LIBERATION: A MASK OF A PEOPLE TAKEN HOSTAGE? The case of Rached Ghannouchi and Jawhar ben Mubarak on hunger strike

Among contemporary Islamic movements, Rached Ghannouchi is the figure who has most emphasized subjects such as democracy, human rights, coexistence and dialogue within Islamist discourse, and has even placed this at the center of his style of struggle. Against an Islamist reflex that keeps its distance from these concepts because it generally hears them from the mouths of Westerners, he developed, through these emphases, an Islamist discourse of his own.

During the opportunities for power or political participation he gained after the Arab Spring revolution that began in Tunisia, he emphasized this discourse all the more rather than setting it aside. His deep intellectual approaches reflected all the sincerity of a wise sense of responsibility, inviting the building of Tunisia together with all Tunisians.

Far from setting aside what he had said before because he had come to power, he tried to make all he had said so far a means of implementation. Because he was the most popular figure of post-revolution Tunisia, when he could have run himself, he supported his socialist-origin friend Moncef Marzouki, who ran for president, and ensured his election as President. For 4 years together they waged the struggle to build Tunisia on the basis of democracy and human dignity and rights.

He was aware of how all the myths produced about Islamists during the era of secular dictatorships had poisoned society, and he thought that the way to expel this poison was not to ignore the sicknesses formed in this period. All the Arab revolutions were attempted to be strangled by counter-coup processes, and most had succeeded. When, under the influence of the spring that began in Tunisia, those who had strangled the revolution with a coup in the neighboring country that had experienced a revolution lent support to coup attempts against the Tunisian revolution too, he gave an answer that would go down in history: "We exported a democratic revolution to you; we have no intention of importing a coup that brings dictatorship."

Yet, despite all this democratic, so-called "moderate," wise stance, the Tunisia led by Ghannouchi could not escape a coup. Moreover, the coup came from a completely unexpected place, from within the democratic processes. One night the President, who had been elected with the votes of Ghannouchi himself and of the members of the Ennahda movement, announced that he had suspended the constitution and dissolved the parliament of which Ghannouchi was speaker. Then he put the 82-year-old leader of the Ennahda movement in prison by bringing fabricated cases. Ghannouchi has been in prison ever since. The Islamic world's most powerful, most respected and deepest thinker is today, at the age of 84, in prison, instead of being where he should be, guiding the whole Islamic world with his counsel and ideas. This is a shame not only on Tunisia but on the entire Islamic world.

Now Ghannouchi, in the prison where he has been held for two and a half years, announced last Friday that he had begun a hunger strike. But this strike is not an action against the injustice done to him. He began it in solidarity with another political prisoner like himself, Jawhar Ben Mubarak. Ghannouchi's daughter Soumaya, who is also the editor-in-chief of Mim magazine, announced her father's decision in a video message she shared, as follows:

"Yesterday my father joined the hunger strike in solidarity with Jawhar Ben Mubarak. Although in his eighties, he resists with body, soul and will; he refuses to surrender to this insane, treacherous coup in Tunisia."

Many people became acquainted on this occasion with Jawhar Ben Mubarak, in solidarity with whom Ghannouchi has gone on hunger strike. He is one of Tunisia's best-known constitutional jurists, academics and politicians. In recent years he has come to the fore particularly with his criticisms of the extraordinary process that President Kais Saied launched on 25 July 2021, and for this reason has become one of the symbolic names of political repression.

He has long been known as an advocate of democratic reform and freedoms. In the post-revolution period of 2011 he took part in many committees working on constitutional reforms. He is one of the founders of the political platform called "Opposite Direction" and of the "Citizens Against the Coup" movement. This movement had openly described as a "constitutional coup" President Kais Saied's suspension of parliament in 2021 and his beginning to rule the country by decree.

In February 2023, Ben Mubarak, together with many politicians, jurists and opposition figures, "conspiracy against state security," "planning a coup against the President" and "cooperating with foreign parties." Of course these charges are entirely fabricated.

Ben Mubarak and his friends had formed a civilian opposition bloc that opposed Kais Saied's one-man rule. This group demanded the restoration of the constitutional order, the return of parliament and the protection of judicial independence. For this reason the government accused them of "conspiracy."

Ben Mubarak is one of the quietest yet deepest cries in Tunisia's recent history. The conviction issued against him is not a legal judgment but an order of silence.

Ben Mubarak's story begins not in the fatigue of a post-revolution but in the deception of a democracy. He reads the Kais Saied regime's slogan of "liberation" as "the mask of a hostage people." When he says "The state has been taken hostage, the people have been taken hostage, under the name of liberation," he turns the language of law into a moral weapon.

With the cry he raises against the coup, Ben Mubarak frightens the coup-makers at least as much as Ghannouchi does. His statements echo in Tunisia's political thought agenda with memorable aphorisms. He says, for example, "The state has been taken hostage, the people have been taken hostage, under the name of liberation." In another speech he says, "The constitution is not a sacred book, but it is a sacred contract the people make with themselves." And other sayings:

"One who betrays democracy cannot speak in the name of the people."

"We oppose not because we love opposition, but because we refuse to be silent."

"Freedom is not given, it is taken."

"Politics without morals is not politics, it is merely a bargain."

"The people are stronger than fear."

"Legitimacy comes not from the barrel of a gun, but from the ballot box."

"Every political prisoner is a mirror of the state."

"We will continue, because to stop is to accept defeat."

Ben Mubarak is one of the quietest yet deepest cries in Tunisia's recent history. The conviction issued against him is not a legal judgment but a decision ordering his silence. Ben Mubarak's story begins not in the fatigue of a post-revolution but in the deception of a democracy. He reads the Kais Saied regime's slogan of "liberation" as "the mask of a hostage people." When he says "The state has been taken hostage, the people have been taken hostage, under the name of liberation," he turns the language of law into a moral weapon.

Ben Mubarak is not from the Ennahda movement. But against the will of the people, like Moncef Marzouki, he meets Ghannouchi on a common denominator and pleads the cause of a will stolen and taken hostage from the people in Tunisia.

And now, at the age of 84, in a prison cell, Ghannouchi puts forth his own spirit and will in a hunger strike in order to raise the voice of this cause.