The film, first released in May this year, follows four years in the parallel political lives of Jawhara Ettis and Emna Ben Jemaa – two women at the centre of Tunisia’s radical turn to democracy during the 2011 Arab Spring.

California-based Deeter took a Q&A after the 90-minute film, and led a workshop for film and journalism students the following evening.

‘A Revolution in Four Seasons’ is the culmination of six year’s work, when Deeter was living in Oman, Morocco and Tunisia as a Fulbright Scholar in 2010. When hard-line President Ben Ali was ousted by protesters at the start of 2011, the seeds of the Arab Spring revolution sprang up and Tunisia held its first ever free and fair election.

Asking questions about youth, democracy, social media and motherhood, ‘A Revolution’ captures some crucial perspectives of new Arab democracy in the digital age.

Deeter said the project took shape “happy accident” when she approached the Ennahda Islamist party and befriended Ennahda, who went on to be elected regional representative and contribute to the composition of Tunisia’s new constitution. Researching the political landscape soon brought Emna – a political activist who blogs, makes videos, and uses social media to promote secular liberal democracy – into the picture. In Deeter’s words, the film depicts a “clash of their ideals with reality” as excitement over unprecedented democratic elections contrasts with deeply-felt religious differences, and disputes over political processes.

The director told of her challenges during filming, including broken tripods, dialect barriers, and filming in near-50C heat. Deeter lived part of the time with her family, and sometimes wrote news stories to fund the project. ‘No one on the film was doing it for the money or the glamour!’.

‘Women need to be present in politics to represent their rights and points of view,’ a Tunisian man says at one point in the film. Despite being one of the first Arab nations to instigate female suffrage, Tunisia suffers from a paucity of women in office – a problem not yet overcome in the UK either.

The documentary is not shy about depicting many areas of the women’s life in political and family scenarios. The subjects’ trust in the filmmakers over the years comes through poignantly, as moments of marital unhappiness, physical discomfort whilst pregnant in the workplace, and honesty about unfavourable political outcomes are included in amongst scenes of momentous celebration.

Deeter admits that the editing process was a mammoth task; three talented editors were needed to craft a story that was detailed yet compelling for an American audience. Does the director feel the film can be called out for bias? “I feel pretty proud of the fact that we get slammed by both sides,” Deeter responded, explaining that viewers of both Islamists and secular persuasions have criticised sympathetic portrayals of their opponents.

Further information about the film can be found on its Facebook page and website.

In December of 2010, Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi lit himself on fire protest of government corruption and poor living conditions. This act was a catalyst for the Arab Spring. Tunisians who had never known democracy were then left with the question of what democracy in their country could mean. A Revolution in Four Seasons seeks to answer that question from the perspective of two young women who persevere to change their country.

This compelling documentary follows journalist Emna Ben Jemaa and Constituent Assembly member Jawhara Ettis over the course of Tunisia’s critical first four years after the Revolution. Emna is a secular journalist fighting to keep religion out of government, while Jawhara works within Parliament to help gently guide the nation towards more Islamic principles. Both women exhibit remarkable determination, wisdom, and resilience in their efforts to steer the country towards disparate versions of the perfect democracy.

Through its central characters, the film embarks on an exploration of what it means to be a modern Islamic woman – balancing work, family, and politics in the context of a budding democracy. Over the four years following Tunisia’s revolution Jawhara and Emna must make difficult compromises as ambitious participants in this fragile new climate. Paralleling this is Tunisia’s development as it is threatened by economic strain, political assassinations, acts of terrorism, and protests which ultimately force Jawhara’s government to step down.

Directed by: Jessie Deeter
Country: United States
Year: 2015
Runtime: 90 mins

Tunisian identity, neighbourhood quarrels, and Jihadist fighters in Syria were among the subjects discussed at the Frontline Club on 23 September. The evening began with a screening of Tunisian journalist, Zuhair Latif’s latest film for BBC Arabic, The Battle for Bizerte. It was followed by an energetic Q&A moderated by BBC Arabic TV presenter, Makki Helal.

