Line #8 UsefulNotes/Tunisia


1	[[quoteright:322:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Tunisia_3_1018.gif]]
2	Tunisia ('''Arabic:''' '' تونس‎ Tūnis'', '''French:''' ''Tunisie''), officially known as the Tunisian Republic ('''Arabic:''' ''الجمهورية التونسية‎ al-Jumhūriyyah at-Tūnisiyyah'', '''French:''' ''République tunisienne''), is a Northern UsefulNotes/{{Africa}}n country situated between UsefulNotes/{{Libya}} and UsefulNotes/{{Algeria}}. It is the location of Ras ben Sakka, the northernmost point of the African continent.
3
4	Like the rest of North Africa, Tunisia was part of the homeland of the Berbers, mainly those of the Zenata confederation. While the majority of the population are descended from those same Berbers, very few people still speak the language nowadays.
5
6	From the 9th century BCE, Tunisia was the heart of the Carthaginian thalassocracy, founded by Phoenician colonists from Tyre (now in UsefulNotes/{{Lebanon}}). It controlled the Mediterranean trade routes and established colonies in UsefulNotes/{{Spain}} and UsefulNotes/{{Italy}}, often clashing with the [[UsefulNotes/{{Greece}} Greeks]], who also had colonies there. The capital, Carthage, is located less than 20 km away from Tunis and is today a gentrified suburb of the capital. It began to decline from the 3rd century BCE, coinciding with the rise of UsefulNotes/TheRomanRepublic. Following [[UsefulNotes/PunicWars three disastrous wars]] with Rome, the forces of Scipio Aemilianus entered Carthage in 146 BCE and razed it to the ground, bringing an end to the empire.
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8	The Romans rebuilt Carthage and made it the capital of a province called Africa, from ''Afri'', its exonym for Carthaginians. Its rule (later supplanted by UsefulNotes/TheRomanEmpire and then the [[UsefulNotes/ByzantineEmpire Byzantines]]) persisted until the 7th century CE, although there was a century-long interruption after the barbarian invasions when Carthage was occupied by the Vandals. Under the Romans, the region prospered; Africa was one of the wealthiest Roman provinces, just behind UsefulNotes/{{Egypt}} and Italy itself. It was rich in farmland and mainly exported agricultural products. The Romans generally had an amicable relationship with the Berbers. Carthage was important in Christian history; the father of Latin Christianity, Tertullian, came from there, as did the Donatist movement, an early church schism that split African Christians and made many unwilling to accept the orthodoxy.
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10	In 705, Carthage was attacked and destroyed by the Umayyad Caliphate, who mainly directed its dealings in Ifriqiya (as it called the province of Africa) from Kairouan, an inland city it built some 30 years earlier. Subsequently, the Berbers converted to Islam en masse. Near the end of the Umayyads and the rise of the Abbasids, the Berbers became increasingly influenced by the dissenting Kharijite sect, which still survives as the Ibadi communities on the island of Djerba. Following the Fourth Fitna, the Abbasid governor of Ifriqiya fell from power and was replaced by the Aghlabids, who ''de facto'' ruled independent of Baghdad despite claiming allegiance. The Aghlabids conquered UsefulNotes/{{Malta}} and UsefulNotes/{{Sicily}} in 800s; Muslim rule would endure there until the late 1000s and the islands remained majority Muslim until two centuries later. Its legacy is clearly seen in Malta; although Malta was reconverted to Christianity, the Maltese language is actually a descendant of Tunisian Arabic.
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12	The Shia Fatimid Caliphate, which created UsefulNotes/{{Cairo}} and unified the Levant and Arabia, is mostly associated with Egypt today, but actually originated from Tunisia. When the caliph decided to move to his new capital in the Nile Delta, his followers back home declared themselves independent as the Zirid Emirate, which essentially meant they had made enemies in both the east (their former masters) and the west (the staunchly Sunni Almoravids). In revenge, the Fatimids directed the Banu Hillal, a nomadic Arab tribe infamous for its propensity to warfare and loose association with Islam, towards the Maghreb. The invasions led to the rapid Arabization as well as pastoralism of the region, both previously being alien to Berbers outside the Sahara, since the natives had no choice but to retreat to the mountains and desert due to the arrival of the invaders. Its influence is as such that the Arab clans of the Maghreb have since been classified as Pre-Hillalian and Hillalian. The destruction of the Zirids briefly led to Norman rule of Tunisia before the Almohads of UsefulNotes/{{Morocco}} took over. During its reign and that of its successors, Hafsids, hundreds of thousands of Andalusian Muslims emigrated to North Africa due to the Reconquista and brought with them new ideas; Creator/IbnKhaldun, who was born in Tunis to Andalusian parents, became a pioneer of modern historiography and sociology.
