Blogger Emna Chargui was sentenced to six months in prison relating to a social media post she had shared about the coronavirus written in the style of the Qur'an.
Emna Chargui is a Tunisian blogger who at the age of 27 was sentenced to six months in prison for “inciting hatred between religions through hostile means or violence” and “offending authorized religions.” The offending speech came in the form of a May 2020 social media post Emna shared that warned people of the dangers of COVID-19, advising readers to practice basic hygiene and stay safe. The content was not offensive, but its form was: the post parodied Qur’anic verse, referring to itself as a “corona surah.”
Immediately after sharing the post, Emna was met with backlash. She received threats of rape and murder. Authorities showed little interest in investigating or prosecuting these, but they quickly seized on the speech as illegally defamatory, leading to her sentencing in July 2017.
"I thought it was a good way to make people aware about washing their hands and be[ing] careful with the coronavirus, with a style that everyone know[s] ... I did not even think about how big this would get when I shared it." - Emna Chargui
In addition to the harassment she has received personally, Emna also says that her landlord has directed her entire family to leave their Tunis home. Emna appealed the verdict against her, but for her personal safety, she has fled Tunisia and relocated to Germany.
Tunisia: Blogger Emna Chargui sentenced to six months in prison for social media post - Amnesty International
Tunisian woman who joked about coronavirus using Quran image sentenced to prison - The Hill
Tunisian blogger fled to Germany after being convicted of blasphemy - Humanistischer Pressedienst [in German]
Tunisia is among the most open and democratic countries in the Middle East/North Africa region. Nevertheless, troubling patterns with regard to free expression in the realm of religion persist. Islam is still the country's official religion, and the country still maintains and enforces various laws against "inciting religious hatred" and against speech that transgresses against public morals and decency, vaguely defined. These assure that the country has a de facto blasphemy prohibition. Enforcement of the laws in response to religiously "offensive" expression is perhaps less common than blasphemy prosecutions in some neighboring countries, but it can and does occur.