Makki Helal and Zuhair Latif. Photo: Antonia Roupell

Fifty-two years on from the colonial battle of Bizerte, Latif showed us a very different power struggle in Tunisia. The Battle for Bizerte depicts post revolution tensions between a Salafist group known as Ansar Al-Sharia and the local authorities. The Salafists’ self-appointed position as lawmakers and enforcers in Bizerte filled a void in the areas where the authorities fell short.

The audience was given a rare insight into the work of Salafist leader and protagonist, Abdel Salam, who set up what Helal referred to as a “kiosk of justice”. From his small shop, he deals with the locals as they ask him for advice on anything from marital disputes to more serious crimes. We witness him exercise his authority with efficiency, persuasive tactics and religious rhetoric to undeniable effect.

Seeking answers for individual concerns was echoed in the audience’s questions. One member of the audience explained that her son-in-law had just bought a house in Tunisia but now wondered if the situation would remain stable. Latif reassured her that he thought it would. Another gentleman proclaimed to a bemused audience that he would have welcomed the Salafists’ efficiency here in the UK in dealing with his own dilemmas on numerous occasions. With reference to the tendencies of Ansar Al-Sharia, another audience member observed, “some of them sound like the Mafia in New York City.”

On a more serious note, Latif praised the strength of the Tunisian administration but not its government:

“These people who take power now in Tunisia, they don’t have any political experience and this is why we fight ourselves without a real government.”

Latif explained that he was able to get such direct access by spending a couple of months gaining the Salafists’ trust. He continued to outline that this was not the first time he had dealt with the subject of emerging fundamentalism. He first tackled this subject two years ago and described the surprised Tunisian reaction at the time.  In Latif’s own words they exclaimed:

“Do we have these kinds of people in Tunisia?. . . No way, what are you talking about?”  

The timing of the film’s completion is another significant point, as it saw the climax of fighting between officials and the Ansar Al-Sharia in the area. Consequently, the group was banned, labeled a terrorist organisation and many of its members were forced underground.

Conscious of the film’s negative impact in its depiction of ultra-conservatives and some of their violent tendencies, Latif was quick to contextualise the Salafi phenomenon and defend Tunisia as a whole:

“This is one small angle of Tunisia. . . . Still in Tunisia we believe in a democratic solution, in a political solution.”

With some fragments of certainty, much of the discussion revealed nevertheless an ongoing identity crisis in the country. Latif reflected:

“Since our independence in 1956, what does it mean to be Tunisian? We don’t have one definition of who we are, we are Muslim, Arabic whatever…”

While media and TV industry professionals accounted for much of the audience, it was divided on the topic of the consequences of Salafism in Tunisia and beyond. Some voiced concern for the increasing signs of fundamentalist groups like Ansar Al-Sharia while a representative from Islamic TV dismissed them as, “a tiny group” and “a temporary phenomenon.”

Latif seemed to predict the decline of fundamentalism in Tunisia, stating:

‘Thank God Islamists come to power just after the election –  if not, next election they would be 99% saying “always we are hated”. . . . We are in the beginning of revolution; it’s a process.’

Had Latif’s life been endangered during the making of this film? Had he received death threats? These questions were particularly related to his journey to Damascus in pursuit of a young Tunisian jihadist who disappeared there.

Sensitivity towards the way the Syrian crisis was conveyed became the final topic of discussion. With some determined to bring the focus back to Tunisia, the resounding question seemed to be: when dealing with Salafism, where do the boundaries lie? According to Latif, one thing is certain:

“The stories continue and the battle did not end.”

Latif is currently working on another documentary researching the causes and effects of Tunisian Jihadists in Syria.

The film also reveals for the first time how the Salafists make their own rules, as they round up and punish those who infringe their strict interpretation of Islamic law. This film examines how the Salafists implement what they see as God’s law in Bizerte, and how far they are prepared to go to impose it on others. From Tunisia to Egypt and beyond, Salafists pose a serious challenge to authorities. The battle for influence and control is only just beginning.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Zuhair Latif, the BBC Arabic reporter on The Battle for Bizerte. Zuhair Latif is a Tunisian journalist who has 17 years of experience in broadcast journalism, covering conflicts in many countries including Afghanistan, Iraq, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kosova, Chechenya, and East Timor. The Q&A will be chaired by BBC Arabic TV presenter, Makki Helal.