13
14	In 1574, Tunisia was conquered by the [[UsefulNotes/{{Turkey}} Ottoman Empire]] with the assistance of Algerian corsairs from the Barbary Coast. Nevertheless, for the majority of its rule, Tunisia was effectively autonomous, ruled by a hereditary bey who only paid nominal tribute to the Sublime Porte. The region became a [[UsefulNotes/{{France}} French]] protectorate (read: colony) in 1881, after the French used the pretext that it was planning to attack Algeria, by then an integral part of France. During UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, the French Tunisian colonial government pledged alliance to the Vichy regime after the Fall of France, which led to the Tunisian Campaign in 1943 that finally ended the Allies' North African campaign.
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16	Tunisia achieved independence in 1956 as the Kingdom of Tunisia, with the Bey Muhammad VIII al-Amin as its first and only king. The following year, Habib Bourguiba of the Neo Destour party abolished the monarchy, turning it into a republic. He ruled for the next 31 years as an authoritarian leader and modernized Tunisia, bringing gender equality and improving education. He became increasingly autocratic near the end of his tenure and was eventually toppled and put under house arrest by his prime minister, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, amid an economic crisis. However, any real change was a pipe dream; Ben Ali simply renamed Bourguiba's party into the Rassemblement Constitutionnel Démocratique (''[[PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny Constitutional Democratic Rally]]'', or CDR) and stayed an autocrat. He ruled with virtually no opposition until 2011 -- 24 years later -- when things dramatically changed.
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18	On 17 December 2010, Mohamed Bouazizi, a fruit vendor, [[SelfImmolation set himself alight]] in front of a police station. Bouazizi had a history with the police; the police would confiscate his fruit cart, which he would set up again, which the police would confiscate again... you get the idea. Following his self-immolation, major protests against Ben Ali's regime erupted across Tunisia. On January 18, Ben Ali and his family fled to UsefulNotes/SaudiArabia, where the former died in 2019. The CDR was subsequently dissolved and banned. Elections to a new Constituent Assembly were held on October 23, resulting in a coalition government comprised of the three largest parties: the "Renaissance Party" or Ennahda (centre-right Islamists), the "Congress for the Republic" or CPR (centre-left secularists), and the "Democratic Forum for Labour and Liberties" or Ettakatol (centre-left social-democrats).
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20	The country held its first free and fair legislative election in 2014, which was "won" (in the sense of having the largest party; no party won a majority in Parliament) by "Tunisia's Call" or Nidaa Tunis--a centre-left secularist nationalist party largely made up of people who had been part of the old regime. However, they are clearly ''not'' interested in reestablishing the old regime; it's simply that these people actually had some experience governing, so the people said "as long as you agree to play by the rules, share with the other parties, and leave when we tell you to, we'll let you run things while things are still a little shaky." The second legislative election was held in 2019 with Ennahda taking a plurality of the votes. Turnout was low compared to the 2014 election, indicating that many Tunisians had grown disillusioned by the country's failure to tackle their day-to-day problems.
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22	In July 2021, President Kais Saied invoked emergency powers to suspend both the Cabinet and Parliament, citing the deadlock between the legislative and executive branches as hindering the country's economic progress, particularly as Tunisia is dealing with the fallout of the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic. While his moves were lauded by the common people who were disillusioned by years of economic stagnation, others, including politicians, accused him of orchestrating a coup. Two months later, Saied officially declared a one-man rule as he continues to draft a new constitution with his advisers.
23
24	Of particular note is that the protests and later revolution in Tunisia [[FollowTheLeader inspired similar protests across the Arab world]], including revolutions in Egypt, Libya, and UsefulNotes/{{Yemen}}. There have also been major protests in other countries, including UsefulNotes/{{Syria}}, which has seen brutal crackdown on the protesters. Since Libya, Syria, and Yemen devolved into civil wars and Egypt saw [[FullCircleRevolution a return to military rule]], Tunisia is basically the only ''political'' success story of the UsefulNotes/ArabSpring it inspired; of course, the revolutions have seriously impacted all the Arab countries ''socially'', and this isn't [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolutions_of_1848 the first time a major wave of revolution only saw success in one or two places]]. Since the 2011 revolution, Tunisia has been consistently ranked as the Arab world's healthiest democracy (according to the 2020 Democracy Index, it is one of the only three Arab countries that can be called democracies, and the other two, Lebanon and Morocco, have far more problems to tackle on compared to Tunisia), while Freedom House considers it by far the most liberal Arab country.
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26	Tunisia is classified as a lower-middle income country, with the labor force mostly covered by the service sector, followed by industry. It mainly exports textile and produce and also depends on tourism (the country is home to eight World Heritage Sites, including some very impressive Roman amphitheaters, to say nothing of the beaches). Until the revolution, the economy was strictly governed by the state. Since the revolution, the economy has been suffering from a decline due to political instabilities, ineffective bureaucracy, and corruption, which put off investors who want to do business (though to be fair, it's hard to dismantle a centralized economy that persisted for more than five decades). Tourism also took a big hit when two terrorist attacks happened in 2015, although it is slowly recovering.
