- Global Voices - https://globalvoices.org -

Tunisia: An Introduction

Categories: Middle East & North Africa, Tunisia, Digital Activism, Ideas, Language, LGBTQ+, Politics

The “Tunisphere” is a group a passionate Internet users and bloggers even if their number is not as high as in neighbouring countries like Morocco. In this post, I will introduce you to some of them.

One of the pioneers of the Tunisphere is Hou-Hou [1], who is based in Canada and writes posts either in French or in English. His topics are general and focus on technology or social issues in Tunisia and Canada. He is also the brain behind the first and most famous Tunisian aggregator – tn-blogs [2].

Another leading blogger is Adibs [3], who is a veterinarian. His blog though tackles different social issues and he belongs to the first wave of Tunisian bloggers. He writes in French.

Subzero Blue [4] is the former GVO author [5] from Tunisia and he only posts in English and Arabic. He initiated the idea of Tunisian Blogger meetup and now he advocates micro-blogging via twitter [6] too.

Tarek Cheniti [7], who is a PhD student in Oxford, UK, writes a lot of his posts in English, French and Arabic. In the latter, he uses the Tunisian dialect instead Standard Arabic. He also advocates the use of the Tunisian dialect as an official language instead of Standard Arabic. He covers a lot of political (Governance aspect), economical and social issues in his posts.

One of the good examples of the Tunisian blogosphere's diversity is Diana Magazine [8], which is the blog of a law student, who writes in Arabic, English and French. He is really interested in the political situation in Lebanon and the death of Diana, Princess of Wales!

Yosra [9], is another active blogger, specialising in writing about marketing and online media. She also contributes to the first newspaper supplement about Tunisian blogs every week and was responsible for the Tunisia Blog Award 2007. Another blogger interested in online media and web2.0 is Mehdi Lemloum [10], whose has a personal blog with emphasis on marketing, public relations and Tunisian soccer.

Since last year, the number of blogs in the Tunisian dialect and Arabic have been increasing. BTB [11] is a famous blogger who writes a lot in the Tunisian dialect in an ironic way, while Khil we lil [12], who posts in French and the Tunisian dialect, writes a lot about cultural aspects and the southern region of Tunisia.

Meanwhile, Boudourou [13] is a common initiative led by some bloggers who criticize Tunisia's traditional media and how media process the information in their Arabic posts.

But it is not always quiet on the Tunisphere. Some blogs raise a lot of controversy when they first appear. Among those, is Kifi [14], whose addition to the Tunisian aggregator created a stir, because of the clear sexual orientation of its author. Kifi means “similar to me” in the Tunisian dialect. Having said this, it isn't the first blog administered by a gay blogger. The first is Mon enfer [15]. Both bloggers post in French.