This screening is organised by BBC Arabic.

On Tuesday 29 May, the Frontline Club showcased ‘Writing Revolution: the Voices from Tunis to Damascus’, a book which celebrates some of the best new writing to emerge from the Arab Spring.

The collection of articles and essays focusses on what the revolutions, which have rumbled across North Africa and the Middle East over the past three years, mean to journalists, bloggers and activists in the region.

L-R: Matthew Cassel, Layla Al-Zubaidi, Mohamed Mesrati, Ali Abdulemam, Rachel Shabi. Picture Credit: Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei

“The process of finding the protagonists was not easy,” said Layla Al-Zubaidi, editor of Writing Revolution and director of the Southern Africa office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Cape Town. She added:

“If you ask revolutionaries to write, it is not easy because they have to sit back and reflect on what they are doing, and for that you need time, space and calm moments. If you’re in the heat of the battle it is hard to find that.”

Al-Zubaidi was joined by Matthew Cassel, a journalist for Al Jazeera English who co-edited the book, Mohamed Mesrati, a Libyan writer and journalist who contributed to the book, and Ali Abdulemam, a Bahraini blogger who agreed to contribute before he went into hiding after a government crackdown. Abdulemam was representing his friend and fellow political refugee Dr. Ali Aldairy, who contributed to the project but was unable to attend the event. Rachel Shabi, a journalist who has written widely on the Middle East, chaired the event. She commented:

 “Most of the journalism that came out of the Arab uprisings came from people who rocked up after the revolution started.”

Cassel said that although Western journalists working for mainstream media outlets were a vital part of reporting the Arab Spring, alternative voices could provide a fuller picture of the unfolding events:

“We shouldn’t neglect the young voices that are happening in the country. . . . We need to give a platform to these voices.”

From Cairo to Damascus, Tunisia to Bahrain, the essays and articles highlight the drastic differences between the revolutions which have often been painted with the same brush by the mainstream media. They also explore the histories of the people and their countries, dispelling the myth that the Arab revolutions came from nowhere.

“We wanted to show how much struggle and how much sacrifice happened in the years leading up to the uprisings,” Cassel said, adding that “creative resistance” was a large factor in the uprisings.

Mesrati said that he found it difficult to write down what the Libyan revolution meant to him, when he was commissioned to write a piece:

“When my literary agent said I should write a piece of 3,000 words to 5,000 words, I wanted to write 7,000 words.”

He also mentioned that he wanted to write about Libya’s history and Gaddafi’s influence on the country.

Abdulemam, who went into hiding before he could write his piece, said that he would have focussed on the youth in Bahrain and why they had taken to the streets:

“I would have reflected on youth, what makes them so angry and what they are ready to die for. My essay would try to answer why the youth went out into the street and why until this day they have not gone home. . . . They have this hope that they will bring change. They are sure they will bring it. They don’t want anyone to insult them any more. That’s what makes me sure that change is coming soon.”

Throughout the debate, the editors and writers spoke about the other contributors they encountered along the way.

Aldairy, who was unable to attend the debate, “wrote his experiences from outside the opposition circle”, according to Abdulemam.  On the other hand, Al-Zubaidi recalled commissioning a piece from a Syrian writer while avoiding the use of the word ‘activism’, ‘civil society’ and ‘revolution’ on the phone in case it put her in danger:

“She finally said to me: ‘Do you want me to write an article about the revolution? I will say and write what I want. Don’t worry about putting me in danger, I will express myself.’”

Al-Zubaidi continued:

“When [some people] say how disappointing the Arab Spring was, and ask was it worth it, it disregards what these people are doing. You don’t want to risk everything if there’s no hope, and I think these people had hope.”

You can watch the video and listen to the podcast below:

https://soundcloud.com/frontlineclub/writing-revolution-the-voices

https://soundcloud.com/frontlineclub/writing-revolution-the-voices

From Cairo to Damascus, Tunisia to Bahrain, Writing Revolution brings together some of the best new writing born out of the profound changes shaking the region.

