• Social transformation.Generation Casbah: Young people who are changing Tunisia

He is a lawyer, is 48 years old and has broken a taboo in his country, Tunisia, being the first openly gay candidate for the presidential elections on September 15. Munir Baatur challenges the system in a country where homosexuality is punishable by three years in jail under an article, 230, written in 1913 . A gesture of courage, as the LGBTQ community suffers social isolation and police torture in Tunisia.

"I want to open the debate on LGBT rights," says Baatur, who leads the Shams association, an NGO that fights for the decriminalization of homosexuality. Tunisia, the cradle of the democratic revolution that the Arab World experienced since 2011, is the only country in the region touched by that tsunami that has successfully undertaken a political transition after the dictatorship was shaken. Since the fall of the Zin regime, Abidin Ben Ali has made great progress, such as the Constitution promulgated in 2014, which enshrines freedom of information, equality between men and women and a democratic system with free elections.

But on some issues, change resists. While the country has endowed with a modern Constitution, the most advanced in the Arab World, it still retains a Criminal Code from the time of French colonization. In addition, repression against the gay community has increased in recent years . In December 2015, an emblematic case shocked society, when six students from Kairuan University were arrested, tried and sentenced to three years in prison and five exiled for "homosexual practices." In prison they suffered police torture and the beatings of other prisoners.

"There is no progress on the LGBT issue in Tunisia: there are no politicians who defend these cases and, in my opinion, I am the ideal person to propose a change in Tunisian society," says Baatur, who leads the Liberal Party, in an interview to Reuters. According to the Arab Barometer published by the BBC, only 7% of Tunisians accept homosexuality . Arrests for having same-sex relationships grew 60% in 2018, according to Shams, which documents the arrests and torture against the gay community. The association recorded more than 25 arrests in the first four months of 2019, according to Reuters.

A rainbow to conquer Carthage

Baatur, the first candidate to preside over a country in North Africa that does not hide his homosexual status , is a founding member of Shams and has put the debate on civil rights at the center of the electoral theme of presidential elections. The elections, initially scheduled for November, have had to be anticipated after the death, on July 25, of President Beji Caid Esebsi, at 92. After the closing of applications, yesterday Friday, more than 50 applicants have submitted their application to attend the first round of September 15. The second round is not yet dated but according to the legislation it must be held before November 3 if no politician obtains an absolute majority.

Among the most likely candidates are media mogul Nabil Karui , current Prime Minister Yusef Chahed, former President Moncef Marzuki, former Prime Minister Mehdi Juma or Hamadi Jebali, another former premier. Only one woman aspires to occupy the Palace of Carthage ; it is about Abir Musi, who was general secretary of the single party during the dictatorship, today dissolved. The moderate Islamists of En Nahda, the first force in Parliament, have introduced their vice president, Abdel Fatah Muru , a 71-year-old lawyer very close to the historical leader of the formation, Rachid Ghanuchi. It is the first time that En Nahda aspires to preside over the country.

The Independent Electoral Instance (ISIE) will announce on August 31 valid applications. Heads the Karui polls, with a 23% intention to vote according to Sigma Conseil, the main polling body in Tunisia. It is followed by the independent Kaies Saied, with 20%, and Abir Musi, with 12%, according to Efe, citing a survey from the beginning of August. Chahed and Marzuki would tie with 7%.

An unknown candidate

"A priori, Baatur is an irrelevant candidate and little known to the Tunisian population. His candidacy has been much more relevant in the foreign press than in his country, which may suggest that it is framed to a greater extent in a campaign towards the international public opinion in favor of the decriminalization of homosexuality, one of the great workhorses of Shams, that within a viable candidacy for the headquarters of the State ", analyzes for EL MUNDO.es Bosco Govantes, professor of Political Sciences of Pablo de Olavide University .

Baatur himself knows well the daily tragedy that LGBTQ people live because of their sexual condition. In 2013 he was jailed, accused of sodomy, and suffered torture. "It was an agony, a very serious humiliation," he recalls of that period in an interview with 'Slate'. In Tunisia, the police undergo anal examination of homosexuals to 'prove' their guilt, a practice defined by the UN as torture . Social discrimination, family rejection, threats and police repression cause victims a strong psychological trauma. Together with other activists, Baatur created the Shams (Sol) association in 2015, which has been the first legalized LGBTQ rights NGO in Tunisia and is dedicated to denouncing the violence and cruel treatment suffered by these people.

"Baatur's candidacy puts Tunisia and its transition in the face of the mirror of inconsistencies and contradictions that still exist in the legislation. It is a country with a secular and pro-Western tradition established since colonial times and consolidated during the time of the president Burguiba, which maintains one of its main social taboos in homosexuality, "adds Govantes, a member of the Political and Electoral Observatory of the Arab and Muslim World (OPEMAM).

For Baatur, the decriminalization of homosexuality "is not a matter of social acceptance", because other changes, such as the abolition of polygamy that Burguiba applied in 1965, came without popular support. "Sixty years after independence we need political will to impose reforms and tell people that it is not normal to imprison people for being gay," he says.

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