Malek Ben Jaafar, another of the student’s lawyers, said, “We are pushing for it to be considered as an issue of sexual harassment and not just public indecency because it could set a legal precedent and actually encourage other women to file a complaint.”

Tunisia has a proud recent tradition of spontaneous protest leading to real change. The Arab Spring revolts began here in late 2010 after a suicide protest by a fruit seller.

The uprising led to the replacement of the country’s longtime autocrat, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, with a democracy that recently completed its second set of free presidential elections.

Tunisia has also been one of the most progressive countries in the Arab world on women’s rights. Measures such as a law combating violence against women, passed in 2017, provide a safety system for women who want to denounce abuse, harassment and violence based on their gender.

But in 97 percent of sexual harassment cases, either the victim does not file an official complaint or the alleged attacker avoids punishment, according to a 2017 report by the Tunisian Center for Research, Studies, Documentation and Information on Women, which operates under the Ministry of Women and Family Affairs. More recent statistics are not available.

“It is still really difficult to prove there was sexual harassment,” said Fadoua Braham, a lawyer who has handled several harassment cases. “Even if the law punishes it and gives several definitions for it, the most difficult for women is to get the proof and also to stay strong during the judicial process, which is often an ordeal,” she added.

“In the cases of sexual harassment in the workplace, for instance, women who speak out are often not supported by their employer, who fears for the reputation of their company,” she said. “Worse than that, women can be targeted by their own abusers for defamation when they had the courage to file a complaint.”