On the occasion of May 17 (International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia) and May 18 (Anniversary of the founding of the Shams Association)
The “Shams” Association (shams-tunisie.org) marks the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia amid a dark reality experienced by minorities in Tunisia under the weight of a repressive police regime that has set the country back decades, armed with a colonial legal arsenal to harass citizens and destroy their lives.
The infamous Article 230 remains a dirty tool in the hands of the authorities, used to violate privacy, justify arbitrary arrests, and subject bodies to “anal tests”; barbarous and disgusting practices that amount to full-fledged crimes of torture.
This systematic persecution of the LGBTQI+ community is nothing but a reflection of the authoritarian megalomania and absolute detachment from reality experienced by Kais Saied and his regime. We are facing a disastrous leadership that lacks the most basic elements of vision and logic, and manages the state with destructive absurdity. This regime has proven a miserable failure and shameful inability to manage the simplest economic and social files. Instead of saving the people from hunger, poverty, and collapse, this tyrant chose the easiest solution for the incompetent: managing the country with brute force, and filling prisons with opponents, activists, and the marginalized instead of filling empty stomachs.
This blind authoritarian rule has turned Tunisia into a large open-air prison, where the judiciary has become a mere docile tool and a guillotine to settle scores and silence every voice that dares to expose this absurdity. This regime suffers from absolute political sterility; it only masters the language of threats and gagging, and rejects any voice for change because it trembles in fear of its failure being exposed. Kais Saied has dealt with this impotence by force due to his inability to provide any alternative, driven by his megalomania, his mental disability, as well as his suffering from autism. He is fundamentally incapable of dialogue and debate; all we have heard from him is that every different opinion is a conspirator and they are lobbies…
Since the beginning of the year, we have monitored campaigns of security frenzy and unfair trials that have thrown dozens of our community into prisons. This is accompanied by a media pumping of hate speech and blatant incitement to murder, with the clear blessing of state apparatuses that have abandoned their role in protecting their citizens to turn into their executioners.
May 18, the anniversary of the founding of the “Shams” association, is upon us, and we stand in the face of the fiercest dictatorship the country has known. This collapsing regime is trying to silence our voice, but we answer it clearly: your brutal repression and overcrowded prisons reflect your terror and weakness, and will only make us more fierce and steadfast. We will remain a thorn in the throat of tyranny, and we will continue our struggle relentlessly despite restrictions and lack of resources, because our resilience is a nail in the coffin of this political absurdity.
Accordingly, the “Shams” Association imposes the following demands:
- The immediate and definitive abolition of Article 230 and its erasure from the history of Tunisia.
- The immediate criminalization of forced anal medical tests and the prosecution of everyone involved in this crime of torture.
- The immediate release of all victims of show trials and arbitrary arrests.
- That state institutions assume their responsibility in stopping the bleeding of incitement and death threats against minorities.
- Imposing the right to freedom of expression and organization despite the repression machine.
Our liberation as individuals of the LGBTQI+ community is at the heart of the great battle to bring down this absurd tyranny and reclaim Tunisia from its kidnappers.
For the Shams Association
President: Attorney Mounir Baatour
Official Website: shams-tunisie.org
