Human rights in Tunisia who accept that, for as long as the majority opposes them, compromise is inevitable.” After the revolution, moreover, Tunisia became the first nation in the Arab world “to legally enshrine gender parity in the electoral rolls.” According to Freedom House, the October 2011 elections “represented a dramatic improvement in electoral freedoms and practices. Under the former regime of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, the cabinet, much of the legislature, and many regional officials had been appointed directly by the president. Elections were tightly controlled, and term limits were extended to allow Ben Ali to remain in power. By contrast, in the
Lina Ben Mhenni Lina Ben Mhenni Lina Ben Mhenni (Arabic: لينا بن مهني) (born May 22, 1983) is a Tunisian Internet activist, blogger and assistant lecturer (i.e. instructor) in linguistics at Tunis University. Lina Ben Mhenni has been awarded the Deutsche Welle International Blog Award and El Mundo's International Journalism Prize Ben Mhenni's blog, "A Tunisian Girl", is written in Arabic, English, and French. During the rule of former Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Ben Mhenni was one of the few bloggers to blog using her real name rather than adopting a pseudonym to protect her identity. Her blog, as well