A prominent LGBTQ activist in Tunisia has reported that two men, one dressed in police uniform, threw him to the ground, beat and kicked him during an assault they said was punishment for his ‘insulting’ attempts to file complaints against officers for previous mistreatment.
‘This was not the first time that I had been attacked by a policeman, but I was really surprised. The attack was horrifying,’ Badr Baabou, president of the Tunisian Association for Justice and Equality, or Damj, said.
‘They aimed for my head… at a moment they stood on my neck. This was very symbolic for me, as if they wanted to reduce me to silence.’ The 21 October attack in Tunisia’s capital left Baabou with welts and bruises on his face and body.
He said that neck trauma caused difficulty breathing, and that his assailants took his laptop, phone and wallet. Police have not publicly commented on Baabou’s account, although his lawyer says an internal police investigation is underway.
Police violence is among the myriad challenges that LGBTQ people experience in Tunisia. Observers say officers who can dispense beatings with impunity are becoming increasingly brazen. Homosexual activity in the North African country remains a criminal offense punishable by up to three years in prison.
Sexual relations involving individuals of the same sex also are illegal in most Middle-East-North Africa region, although public attitudes toward LGBTQ rights vary according to each country’s socio-economic context and religious doctrines. A 2019 study by the Arab Barometer showed that acceptance of homosexuality is low or extremely low across the region.
In Algeria, the 26 per cent of respondents who said being gay was acceptable represented the highest share in the region. Although there are signs that attitudes towards Tunisia’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people are improving, activists say police grew emboldened following antigovernment protests this year as the country’s economy flailed amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Baabou is a veteran activist who founded his first LGBTQ rights group in 2002, when autocratic President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali still ruled Tunisia. In March, he reported that four men beat him up as he left a bar.
In 2016, some civilians beat him so badly he lost seven teeth. But observers say the October assault in the center of Tunis indicates that members of law enforcement are becoming more explicit in targeting LGBTQ individuals.
Baabou’s reported abuse also highlights a pattern of officers independently seeking revenge for efforts by LGBTQ activists to bring misconduct cases against police who harassed or assaulted them, they say.
After the 2011 revolution that deposed Ben Ali, tens of thousands of officers took advantage of new-found freedoms to unionise. But rights groups say Tunisia’s now-powerful police unions enable misconduct while the government turns a blind eye to brutality. Transgender people are not recognized at an administrative or medical level, meaning they are unable to access gender-affirming procedures or to legally change their names, leaving them vulnerable to harassment or violence. Equal rights should be ensured.