Seminar addresses youth violence in Tunisia

2008-07-08

Tunisian academics and officials participated in a seminar last week on the growing phenomenon of violence among youth. Young people in attendance said the proposed measures do not adequately address the problem.

By Jamel Arfaoui for Magharebia in Tunis – 08/07/08

[Jamel Arfaoui] Young people at a conference on violence among Tunisian youth said the measures proposed by academics and officials do not adequately address the problem.

In the latest seminar under Tunisia's "Year of Dialogue with Youth", social workers, academics and students met in the capital on July 2nd to discuss youth and violence. Participants recommended strengthening families to facilitate the healthy upbringing of children, as well as securing co-operation from youth groups and associations. The experts also stressed the need to confront violence, intolerance and terrorism in all forms.

At the opening of the seminar, Minister of Communication Rafaa Dekhil stressed young people's ability to embark on reform and resist violence on their own. He called for careful examination of statistics linking youth to violence.

Academic Abdelwahab Mahjub ventured that the more violence there is in school, the less aware people will be of its dangers. He warned against what he billed as "normalisation and co-existence" with violence and stressed the need for vocal deterrence through stiff penalties against violators.

Mohammed Hamden, Director of the Institute of Press and Information Sciences, addressed the role of the mass media in curbing the spread of violence among youth, calling for training on mass media in schools and institutes, "to enable children to make a careful reading of the information they receive."

Through their comments, many students expressed dissatisfaction at the way the state has conducted its dialogue with young people. Citing the advanced age of the officials in charge, including those supervising the seminar, some said the subjects presented for dialogue had little relation to their ambitions and aspirations.

Tarek Echchaib, a fresh graduate, said the seminar failed to address the real problems that cause young people to resort to violence in order to express themselves.

"Where are the issues of employment, unemployment, nepotism, administrative violence, and the violence of lewd clothes worn by our girls which provokes internal violence and repression?" Echchaib called for new outlets for young people to vent their frustrations.

Student Soumia Ben Rejeb said that young people are not wholly responsible for the spread of violence.

"Responsibility is to be fully borne by social upbringing, and consequently the older people," she said.

She also stressed that males should not be the only focus when discussing violence, "because there is a type of violence practiced by females."

Student Meryem el Hajji called on educational institutions to apply the Ministry of Education's regulations on school uniforms more strictly.

"Many educational institutes turn a blind eye to indecent clothing, while they are strict in banning clothes they deem sectarian," she said. "This kind of injustice encourages extremism."

Social researcher Cenim Ben Abdallah has been lecturing for three weeks on what he feels is a long-ignored spread of violence among youth.

"This is a positive thing," he said. "Society today has decided to break the barrier of silence."

Abdallah cautioned people against placing full blame on young people.

"The issue is basically social... we have to deal with it with relativism and caution."

A study conducted by the National Observatory for Youth in 2004 on verbal violence among Tunisian youths indicated that the phenomenon is prevalent on an alarming scale. More than 88% of young men included in the study confessed that they resorted to verbal violence in schools and other public places.

Under Tunisian law, verbal violence is an offense punishable by imprisonment, from 16 days to a maximum of five years.