Tunis transport company launches campaign for women's safety

The Tunisian capital’s public transport company launched a national campaign on Tuesday to address violence against women on public transportation.

Transtu's "Safe Transport Is a Right" campaign will last for 16 days and will coincide with the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, which falls on 25 November.

General Manager of Transtu, Moez Ben Salem, announced in a press conference Tuesday that the campaign will go on until 15 December, adding that the aim was to guarantee the right to a violent and harassment-free space for both women and men on public transport.

Speaking to The New Arab’s sister site, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, Salem said "the company set out years ago in implementing a strategy… to address and limit this phenomenon."

"The rates of harassment and violence against women decreased in 2021 by 37.5 percent compared to 2020, based on… complaints received from (transport) companies and the interior ministry,” he added.

Tunisian women have complained of being harassed verbally and physically on the city’s light rail and bus services.

At least one in four women said they were a victim of violence on public transportation, while 53.5 percent overall said they were subjected to some form of violence in a public space, according to a 2016 study by The Centre for Research, Studies, Documentation and Information on Women (CREDIF).

This year’s campaign was preceded by two others focusing specifically on public transport in Tunis, including the controversial "The Harasser Doesn’t Ride With Us" campaign in 2017.