We will be joined by the editors and two of the contributors to talk about their work and how it has been shaped and influenced by the historic events unfolding around them. They will be reflecting on what they have witnessed and documented, and the political and poetic engagement with questions of identity and activism.

Bringing together authors, journalists, activists, students, writers and bloggers this collection of writing offers a moving testimony to the hopefulness and the heartbreak that has been witnessed across the Arab world.

Chaired by Rachel Shabi, a journalist and writer, she has written widely on the Middle East for a variety of media including the Guardian, Sunday Times, Independent , Al Jazeera English, Jane’s Intelligence Digest, Foreign Policy, and the New Statesman. She was shortlisted for the 2011 Orwell Prize for political journalism, won the Anna Lindh journalism prize 2011 and was also nominated for the Next Century Foundation’s cutting edge media award.

The panel:

Matthew Cassel is a journalist and photographer based in the Middle East since 2004. Formerly assistant editor of The Electronic Intifada online journal, he is a journalist with Al Jazeera English and a contributor to numerous other publications.

Layla Al-Zubaidi is director of the Southern Africa Office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Cape Town. She headed the Foundation’s Middle East Office in Beirut for six years, served as Program Manager at its office in Ramallah and worked for several media and development institutions.

Mohamed Mesrati is a Libyan writer and journalist residing in the UK. He started to publish his short stories online in 2007. He works as a journalist for El Kef newspaper, which has featured his investigative reports on social issues in Libya. An extract from his novel-in-progress Mama Pizza appeared in Banipal No. 40.

Ali Abdulemam is a Bahraini blogger, the founder of Bahrain Online and human rights activist. He took part in protests calling for democracy in Bahrain in February-March 2011. He was amongst the first to agree to contribute to the Writing Revolution project before he went into hiding during a government crackdown on the protest movement. He was sentenced, in absentia to 15 years in prison and recently fled Bahrain to the UK where he’s been granted asylum. He is representing his friend and fellow political refugee, Dr. Ali Aldairy, who ended up contributing to this project but was sadly not able to make it to the UK for this event.

Supported by

From the taboo of premarital sex to trouble in the conjugal bed; from sexed-up writing to censored movies; from debates over sexual education and abortion to the incendiary topic of unwed motherhood; from the booming business of sex work to the struggles of those who break the heterosexual mould, El Feki examines the complexity of sexual intolerance and liberty in the Arab world and how it is entwined in religion, tradition, politics and economics.

Shereen El Feki is a writer, broadcaster, and academic who started her professional life in medical science before going on to become an award-winning journalist with The Economist and a presenter with Al Jazeera English. She is the former vice-chair of the UN’s Global Commission on HIV and the Law, as well as a TED Global Fellow. She writes for a number of publications.

Coming straight from a day of reporting on the latest unrest between Israel and Gaza, the BBC’s Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen was at the Frontline Club on 14 November to discuss the historic events that have reshaped the Middle East. He reflected on their political context, history and the evolving landscape as documented in his new book, The Arab uprisings: The people want the fall of the regime.

Joined by Samir Farah of BBC Arabic, Bowen noted that, in retrospect, even people who had intimate knowledge of the region were naïve as the events unfolded. When leaving for Egypt as things began, Bowen thought he would be back in three days and packed as many shirts. As it turned out, he would be gone for over a month and spent much of the past two years documenting the aftermath.

“The thing which actually makes me feel OK about the fact that I didn’t see it coming is that Mubarak did not see it coming, Assad didn’t see it coming, MI6, and CIA didn’t and actually looking back on it, we should have seen it coming. People knew that some change was pending,” he said.

Both Farah and Bowen also dispelled some of the myths arising from the desperate act of suicide on December 17 2010 in Tunisia, when Mohamed Bouazizi set fire to himself after being prevented from selling vegetables on the street. The tragedy is widely regarded as a catalyst, along with food inflation, drought, shifting demographics and other macro and socioeconomic realities, not just for the removal of the country’s president but also for the spread of unrest.

“Early on in Tunisia, there were reports saying that [Bouazizi] was a university graduate who had to sell vegetables because he couldn’t get a job and university graduates identified with that. Actually he wasn’t, he hadn’t even finished high school …[but] he was supporting his family from a young age and he just became an archetype which people could identify with and that was the thing in the end that made it happen,” he said.

