Public and Repressed Brutality: Visible State Violations Against Our Bodies

We express our deep anger and utter condemnation of the dangerous escalation in police repression and gross human rights violations taking place in our country, particularly the recent crimes documented in audio and video in the Mezouna region of Sidi Bouzid Governorate, perpetrated by the security services without restraint and with the state's blatant protection and silence.

The state does not content itself with silence; rather, it practices its repression through its police apparatus. Police violence cannot be separated from the will of the regime that drives it, sustains it, and grants it immunity. This intimidation is not a new phenomenon; rather, it is an extension of a deeply rooted system of oppression, fueled by hatred and employing tyranny as a tool to silence voices and break bodies.

If this repression is being carried out openly in front of cameras without accountability, what about what is being committed in secret, away from the spotlight, in detention centers and prisons, on the streets, and during home raids, especially against members of the LGBTQ+ community?

In the face of these painful events, and in the face of the ongoing police brutality in the Mazouneh area, we could not help but recall the daily violations we face as citizens within an authoritarian state, and as queer bodies in particular.

We do not forget what we have lived through and what we have experienced in this state that does not hesitate to practice physical and psychological torture against us, that protects the aggressors and criminalizes the victims. This state, which fuels hatred through reactionary laws and inflammatory rhetoric, cannot plead ignorance or claim neutrality. Its silence is complicity, and its complicity is a crime.

We, as citizens, both men and women+, and as queer Tunisians+, refuse to be relegated to the shadows, and we refuse to have all forms of violations committed against us in silence and with the state's indifference. Our bodies are not a theater for your violence. Our freedom is a right, our dignity is non-negotiable, and we want justice for the internal regions and for us in every region and area, and justice for all victims of police repression.

In this context, we demand:

- Open an immediate and independent investigation into what is happening in Al-Mazuna, and hold accountable all those involved, including security personnel and those behind them.

- Ending impunity in cases of police violence, especially those directed against queer bodies.

- A radical review of the security and legal system that allows and fuels this violence to continue.