TUNISIA: A Tunisian human rights activist is paying a heavy price for dissenting, reports Enda O'Doherty
Those in Government circles here, who are beginning to have sleepless nights about the prospects of ensuring a satisfactory resolution of the Nice problem this autumn, might well look with a measure of wistful envy at how they arrange these things in faraway Tunisia.
In a referendum there on May 26th this year to amend the constitution so as to enable President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali to run for another two terms, the Yes side managed to notch up a more-than-respectable 99.52 per cent of the vote, with only 16,000 Tunisians apparently unhappy at the prospect of seeing their President remaining in power for up to 27 years.
While we might allow ourselves a smile at the pure brazen cheek of this surrealist democracy, we should also remember that behind its façade there lies another story, one of corruption, repression and torture, but also of stubborn and heroic opposition to police bullying and intimidation.
One such heroine is the human rights lawyer Radhia Nasraoui, who is today on the 25th day of an unlimited hunger-strike in protest at the imprisonment of her husband and the harassment of herself and her young family.
Radhia's husband, Hamma Hammami, a communist, is in jail yet again following court appearances earlier this year for the non-violent expression of his political views. Hamma's absence, however - he has spent most of his adult life in jail, in exile or on the run - has never deflected Radhia from her work as a lawyer and human rights defender, in spite of the many obstacles put in her way by the authorities.
Radhia Nasraoui's record of human rights activism, she told me in an interview in Tunis earlier this year, goes back to 1989, when she defended a member of the opposition charged with "insulting the President".
For her pains, she too was briefly imprisoned and since then has been under constant surveillance by the political police, sometimes discreet, sometimes more blatant, depending on the period.
"When they were really angry at me, at the time of a big political trial, they terrorised my clients. They would install themselves on the stairs to see who was coming and going. And as people left they would say to them: 'Don't show you face here again or you'll have big problems'," she said.
While many people are prepared to be personally courageous and defy police bullying, the authorities also work on their concern for members of their families who are not politically active. In a police state no one, no matter how "innocent" of involvement, is necessarily immune from punishment.
"This is all done," says Radhia, "with the clear purpose of taking away my livelihood. They know my husband doesn't work. Even when he was there he never had the right to work. So I am the sole earner and they want to isolate me, to create problems for me."
Radhia Nasraoui's stubborn courage has cost her dear, not just in her professional, but also in her family, life. Her second daughter, Ouseima, who is 13, was assaulted by police on the day of one of her father's court appearance in February this year. "She is a child who is always uneasy, always anxious. My youngest has never seen her father, but she kisses his photograph.
"For more than a year," Radhia says, "the cops slept outside the door of my apartment block. When I was giving birth [to Sara] they were behind the door of the theatre. They contacted my gynaecologist to put pressure on him. In the supermarket they ask the staff: 'What did she buy? How much did she pay?' In a restaurant it's the same: 'How much was it? Who paid?' You do not have a private life."
For all that she remains cheerful and unbowed: "I still laugh, I still dance. I sing. I sing when I'm alone in the evening. I listen to music, that helps me a lot. And I continue to participate in the struggle in Tunisia for democracy, for human rights. I am an optimist. I know that the regime can't last. It's a situation so out of character with our times that I know it can't last."
Radhia now feels she has no option but to remain on hunger-strike until her husband - who has committed no crime - is restored to her and she is allowed to have a normal family life and work in peace. Asked if she thinks the hunger-strike was a wise decision she replies that perhaps it is not wise, but she has no alternative.
Pressure on the Tunisian government to resolve the situation is being brought through diplomatic missions and through the European Union and Parliament. Mary Lawlor of the Irish human rights organisation Front Line and Proinsias De Rossa MEP are to visit Radhia Nasraoui next Tuesday.