Tunisia
At the end of 1999, I met some of the nicest people I've ever met and they live in a country I had heard the name of but I am ashamed to say I knew absolutely nothing else about! I've learned tons about it since, and I went there a few months ago to meet these friends, and my life changed in a huge way.
Do you know anything about Tunisia? I would bet money that if you are American or even European, the things you picture in your mind are things like a typical Arab country, where women must cover themselves completely and have no rights in life, where life is hard and people live in an ancient way and have harsh views of the rest of the world. Guess what? That is not at all how this beautiful country is. Yes, their neighbors are not countries that get along well with the rest of the world and they are not places I would feel comfortable, as an American, in visiting, but you know what I found? Tunisians seem to feel the same way we do about that. And guess what else? I've talked for a while to young people in both Lybia and Algeria and THEY feel the same way too, they want very much to change their countries to, as they say, catch up with the rest of the world and interact as we all do!
So, you must not ever paint people or countries with one ugly brush, each is an individual and there is beauty and goodness everywhere (and not so good things are everywhere too).
Anyway, some of the things that surprised me in learning about Tunisia made me want to create a page so I could share the REAL information with my friends who have misconceptions. And I will also share information about this very special family, my new family there.
First, some of the things I learned from people there and from researching what I could find on internet before my trip, both Tunisian sites and sites such as the U.S. State Department:
It is on the north coast of Africa, on the Mediterranean. It's about 80 miles from Sicily, Italy. Did you know that Sicily, in fact, is closer to Tunisia than to Rome? Yes, it's true. The northern part of the country is very Mediterranean in its feel, it is sometimes compared to the Costa del Sol of Spain. The southern part...one word...Sahara.
It's quite a vacation spot for many countries in Europe.
In 1956 (1956!...remember the 60's in America when a woman had to quit her job if she got pregnant?) they passed a law requiring that women have the same and equal rights as men, all the citizens have the same rights, equally, under the law. In fact, they are the only Arab country with these rights, and it's incredible to me that it was done that long ago. But this law also abolished polygamy, it allowed for divorce, made the minimum marriage age 17, it gave women rights to their children, etc.
The common language for people is Arabic, but for all commercial interactions, for their newspapers, television, all those things, they are in French, because of course they were a protectorate of France until 1956.
Women and men dress completely western for the most part. It's just like here, though once in a while I'd see men or women wearing either traditional Tunisian or Berber clothing, but for the younger folks, it's just exactly like here.
They can drink alcohol if they want. I think beer is most common, but it is allowed, which is incredible in a Muslim country. They even have vineyards and produce their own wines!
Their food is excellent, fresh ingredients and quite complex in flavors and spices, lots of GREAT spices. There is, of course, a French influence as well, in the breads especially I think. The traditional bread I found by accident is basically just like our tortillas, though what everyone eats is a baguette of french bread, and can you believe they cost something like ten for a little less than a dollar?
Men and women can date, have sex, have relationships in any fashion they want.
There has never been any terrorist bullshit, the government takes a great deal of security measures to prevent this.
Tunisia has the finest collection of mosaics in the world and I can't wait to visit museums to see these!
I guess my overall surprise was just all of this, that this country which is sandwiched between some of the strictest and harshest countries in that region has for so long had quite a western freedom to live their lives as they want, individually. And that does NOT mean they have given up their faith or traditions or special things that are in the culture, they have simply found a balance of it all. They still have what I feel is the most basic ideas of the Islamic faith, and that is to love everyone for who they are and to really show that love and acceptance of others without trying to force or change someone to only THEIR way. But I also feel when you are in another country, you should try to respect their basic culture too. Unless it's like watching a group of male relatives beat a girl to death or nearly to death because she met a boy to talk alone, and that does happen, today, in some other countries. If you ever see that, I expect you as a human being to throw yourself in there and try to stop it!
Okay, enough of my thoughts, now let me SHOW you my friends and some of the special things about this jewel of a country.
Tunis/Carthage - My family lives in this stunning city which seems to me to be a mix of Mediterranean, Arabic, and big city metropolitan. Carthage (remember Hannibal?) is an ancient city and Tunis sort of grew up outside it.
Hammamet - This is the town in which we rented a villa for the month I stayed there, a beautiful place.
The Family - Okay, these pictures are old and I need to put in much more updated ones from my trip, but hey, you'll also see them in the next section...
Click the wheel to go to my home port.
All corked and bottled messages can be floated to shauna@texas.net.
This page was last updated on 10/12/03.