{"id":29683,"date":"2021-03-16T09:35:35","date_gmt":"2021-03-16T08:35:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ilgrandecolibri.com\/?p=29683"},"modified":"2021-03-16T09:35:35","modified_gmt":"2021-03-16T08:35:35","slug":"i-will-never-give-up-says-tunisian-queer-activist-badr-baabou","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ilgrandecolibri.com\/en\/i-will-never-give-up-says-tunisian-queer-activist-badr-baabou\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI Will Never Give Up\u201d Says Tunisian Queer Activist Badr Baabou"},"content":{"rendered":"

I distinctly remember walking along Habib Bourguiba Avenue, the main road of Tunis, with Badr Baabou. He is a friend, and one of the most prominent figures in the queer and human rights movements in Tunisia (he received an award from Front Line Defenders in 2019). On that day, he told me of the projects he was carrying out with the Damj organisation (meaning \u201cinclusion\u201d) and other civil society groups working for the Tunisian LGBTQIA community (lesbians, gays, bisexuals, trans, queer, intersex, and asexuals), for women, for sexworkers. On that road, a symbol of the revolution, he could finally talk to me in person (after keeping in touch through the internet since 2011) about the ongoing struggle for freedom and democracy<\/strong>, with all its hopes and anxieties. And its dangers.<\/p>\n

There, between Habib Bourguiba Avenue and the pedestrian zone around Rue de Marseille, four people assaulted Badr last Wednesday, a few feet away from a group of police officers who did not as much as lift a finger. That was to be expected: a few days before, the police themselves contacted the activist\u2019s landlord, to pressure him into breaking the tenancy contract, to avoid trouble. The assault was the final step of a years-long continued and increasingly heavy harassment strategy<\/strong>. In 2018, someone broke into his home in order to steal documents regarding him and Damj. Uncountable times, he received insults, pressure, death threats.<\/p>\n