Statement of Solidarity with Sonia Dahmani and the Targeting of Women Activists in Tunisia

Statement of Solidarity with Sonia Dahmani and the Targeting of Women Activists in Tunisia

We, a group of feminist activists, organizations, and civil society institutions, express our solidarity with Tunisian lawyer and media figure Sonia Dahmani, who is facing successive campaigns of judicial harassment and direct targeting under Decree No. 54 of 2022. This represents a blatant abuse of the law in service of politically and judicially motivated attacks, threatening the achievements of the Tunisian revolution and the broader path toward justice and equality in the region.

In recent weeks, the charges against Sonia have escalated, including two prison sentences of two years each, which were issued on June 30, 2025. These verdicts were handed down in retaliation for her outspoken stance against racism toward migrants and against hate crimes, under vague and overly broad laws increasingly used to silence critical voices, chief among them Decree 54.

In total, recent rulings have sentenced Sonia Dahmani to four years in prison for her public statements addressing racism against migrants and human rights violations in Tunisian prisons. These prosecutions are based on Decree 54, which has become a tool for criminalizing free expression and persecuting journalists and human rights defenders, in flagrant violation of constitutional guarantees and international standards of freedom of expression.

This trajectory is not surprising, but rather part of a broader campaign against dozens of defenders of rights, justice, and freedoms in Tunisia, including Bouchra Belhaj and Sihem Bensedrine, among others. The pattern has culminated in a two-year prison sentence in absentia against Rimla Dahmani as a result of her solidarity with her sister Sonia, who began a hunger strike. This charge, too, was based on the same legal decree intended to combat cybercrimes, revealing a systematic strategy of weaponizing the law to suppress and restrict civic space through repeated prosecutions and harsh sentences in trials that lack the most basic standards of due process.

We hereby declare our full solidarity with Sonia Dahmani, the human rights lawyer and media professional, who was arrested within the premises of the Tunisian Bar Association. We affirm that this targeting is an assault on all women who struggle for justice, a deliberate attempt to silence women’s right to express their views freely. We consider these judicial proceedings a form of systematic political violence aimed specifically at feminist movements in Tunisia and the broader Arab region.

Accordingly, we call on the Tunisian authorities to immediately drop all charges against Sonia Dahmani and all other defenders in these cases, to guarantee the right to a fair trial, and to respect freedom of expression and peaceful political engagement. We further demand an end to the use of Decree 54 as a legalized tool of repression, and a departure from its practices that violate international human rights standards. Finally, we urge all civil, human rights, and feminist forces in the Arab region and worldwide to stand in solidarity with Sonia Dahmani and defend women’s rights and fundamental freedoms in Tunisia.

Freedom for Sonia Dahmani. Liberty and justice for all those who struggle for justice and equality.

ٍSignatures:

• Association Tunisienne des Femmes Démocrates
• Le Journal Féministe Algérien
• The Regional Coalition for Women Human Rights Defenders in South West Asia and North Africa (WHRDMENA)