Bowen also cautioned against oversimplification, not only of the diverse cultures and regions in the present day, but also in drawing parallels to other historic events. As it developed, the situation at first seemed reminiscent of Eastern Europe. Describing it as the “Arab Spring” references the Prague Spring and by extension the dominoes falling in the former Soviet Union in 1989. There was an expectation that by the summer of 2011 there would be a whole new Middle East. Not so, Bowen pointed out:

“It is going to be a generation-long process of change as we are seeing in Syria and we would have seen in Libya had there not been foreign intervention,”

Meanwhile, democracy in Egypt is still in its infancy:

“I have [heard] pious Muslims … say that [what the] Muslim Brotherhood [needs to do is not teach them] how to pray … they need to provide jobs, better healthcare, end corruption, make things efficient otherwise [they] might have to vote for somebody else,” he said, adding also that since the revolution, the amount of anti-Western feeling is increasing exponentially.

Audience questions leaned towards predicting what would happen next, particularly about the continuing devastation of the civil war in Syria and as Israel and Gaza began heating up in a dramatically altered Middle East.

“I think Syria is headed for a deepening war … some kind of sectarian fragmentation and going through the sort of horrendous experience that Lebanon went through in its 15-year civil war with the capacity too, to destabilise other parts of the region, you are already seeing it in Beirut … Turkey, in Iraq,” he said, adding that Israel is conducting an operation in Gaza now in a different world than that of Cast Lead.

Also looking to the future, Farah noted that amid the uncertainty one thing is for sure; Big change is coming.

“The Middle East will never be the same,” he said.

Watch the full discussion here:

“Zero Silence is not a film about social media technology but about the revolt of a young generation for whom silence is no longer an option.”

Before any political revolution was in sight in the Middle East, filmmakers Javeria Rizvi Kabani, Jonny von Walstrom, and Alexandra Sandels visited Egypt, Tunisia, and Lebannon to witness the network revolutions already taking place.

By following young activists, journalists, and bloggers they show how silence is no longer an option for the youth who have access to the new digital tools and networks created in the last few years.

Shot between November 2009 and June 2011, the film explores the growing awarness that what was once an inconceivable dream of ending opression could materialise. We witness both their frustration and elation and the unbreakable network of support that made what seemed impossible, possible.

Directed by: Javeria Rizvi Kabani, Jonny von Walstrom, & Alexandra Sandels

Running Time: 57′

Year: 2011

“Never has the power of the people appeared so humane, so inspiring, so personal, so determined as in Tunisia, so daring as in Syria, so diverse as in Yemen, so humble as in Bahrain, so courageous as in Libya, or so humorous as in Egypt. If, as one keen observer noted, every joke is a tiny revolution, the Arabs, and most notably the Egyptians, are revolutionaries par excellence.

Marwan Bishara, The Invisible Arab: The promise and peril of the Arab revolution.

The uprisings across the Arab world have often been portrayed by the media as spontaneous acts that were sparked by the death of Tunisian street seller Mohamed Bouazizi after he set fire to himself in late 2010.

In his new book Marwan Bishara of Al Jazeera English challenges this perception, exploring the history and deep-rooted feelings behind the apparently spontaneous takeover of Tunisia’s November 7 Square, Egypt’s Tahrir Square, and Bahrain’s Pearl Square.

These events and others in the region, Bishara explains, were the culmination of a long social and political struggle: countless sit-ins, strikes, pickets and demonstrations by people who risked and suffered intimidation, torture and imprisonment.

Marwan Bishara will be joining senior BBC presenter and special correspondent Lyse Doucet to discuss the roots of the uprisings, how they have evolved from country to country, the shifts they have created in the region and asking what lies ahead as people continue to battle for freedom and justice?

Marwan Bishara is Al Jazeera English’s senior political analyst and editor and host of its flagship show Empirewas previously a lecturer in International Relations at the American University of Paris, and a fellow at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. His writing has appeared in the Guardian, New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Newsweek, Le Monde, and The Nation amongst other titles.