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28	It's worth mentioning that Tunisia has been the [[CaliforniaDoubling site of quite a few movies where there is a desert scenery]]. Notable examples include Tatooine scenes in the ''Franchise/StarWars'' franchise (named after the city of Tataouine in the country's South), Cairo in ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'', and the entirety of ''Series/JesusOfNazareth'', ''Film/MontyPythonsLifeOfBrian''[[note]]both shot in the same place within two years, in Monastir[[/note]] and ''Film/TheEnglishPatient''.
29
30	!! Works set in Tunisia
31	* Myth/ArabMythology
32	* ''Film/NeftaFootballClub'', about two young boys who find a stray donkey carrying an odd burden.
33	* ''Film/{{Brotherhood\|2018}}'', about an ISIS jihadist who comes home.
34	* ''Film/ArabBlues'', about a young psychoanalyst who was born there and returns from France to open a practice in Tunis.
35	* ''VideoGame/SniperEliteIII'' has its final levels set in Tunisia, where Karl Fairburne is tasked with stopping a German prototype project from getting off the ground.
36	* ''VideoGame/MedalOfHonorAlliedAssault'', specifically the ''Breakthrough'' ExpansionPack, has the entire North African portion of the campaign set during the Battle of Kasserine Pass and the push into Bizerte.
37	* Any works involving Carthage involve Tunisia by implication.
38	* The tenth story of the third day of the ''Literature/{{Decameron}}'' is set in the Tunisian town of Gafsa, known in Italy in the Middle Ages for being near a significant Christian monastery/community of desert hermits. Let's just say that the tenth story of the third day is so incredibly obscene, English translators of the ''Decameron'' refused to translate it for five hundred years--and the obscenity had ''everything'' to do with the hermits.
39	* The first major story arc of ''Series/SEALTeam's'' fourth season has Ray sent to Tunisia as his first assignment as a newly promoted Warrant Officer to assist with security efforts there. While dining at a café, a local terrorist group attacks and takes him as a hostage, and Bravo Team is [[PuttingTheBandBackTogether hastily reformed and reactivated]] as part of the rescue operation to get him back.
40	* ''[[VideoGame/{{Commandos}} Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines]]'' is set in Tunis for its 12th mission as your team must rescue an informant and escape before being discovered by German forces.
41	----
42	!!Tunisian Media
43
44	* ''Film/TheManWhoSoldHisSkin'': An InternationalCoproduction, actually, but enough Tunisian involvement that it earned Tunisia a first ever nomination for the Oscar for [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestInternationalFeatureFilm Foreign Language Film]].
45	----
46	[[AC: The Tunisian flag]]
47	https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tunisia_flag_1159.png
48	->The flag is derived from the red flag of the Ottoman Empire, distinguishable by the crescent and star, traditional symbols of Islam, colored red and placed inside a white circle.
49	----
50	[[AC:The Tunisian national anthem]]
51	->حماة الحمى يا حماة الحمى
52	->هلموا هلموا لمجد الزمن
53	->لقد صرخت في عروقنا الدماء
54	->نموت نموت ويحيا الوطن
55
56	->لتدو السماوات برعدها
57	->لترم الصواعق نيرانها
58	->إلى عز تونس إلى مجدها
59	->رجال البلاد وشبانها
60	->فلا عاش في تونس من خانها
61	->ولا عاش من ليس من جندها
62	->نموت ونحيا على عهدها
63	->حياة الكرام وموت العظام
64
65	->حماة الحمى يا حماة الحمى
66	->هلموا هلموا لمجد الزمن
67	->لقد صرخت في عروقنا الدماء
68	->نموت نموت ويحيا الوطن
69
70	->ورثنا السواعد بين الأمم
71	->صخورا صخورا كهذا البناء
72	->سواعد يهتز فوقها العلم
73	->نباهي به ويباهي بنا
74	->وفيها كفا للعلى والهمم
75	->وفيها ضمان لنيل المنى
