Gay tunisie

Our experts complement our research work and bolster our advocacy efforts. Dario Sabaghi. Tunisian filmmaker Karim Belhadj was about to finish his first gay documentary on the Jewish community in Tunisia, after working as an assistant director on tunisie short films and making his way up in the country's film industry for years.

But his life was turned upside down when Tunisian police arrested him in his apartment in Tunis in March Police officers found him in the company of a years-old male student, who later confessed to being a sex worker. Both of them admitted to having had consensual sex, which is criminalized in Tunisia between members of the same sex and punishable with up to three years in prison.

Belhadj, who was 38 years old at the time, was charged with homosexual activity and detained in the civil prison of Mornaguia, southwest of the Tunisian capital.

The 'Nightmare' of Being Gay in Tunisia

Belhadj's story is all-too familiar in Tunisia, where the criminalization of homosexuality contradicts the right to privacy and nondiscrimination that is supposedly enshrined in Tunisia's constitution. Under Article 24 gay the constitution, the state is obligated to protect "the right to privacy and the inviolability of the home," while according Article 21, "All citizens, male and female, have equal rights and duties, and are equal before the law without any discrimination.

Yet homosexuality is criminalized under Article of the Tunisian penal code, which dates back to the Tunisie colonial era. The law was established in —more than a century before Tunisia's adopted its new constitution following the ouster of gay Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in the popular uprising that sparked the Arab Spring.

Belhadj's case stands out because, soon after his arrest, it went public and, unlike others, was widely reported on by Tunisian and French media outlets. The media coverage of his arrest magnified its impact for him and his family, as he was married at the time, although separated from his wife, and had a young daughter.

His ordeal shows what it is like living as an LGBTQ person in a country where homosexuality is condemned and illegal, and the social stigma of being exposed tunisie have dire consequences on people's lives. In a recent interview with Democracy in ExileBelhadj said that his case was overwhelmingly publicized without his tunisie while he was in prison.

It harmed my whole family," he said. My private life was exposed. My dignity has been dragged through the mud forever. Belhadj was detained for 13 months before he faced trial. He recounted that time in prison as a nightmare. No one wanted to speak with me. In my cell, there were around prisoners. Belhadj's experience in prison is just one example of the violations and abuses that LGBTQ people face in Tunisian society.

Many suffer from lack of employment, and transgender people face problems with the public health care system. When Mounir Baatour, who is also the head of Tunisia's Liberal Party, announced in that he would run for the country's presidency, he became the first openly gay presidential candidate not only in Tunisia but throughout the Arab world.

His campaign focused on civil and individual rights, gay the repeal of Article But a month after his presidential campaign ended, Baatour fled to France to escape what he called "very serious" death threats from Islamists in Tunisia stemming from a post he published on Facebook perceived as offensive to Islam.

He was prosecuted by Tunisian authorities for the post and later sentenced to one year in prison.