Research Fellow at the Graduate School of Humanities and Studies of Public Affairs at Chiba University (Japan) and Director of Research at Demos Tunisia–Democratic Sustainability Forum. Her publications include US Hard Power in the Arab World: Resistance, the Syrian Uprising and the War on Terror (Routledge, 2017). She is Associate Editor of the journal Protest and co-author, with Larbi Sadiki, of the new book Revolution and Democracy in Tunisia: A Century of Protestscapes (Oxford University Press, 2024).
Since 7 October, the Palestinian cause has reinvigorated Tunisian civil society, creating a wave of public activism reminiscent of the revolution of 2011. But today there is a major difference: perceived western hypocrisy over Israel has severely damaged the credibility of the democratic agenda.
Kais Saied’s power grab in Tunisia did not take place in a vacuum. A combination of constitutional dysfunction, a self-serving party system and festering social tensions had left the country at breaking point. Now the man many hailed as a saviour threatens the achievements of the democratic revolution of 2011.