive basic medical care, after which she was rearrested! Amnesty did a lot of work on behalf of these two women and many people have protested against their treatment. These two women, who had been sentenced to several months in prison, were released after two months. They were pardoned, mainly thanks to Amnesty’s work.

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