News Africa Extended

News Africa Extended

Tunisian LGBT community lives in shadows

Posted: 17 May 2016 05:45 AM PDT

As millions celebrate International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, the mood is sombre in Tunisia.

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Tunis - As the world marks the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia Tuesday, in Tunisia the issue may have emerged from the shadows but many of those it affects have not.

Despite the rainbow flag flying briefly on the main avenue in the capital recently, homosexuals are the subject of both social and legal discrimination.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights, long taboo in the conservative Muslim state, have improved gradually since the 2011 revolution that sparked the Arab Spring.

And after the uprising resulted in greater freedom of speech, several associations emerged including Mawjoudin (We exist) and Shams (Sun).

However, being openly gay in Tunisia is still a no-no for most homosexuals in a country that hands down lengthy prison sentences for the “offence”.

The debate burst onto the public scene last spring with calls for homosexuality to be decriminalised. Under Section 230 of the country's Penal Code, those convicted of sodomy or lesbianism face up to three years in jail.

After a court last September sentenced a youth to a year behind bars for homosexuality, then-justice minister Salah Ben Aissa made a controversial call for Article 230 to be scrapped.

This was cited as one reason for his sacking the following month.

“I don't see why we have to live in hiding. Our private life is our own business,” Shams vice president Ahmed Ben Amor told AFP.

At the age of 19 he was ostracised by his family and expelled from high school for declaring his homosexuality.

Braving the open hostility of a large segment of the population, LGBT associations have now begun to emerge into public view and even hold open meetings.

Rainbow flag in hand, activists marched in Tunis on January 14, 2016, the anniversary of the 2011 revolution.

But their presence was not welcomed by all: dozens of people shouted at the marchers to “Get out of here!” and police had to escort the activists to safety.

Today, homosexuality has become a recurring topic in Tunisian media. To hear people speak publicly of homosexuality was “unthinkable some time ago”, said academic Wahid Ferchichi, who heads the Tunisian Association for the Defence of Individual Liberties.

According to sociologist Mohamed Jouiri, “the post-revolution context allowed a minority to express and assert its existence”.

He said that “the situation for homosexuals in Tunisia is much better than in other Arab countries”, despite remaining very difficult.

“When you're gay in Tunisia, you live with two faces,” a young homosexual in the northern city of Bizerte told AFP.

“When you are with straight people, you don't show that you are different because of the risk of violence. And of course there is also another risk - the law.”

In December, rights groups called on Tunisia to repeal anti-homosexuality laws after six students were jailed for three years after being forced to undergo anal examinations.

NGOs have denounced the use of such tests as cruel, inhuman and degrading.

In March, an appeals court reduced the sentence to one month in jail and also overturned a five-year ban on them entering the central city of Kairouan where they were first convicted.

If President Beji Caid Essebsi judged the five-year ban to be archaic, before it was lifted, he did not speak out against the original prison sentence and categorically ruled out decriminalising homosexuality.

“That will not happen,” he said in an interview with Egyptian television. “I reject it,” he said of Article 230 being repealed.

Every day, homosexuals in Tunisia suffer from profound social rejection and hostility.

“Being gay in Tunisia is worse than having the plague,” said Mohamed Ali, 22, one of the six students in the Kairouan case.

He is still traumatised by the anal examination he underwent in the presence of two police officers, as well as his treatment in prison in Sousse where he said he was attacked and ridiculed.

“Inmates forced me to dance naked while amused guards looked on, doing nothing,” he said.

The debate in Tunisia may now itself have come out of the closet, but reactions to it show there is a long way to go to the end of the rainbow.

One video circulating on the Internet shows an imam in Sfax, the country's second largest city, saying in a sermon that men convicted of sodomy should be sentenced to death and executed by throwing them off a tall building and then stoning them.

In parliament, one lawmaker from the Islamist party Ennahda, Abdellatif Mekki, defended homosexuality being illegal and said authorising the Shams association endangered the social peace and was “a major sin”.

And progressive parties - when they do not oppose homosexuality outright - are ultra-cautious, fearing the impact of public opinion.

AFP

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Nairobi’s pimped-out buses a hit

Posted: 17 May 2016 02:23 AM PDT

Nairobi commuters are going matatu-crazy as pimped-out vehicles are providing safe travelling and entertainment. [VIDEO]

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Nairobi - “Turn on the bass, yeah!” shouts Dennis, conductor and ticket tout onboard the Brain Freeze, an eardrum-bursting tricked-out Nairobi bus studded with blue neon lights.

This commuter bus, or matatu as it is known in Kenya, is like a nightclub rushing down the jam-packed streets of the east African capital.

Deafening music pumps from countless loudspeakers fitted into the vehicle, while clips of skimpily-dressed girls in music videos flash across flatscreen television screens.

And among the 30 passengers there's neither a grey hair nor a balding head to be seen.

“It's like a club, this matatu is really cool,” says Mary Nicola, a 20-year-old student with long, bright red braids.

By night the Brain Freeze is still more striking, its mobile sound and light show winning approval on Facebook pages dedicated to customised matatus.

Brain Freeze has only been on the road for a few weeks but it is already making an impression.

Around 90 percent of Nairobi's commuters use a matatu daily. Competition for customers is fierce and a pimped ride can make all the difference.

For some, spray-painted matatus like the Brain Freeze are a glamorous stage on which to display social status, interests and what's cool.

Matatus are named after Manchester United footballers, Alicia Keys, Nelson Mandela, Barack Obama and Pope Francis.

On the Brain Freeze, no detail is left to chance: wheel rims and headlights are metallic blue, the radiator grille is stretched out like a snowplough and at the rear a string of red lights illuminate when the bus brakes.

All in all it cost seven million Kenyan shillings ($70 000/€61 000) to buy and customise. The owners were anxious to attract a large audience of the young and hyperconnected, so they put a trailer online showing the bus being redesigned.

“This matatu is fashionable,” says Casper, another tout, sunglasses on his nose. He smiles and steals a sidelong glance at Nicola. “If good-looking girls come here, other young people want to come.”

Kennedy Aina, a 22-year old student with four thick silver chains around his neck, fits the Brain Freeze's target audience.

“The matatu was here when I was done with my class, it has Wi-Fi and it's quick,” he says.

Arriving at its destination in a neighbourhood east of Nairobi, Brain Freeze stops a few metres from “Rolling Stone” which, like the 1960s and 70s era it pays homage to, is showing its age, its once-pristine white paint marked by the years.

Nearby “Wayne Rooney” pulls past Brain Freeze. “Nice paint!” shouts Rooney's admiring tout, leaning dangerously out of his matatu's doorless entrance as it roars away.

Nearby, in a warehouse whose roof is riddled with holes, the smell of fresh paint assaults the nose, but Roy “The Great” Mungai -- a much-in-demand matatu artist -- is unfazed as he adds the finishing touches to a new Rastafarian-themed bus.

The green, yellow and red exterior is adorned with an image of former Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie while inside are pictures of reggae icon Bob Marley beneath a ceiling decorated with old vinyl records.

Nearby, “Gucci” is ready to go and its owner, Chris Nsungu, is delighted. “Tomorrow, it will slide along the road!” he says.

Another day, another newly customised matatu, and for Brain Freeze and the rest the competition just got a little tougher.

AFP

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