76	->وفيها لأعداء تونس نقم
77	->وفيها لمن سالمونا السلام
78
79	->حماة الحمى يا حماة الحمى
80	->هلموا هلموا لمجد الزمن
81	->لقد صرخت في عروقنا الدماء
82	->نموت نموت ويحيا الوطن
83
84	->إذا الشعب يوما أراد الحياة
85	->فلا بدّ أن يستجيب القدر
86	->ولا بد لليل أن ينجلي
87	->ولا بد للقيد أن ينكسر
88
89	->حماة الحمى يا حماة الحمى
90	->هلموا هلموا لمجد الزمن
91	->لقد صرخت في عروقنا الدماء
92	->نموت نموت ويحيا الوطن
93	[[note]]
94	->Ḥumāt al-ḥimá yā ḥumāt al-ḥimá
95	->Halummū halummū li-majdi iz-zaman
96	->Laqad ṣarakhat fī ʿurūqinā ad-dimā
97	->Namūtu namūtu wa-yaḥyā al-waṭan
98
99	->Li-tadwi is-samāwātu bi-raʿdihā
100	->Li-tarmi iṣ-ṣawāʿiqu nīrānahā
101	->Ilá ʿizzi Tūnis ilá majdihā
102	->Rijāl al-bilādi wa-shubbānahā
103	->Fa-lā ʿāsha fī Tūnis man khānahā
104	->Wa-lā ʿāsha man laysa min jundihā
105	->Namūtu wa-naḥyā ʿalá ʿahdihā
106	->Ḥayāt al-kirāmi wa-mawt al-ʿiẓām
107
108	->Ḥumāt al-ḥimá yā ḥumāt al-ḥimá
109	->Halummū halummū li-majdi iz-zaman
110	->Laqad ṣarakhat fī ʿurūqinā ad-dimā
111	->Namūtu namūtu wa-yaḥyā al-waṭan
112
113	->Wa-rithnā as-sawāʿida bayn al-ʾumam
114	->Ṣukhūran ṣukhūran ka-hadhā al-bināʾ
115	->Sawā‘idu yahtazzu fawqahā al-ʿalam
116	->Nubāhī bihi wa-yubāhī binā
117	->Wa-fīhā kafā lil-ʿulá wa-al-himam
118	->Wa-fīhā ḍamānun li-nayli il-muná
119	->Wa-fīhā li-ʾaʿdāʾi Tūnis niqam
120	->Wa-fīhā li-man sālamūnā as-salām
121
122	->Ḥumāt al-ḥimá yā ḥumāt al-ḥimá
123	->Halummū halummū li-majdi iz-zaman
124	->Laqad ṣarakhat fī ʿurūqinā ad-dimā
125	->Namūtu namūtu wa-yaḥyā al-waṭan
126
127	->Idhā ash-shaʿbu yawman arāda al-ḥayāh
128	->Fa-lā budda an yastajīb al-qadar
129	->Wa-lā budda lil-layli an yanjalī
130	->Wa-lā budda lil-qaydi an yankasir
131
132	->Ḥumāt al-ḥimá yā ḥumāt al-ḥimá
133	->Halummū halummū li-majdi iz-zaman
134	->Laqad ṣarakhat fī ʿurūqinā ad-dimā
135	->Namūtu namūtu wa-yaḥyā al-waṭan
136	[[/note]]
137
138	--
139
140	->O defenders of the Homeland!
141	->Rally around to the glory of our time!
142	->The blood surges in our veins,
143	->We die for the sake of our land.
144
145	->Let the sky roar with thunder
146	->Let thunderbolts rain with fire.
147	->Men and youth of Tunisia,
148	->O defenders of the Homeland!
149	->Rally around to the glory of our time!
150	->The blood surges in our veins,
151	->We die for the sake of our land.
152
153	->O defenders of the Homeland!
154	->Rally around to the glory of our time!
155	->The blood surges in our veins,
156	->We die for the sake of our land.
157
158	->As a nation we inherited
159	->Arms like granite towers.
160	->Holding aloft our proud flag flying,
161	->We boast of it, it boasts of us,
162	->Arms that achieve ambitions and glory,
163	->Sure to realize our hopes,
164	->Inflict defeat on foes,
165	->Offer peace to friends.
166
167	->O defenders of the Homeland!
168	->Rally around to the glory of our time!
169	->The blood surges in our veins,
170	->We die for the sake of our land.
171
172	->When the people will to live,
173	->Destiny must surely respond.
174	->Oppression shall then vanish.
175	->Fetters are certain to break.
176
177	->O defenders of the Homeland!
178	->Rally around to the glory of our time!
179	->The blood surges in our veins,
180	->We die for the sake of our land.
181	----
182	[[AC:Government]]
183	* Unitary semi-presidential constitutional republic
184	** President: Kais Saied
185	** Prime Minister: Ahmed Hachani
186	** Assembly Speaker: Ibrahim Bouderbala
187	----
188	[[AC:Miscellaneous]]
189	* '''Capital and largest city:''' Tunis
190	* '''Population:''' 11,708,370
191	* '''Area:''' 163,610 km
192	(63,170 sq mi) (91st)
193	* '''Currency:''' Tunisian dinar (ل.د) (TND)
194	* '''ISO-3166-1 Code:''' TN
195	* '''Country calling code:''' 216
196	* '''Highest point:''' Jebel ech-Chambi (1544 m/5,066 ft) (141st)

Context UsefulNotes / Tunisia