Tunisia Archives - Women Speak

Women Agricultural Workers Demand Social Security Benefits

Aparna Packer2025-12-15T20:46:01-05:00Tags: Tunisia|

Written by Dhouha Djerbi, a Tunisian doctoral candidate, the article addresses the importance of implementing Decree No. 4 of 2024, which aims to establish a social protection program for women working in the agricultural sector. This protection includes economic inclusion, social security coverage, and ensuring women’s access to decent work. Maroua Ber-Regueb, a farm worker, traveled from Medenine to Tunis to present a manifesto to the Tunisian General Labor Union calling for the implementation of the decree, which had been celebrated by many women across the country. A 2023 study on the conditions of women working in the agricultural sector, a group comprising over 521,000 individuals according to 2017 statistics, revealed that 92 percent of respondents had no form of social security and instead faced exploitative conditions such as low wages, gender-based violence, and harsh working environments. Ber-Regueb recounts the dangers faced by uninsured women, including barriers to accessing proper healthcare in the event of work-related accidents, unsafe transportation to and from workplaces, and the lack of regulation surrounding pesticide exposure. Coverage for the program will be managed by the National Social Security Fund, to which most Tunisians contribute, while the state will cover or subsidize the contributions of women in the agricultural sector for the first three years. The women’s syndicate emphasized the significance of this decree for achieving food sovereignty in Tunisia.

A Poisoned Paradise.. Tunisia’s Gabes Suffocating Under Its Phosphate Factories

Aparna Packer2025-12-03T23:42:38-05:00Tags: Tunisia|

Writing from a personal perspective, Tunisian journalist Hajar Abidi exposes the devastating health and environmental crisis in Gabes, where a phosphate chemical complex has suffocated the region for 50 years. She shares the story of Manal, a young woman who lost her father to cancer, a disease that haunts nearly every family in her area. The article details severe water impacts: the complex drills deep wells that disrupt the local oasis' water system and dumps 16,000 tons of toxic phosphogypsum waste into the Gulf of Gabes daily. This has caused sea desertification that destroys whale habitats and vital Neptune grass marine forests, known as the lungs of the Mediterranean. While activists demand the plant's closure, this article highlights a woman-led scientific solution from Dr. Nabila Al-Meshi whose research proves the toxic waste can be safely recycled into valuable materials. Despite this viable solution, official reluctance continues to leave the women and their communities to suffer the consequences of fossil fuels within their poisoned paradise.