Research, ideas, and leadership for a more secure, peaceful world

Past Event
Seminar

Subversive Justice and the Performance of Dignity: The Hearings of the Tunisian Truth and Dignity Commission

Open to the Public

A seminar with Nadia Marzouki, Andrew Carnegie Centennial Fellow, Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation and Research Fellow, Middle East Initiative. Part of the Middle East Initiative Research Fellows Seminar Series.

Date: Time: - Location: Taubman Building - Nye A, 5th Floor
Testimony of Mothers of the Martyrs of the Revolution in Tunisia, 17 November 2016.

About

A seminar with Nadia Marzouki, Andrew Carnegie Centennial Fellow, Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation and Research Fellow, Middle East Initiative. Part of the Middle East Initiative Research Fellows Seminar Series.

Moderated by Tarek Masoud, Sultan of Oman Professor of International Relations, HKS.

About the talk

The TDC has been widely praised as an essential step toward a peaceful consolidation of democracy in Tunisia. Yet, many commentators have cast doubt on the actual ability of the Commission to bring about justice, and have rightly noted that the Commission’s work has so far led to a very limited number of criminal prosecutions.

However, assessing the TDC solely from the perspective of its instrumental-legal efficacy obfuscates other essential aspects of the Commission’s work revealed by the public hearings organized since the fall of 2016.  These public testimonies represent a unique site of subversion of gender norms and family hierarchies, of equalization of classes and status, and of enunciation of a humanist form of sacredness that transcends the traditional Islamist-secularist divide.

Contact

For Event Information