TUNIS - The Tunisian Education Ministry issued a statement denouncing the "unacceptable aggression" towards a teacher at the Okba Ibn Nafaa elementary school in Sousse, specifying that it has opened an investigation to clarify the circumstances surrounding the incident and those responsible.



The statement refers to physical and verbal aggression by parents of the teacher's students on the first day of school last Friday.



Accused by parents of being "a bad teacher, a non-believer and having a bad influence on their children", the teacher was physically jostled to the point where she had to be accompanied by law enforcement on subsequent days to enter her classroom. The Sfax prosecutor's office has issued three custody orders for those responsible for the aggression against the teacher.



In its statement the Education Ministry rejected "every form of verbal, moral and physical violence against teachers", appealing to parents of students to respect their role as an integral part of the educational system.



Parents accused the teacher of "atheism and Satanic practices".



The ministry dismissed the accusations and highlighted that the teacher has 33 years of experience, 10 of which are in the school in Sfax where the incident took place.



Although the ministry doesn't want the case to become politicised, the case highlights the distance between the secular and Islamic worlds in a society in continual transformation such as that of Tunisia.



The defamation campaign against the teacher, a sort of "witch hunt" orchestrated most likely by Islamic extremists, brought forth a wave of general indignation.



Since 2014 the Tunisian Constitution expressly prohibits accusing someone of being a non-believer.



The teacher is a member of the Sfax branch of the Tunisian Association of Democratic Women (ATFD).



Numerous political parties and civil society organisations immediately spoke out against the aggression and expressed support for the teacher, warning "against the dangers and repercussions of such drifts".

