Tunisia, Tunis. 25 November, 2016. A posed portrait of trans-woman Amina (+216 52044023). Amina was ÒoutedÓ when a private, online photo album was made public. Images of her having sex with men were shared on a facebook group her friends and neighbors belonged to. Amina ran away from home for two weeks, during which time her father had a heart attack and lost his sight. ÒI fled my parentÕs house and I turned my phone off for two weeks, I dropped school. Afterwards when I re-opened my phone, the first call that I got was from my mother, she had a very sad voice while repeating: your father blind because of you.Ó Photo Robin Hammond /NOOR for Witness Change. The Tunisian Revolution, also known as the Jasmine Revolution, was an intensive campaign of civil resistance, including a series of street demonstrations taking place in Tunisia, and led to the ousting of longtime president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011. It eventually led to a thorough democratization of the country and to free and democratic elections. Tunisian LGBTQI+ community hoped that the revolution would usher in a more open society, and an end to homophobia and transphobia. This has not come to pass. The laws that target LGBTQI+ people remain, most notably article 230 which makes same-sex acts illegal, punishable by up the 3 years in prison. Transgender people are targeted under public decency laws. The general public is no more accepting of LGBTQI+ people than they were before the revolution. Despite the legal and societal discrimination, LGBTQI+ activists are dedicated to campaigning more openly.

Amina /

“I’m Amina from Tunis, and I’m gay. I grew up with my family and I didn’t know that I was homosexual, I just knew that I had a certain feelings when I see a male. So I started having sex with males, and I liked it and I felt relieved. One day I uploaded a photo album in my email of me and my boyfriend having sex. The album was hidden and no one could see it. And then one day I went to an internet center in our neighbourhood, and I logged on facebook, at the same time my email account shutdown. So I asked the owner about the reason. He was repeating to me : 15 minutes and it will be back. Then I got it back. On the same day, a disaster occurred : the owner of the club was the one who blocked my email, and uploaded the album then published it on a facebook page of the neighbourhood. It was pictures of me and my boyfriend having sex, with my face recognizable and I was completely naked.

In the same night, I received many phone calls from my friends and from people I know asking : is it true ? is that you ? …

I fled my parent’s house and I turned my phone off for two weeks, I dropped school.

Afterwards when I re-opened my phone, the first call that I got was from my mother, she had a very sad voice while repeating : your father blind because of you.”

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