TIMBER!

The image of Ben Ali on a billboard in Sousse, Tunisia

A few months before Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, the Tunisian president for 23 years, flee the country I visited Tunisia (you can see my pictures here). All of a sudden the army is in the streets and currently a state of emergency is declared in the country, but all seemed calm during my visit.

I tried to relive the experience of the country and tried to remember my encounters with Tunisians outside the tourist areas. But could not identify any sign of imminent widespread rallies. I am not sure what signs I expected to have seen. Don’t think there would had been banners reading “watch out, things are about to explode”, but perhaps a trace of anger, discontent or criticism in conversations or even a lukewarm political debate with a taxi driver. On the other hand, maybe spotting repressed hints is not as straight forward as I expect.

So many places in Tunisia reminded me of Iran that I knew as a child. Some of the current images of the widespread unrest in Tunisia remind me of the revolution in Iran. I wonder if there are going to be more similarities.

I studied my pictures from Tunisia; amongst my photos I found a couple of shots (including the one above) related to every day’s life of people with images of Ben Ali in the background. They might even have a somewhat “historic value” someday! (See the other picture here)

همین یکی دو ماه پیش بود که سفری به تونس رفتیم. چقدر اوضاع با اونچه که این روزها در اخبار میبینم فرق داشت. هیج نشانی از یه اعتراض همگانی در حال شکل گیری نبود! شاید هم آرامش قبل از طوفان بود یا اینکه من چشم بصیرت نداشتم. به هر حال رئیس جمهور بعد از بیست و سه سال حکمرانی مجبور به فرار از کشور شد

 (نمیدونم این ریاست چی داره که هر کی این صندلی گیرش میاد نمیخواد دل بکنه)

عکس بالا رو هم تو سفرمون گرفتم و حالا دیگه تاریخی شده. چون یه عکس تبلیغاتی از ایشونه

خیلی از نقاط تونس منو یاد ایرانی که در زمان بچگی دیده بودم انداخت و بعضی از صحنه هایی رو که از تونس این روزا میبینم مثل دوران انقلاب ایرانه. نمیدونم آیا شباهت های دیگه ای هم در آینده خواهیم دید یا نه؟

عکس های تونس مرا در لینک زیر ببینید

http://www.iranian.com/main/albums/golden-blue

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