Tunisian take part in a protest against President Kais Saied ahead of the upcoming presidential elections, September 13, 2024, on Avenue Habib Bourguiba in the capital Tunis. Banner in Arabic reads "Where is sugar? Where is oil? Where is freedom? Where is democracy?"
TUNISIANS took to the streets of the capital on Saturday to protest over “the deteriorating state of the country.”
In one of the largest protests this year, hundreds of Tunisians marched peacefully in Tunis and called for an end to the “police state.”
Khaled Ben Abdeslam, a father and urban development consultant, said: “We’re here to say No and show that we don’t all agree with what’s really happening in the country.”
In 2011, long-time Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was toppled by nationwide protests that unleashed revolt across the Arab world.
More than a decade later, Mr Ben Abdelslam said he was worried about the growing number of political figures who have been thrown in jail under President Kais Saied and said he wants to ensure Tunisia “turns the page.”
Hajer Mohamed, a law firm assistant, said that she was terrified about the direction Tunisia was heading in.
She said: “We never thought that after the 2011 revolution we’d live to see the country’s suffocating situation.”
