ICTJ
Something unusual happened on the first day of the public hearings being held by Tunisia’s national Truth and Dignity Commission. Sami Brahim came forward to give personal testimony of having survived sexual violence in prison during the Ben Ali regime.
Mr. Brahim told the hundreds of Tunisians listening in the room, and thousands more following live on TV and the Internet, about his arrest as a student in the 1990s and his experience of abuse and torture while in jail: “All the prisoners were stripped, the young and the elderly. For an entire week, everyone was kept naked. Why? What was our crime? What was our punishment?”
His testimony helped bring to light an issue considered too sensitive in most cultures to speak about, leaving countless victims in the shadows. It shows that sexual violence is not just a women’s issue that can be left to women’s rights advocates. It is an issue requiring broader attention and action, particularly given how universal it is in scope.
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