Tunis -

A soft calm mixed with a state of cautious anticipation prevails over the poor Douar Hicher area, which is adjacent to a number of marginalized popular neighborhoods near the capital, Tunis.

After a hot night of protests, in which the people of the area set tires on fire in protest against the difficult living conditions, while the Minister of Social Affairs Malek Ezzahi visited the area to contain the crisis.

Douar Hicher, crowded with narrow and crowded popular housing, is only a few minutes away from the heart of the capital, Tunis. However, it is considered one of the poorest and most overcrowded popular neighborhoods, with high rates of unemployment and poverty, and the orphan industrial area occupies only a small number of workers, most of whom are women.

There are miserable popular cafes crammed with the unemployed in the narrow streets. In the middle of the road, vegetable and grain sellers roam in their simple carts in search of their livelihood. The road is littered with pale yellow mass transit cars and worn-out trucks filled with large piles of leftover plastic bottles.

Sohail Ghadhban: People's lives are miserable in Douar Hicher due to high prices (Al-Jazeera)

hard life

Not far from the headquarters of the Douar Hicher municipality, where the protests erupted on Sunday night to demand an improvement in the deteriorating conditions and a solution to the problem of unemployment that plagues people's lives, the salesman Al-Hadi Al-Lawati, in his ninth decade, stands exhausted in front of his car as time passes by without the active movement of customers.

This man is tired of time;

He does not have a medical card or a pension by virtue of his work as a street vendor for decades, without being individually involved in social security.

As the situation grows darker and the cost of living increases, he finds himself exhausted and confused, even though he has 9 children, including 3 unmarried daughters, in his sponsorship.

He gently says - to Al Jazeera Net - that people's lives in Douar Hicher are miserable due to the high prices and the absence of any control from the state, and this is what prompted the people - according to his opinion - women, old people and young people to demonstrate on Sunday night.

And he indicated that the deterioration in people's purchasing power was reflected in his condition. He sells apples for only a dollar per kilogram, but the recession prevails.

The man nibbles on an apple, staring at pedestrians, while rebellious rap music radiates from a store.

Uncle Al-Hadi says that the situation portends the worst, as a result of the worsening unemployment, poverty and feelings of despair.

maelstrom

In turn, Suhail Ghadhban, 51, lives in a precarious situation in Douar Hicher, where he has been working for three decades as a car painter.

Despite acquiring the skill and experience, he still does not own a workshop due to his inability to meet expenses, especially rent, but in return he works independently with some clients who know him.

Returning to the explosive protests in his region, Al-Ghadban says - to Al Jazeera Net - that they are legitimate protests to express the state of anger among the people who are fed up with the high cost of living, the lack of reform, the exacerbation of poverty and unemployment, and the spread of the phenomenon of irregular migration among the hopeless youth.

This man confirms that he is thinking of looking for a job in the guard with a fixed salary, which is better than staying in his profession, indicating that he is no longer able to be patient to obtain funding to launch his own workshop due to the weight of the bureaucracy, the length of procedures and the large number of documents in vain, and he believes that the current system is unable to Fix this situation.

protest explosion

On the other hand, the head of the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights, Abdel Rahman Al-Hadili - says to Al Jazeera Net - that the current protests were expected to explode, especially in areas that suffer more from poverty and unemployment, criticizing the performance of President Qais Saeed and the government because of what he considered marginalizing the economic and social file.

He adds that the authority applies to the saying “we saw nothing” due to the absence of any programs or solutions to the crises in which the country is floundering, and it is likely that the country will witness in the next month the beginning of an escalation of random protest movements, in parallel with the exacerbation of irregular migration as a form of rejection of the situation. .

Regardless of what happened in Douar Hicher in the capital, the not-too-distant Mornag region also witnessed protests by demonstrators who blocked the road and clashed with the police.

These moves come as a protest by the youth of the area against unemployment, after the suicide of a young street vendor who was said to have been harassed by the police.

The leader of the Ennahda movement, Sami Tariqi, believes that the policy followed by President Kais Saied and his government is outside the necessary requirements that enable us to get out of economic and social crises, considering that the authority has failed miserably in controlling the distribution channels, the high prices and the provision of basic commodities as a minimum.

He tells Al Jazeera Net that Tunisia is living on the ground with a complete collapse due to the worsening poverty and unemployment, the decline in the political numbering, the deterioration of the value of the dinar and the rise in inflation, indicating that this situation has created a state of confusion among Tunisians to the point of psychological predicament that will result in protests that no one expects dire consequences.

contain anger

On the other hand, Minister of Social Affairs Malek Ezzahi pledged, yesterday, Monday, during a visit to Douar Hicher, following the workers’ protests, to improve the conditions of vulnerable groups and respond to their demands as soon as possible, calling on the local authorities to listen to the workers’ problems and provide further improvement and closer services for them.

The Minister of Social Affairs has always emphasized that the current government inherited a heavy legacy and ruin from those who ruled over the past ten years, stressing that the government seeks to reform the situation and fight monopoly and corruption.