Thirteen years on, Tunisians are still waiting for their ‘employment, freedom and dignity’
▶ Since 2011, the country’s governments have failed to help raise living standards for citizens, writes
It has been 13 years since Tunisians took to the streets to call for “employment, freedom and national dignity”, a slogan that echoed throughout the country. On December 17, 2011, a street merchant, Mohamed Bouazizi, set himself on fire after authorities in Sidi Bouzid attempted to confiscate his cart. Few could have imagined that Mr Bouazizi’s act would have had such an effect on Tunisia’s future and North Africa and parts of the Middle East.
After weeks of protests in the country, the uprising eventually reached the capital on January 14, with thousands gathered at Habib Bourguiba Avenue in front of the headquarters of the Ministry of Interior.
People gathered on the streets of Tunis, calling for change and the end of the 23year rule of president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. The moment ushered in another phase in the North African country’s history and led to Mr Ben Ali’s escape.
Television channels broadcast the moment his plane took off from the Tunis-Carthage Airport on a flight bound for Saudi Arabia.
“We rejoiced, we could not believe it. Everyone just went to the street and started screaming and crying,” Alala Mhamdi, 59, told The National.
Today, Mr Mhamdi, who remembers the uprising with great pride and feels thankful for the freedom it gave Tunisians, expressed disappointment in the political class that has since led the country.
“The revolution freed us from the prison that Ben Ali kept us in … It is the fault of those that ran the country afterwards,” Mr Mhamdi said.
“If those who took power kept their word, we would not have reached this point.”
For Mahdi Ben Khalifa, 43, the uprising was not something to celebrate in the first place. His belief has only grown stronger as the years have gone on.
“Before, two dinars could buy you a piece of bread, a tuna can and a Harissa can, which is a good enough meal.
“Today, two dinars would not even buy you a Harissa can,” Mr Ben Khalifa said, as he shopped in Mr Mhamdi’s store.
Having previously considered himself to be middle class, Mr Ben Khalifa said that today, both he and his wife need to make about 4,000 dinars ($1,293) a month to make ends meet, an amount that he says is impossible for them to reach, even if they work day and night.
Their struggles come amid an increase in the cost of living and a stagnating economy, with the minimum wage in Tunisia at about $150.
“There is no middle class any more, we are all barely sitting above the poverty line,” he said.
Mr Ben Khalifa said the governments installed after 2011 are the main reason that the country continues to suffer economic woe.
However, he also believes that fellow Tunisians have contributed to the current situation. “Look at the coffee shops, it’s all filled with young people sitting all day long drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes without doing anything,” he told The National.
Tunisia’s National Statistics Institute has registered a 15.8 per cent unemployment rate in the third quarter of last year, with the highest rate in the marginalised interior governorates where the 2011 uprising began.
According to the IMF, the figure represents a similar economic malaise to the years before 2011, when graduates’ unemployment rates averaged about 15 per cent.
In the narrow alleyways of Dar Fadhal, one cannot help but feel and see the exhaustion on the faces of men and women struggling to make ends meet.
Many shoppers enter grocery stores but leave empty-handed in the face of rising food prices, while others barely fill their shopping trolleys before leaving.
Youssef Ben Hassine, 64, stopped to talk with Mr Ben Khalifa and Mr Mhamdi about the state of the nation and the economic uncertainty that many are facing.
“You want to know what the mundane citizen feels? We feel injustice, oppression, tyranny and helplessness as we continue to grow old,” he said. Mr Ben Hassine, a plumber, has three adult children who, he says, struggle to keep a job because of the expectations and standards set by employers.
“They expect them to shut their mouths and accept working like animals just to get paid 450 dinars ($145) per month,” he said.
“In every neighbourhood, you can find at least 1,000 unemployed youth and all they can think of is leaving this country on the first boat to Europe.”
More than 25,500 Tunisians left by boat after the uprising according to the International Organisation for Migration, with the number reportedly increasing each year.
This year, Tunisia will return to the presidential system that existed before the uprising after President Kais Saied consolidated powers in 2021.
However, this has not quelled the fears of many Tunisians.
While some believe Mr Saied’s rule will end the failure that has overwhelmed governments for more than 10 years, others are not as hopeful.
“He might be an honest man, but being honest is not enough,” Mr Ben Hassine said.
“Things will not just resolve with politics, [the problem] is bigger than that.”
Tunisians face economic hardship amid a cost of living crisis, high levels of unemployment and stagnating wages