“A reality that we pretend not to see” : Essia Jaïbi presented Tunisia’s first queer play last week, breaking a taboo in the conservative country where homosexuality remains illegal and harshly repressed. flagrante Where In the act is “a great challenge”explains the 32-year-old Tunisian director about her play, which required nine months of work and will remain on view until the beginning of June in a private room in Tunis.
The play, co-produced by Mawjoudin, a local association for the defense of LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) rights, is performed by six actors aged 23 to 71 to show that the fight for gender identities and Minority sexual orientations concern several generations. Not without a few notes of black humor, the actors, mostly amateurs chosen during a casting, interpret characters at liberty “completely screwed up”, victims of violence within their families, on the street and in their work.
LGBTQ activists have emerged from the shadows since 2011 in Tunisia where local NGOs openly defend their rights, which is still relatively rare in the Arab world. But their condition, according to Tunisian and international rights defenders, remains very precarious due to persistent social rejection and hostile legislation. Article 230 of the Tunisian penal code condemns “sodomy” and “homosexuality” male and female with a sentence of up to three years in prison for those caught in the act, hence the title of the play.
“‘Flagranti’ speaks of a taboo subject, of a reality that we continue in Tunisia to pretend not to see, and that we try, through this show, to reveal to the general public.”
Essia Jaïbi, author and directorat AFP
A photo with a homosexual connotation discovered by the police on a mobile phone can thus lead to arrests, humiliations, verbal and physical aggression, even a forced anal test. According to Mawjoudin, 59 people were incarcerated between 2020 and October 2021 on the basis of Article 230.
“Flagranti talks about a taboo subject, a reality that we continue in Tunisia to pretend not to see, and that we try, through this show, to reveal to the general public”
Essia Jaïbi, author and directorat AFP
Raising awareness, changing mentalities “discriminatory”to abolish a law “retrograde” and promote queer art in Tunisia are the main objectives of flagrante, explains Karam Aouini, a manager of Mawjoudin. This NGO had organized a very first queer film festival in 2018. It is “A historic moment in this country! To display such an event in an Arab Muslim country is not an easy task”, rejoiced Alay Aridhi, a 27-year-old NGO worker, as he emerged from a highly acclaimed first performance. For him it is “as if now we could tell these stories”Which give “hope for improvement”.
The play also evokes the problems of police and judicial corruption, impunity and the brain drain. In almost two hours, the director tries to restore the pangs of a community which does not manage to live as freely as it would like. The coin touched “deep inside” Salim, 24, another viewer who identifies with the LGBTQ community. “I saw my experience on stage, it was overwhelming, it made my throat ache”he confides.
“It’s a harsh experience, which shows a crushed human being.”
Hamdi Bejaoui, actorat AFP
No repeal of article 230, which dates from 1913 under French colonization, is not on the agenda despite multiple calls from local and international NGOs. Tunisia made a commitment in 2017 before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva to no longer impose anal tests but continues to often ask doctors to perform them to “prove” a “offense” of homosexuality. Tunisian President Kaïs Saïed, who has held all the powers since his July 25, 2021 coup, opposes the decriminalization of homosexuality, while speaking out against incarceration.
Despite this unfavorable context, an actor who embodies on stage a doctor called Adam, summarizes at the end of the show the state of mind of the community in Tunisia: “We will not give in! The fight continues!”