Sonia Dahmani

After she was committed to Manouba Women’s Prison on 13 May 2024, she was subjected, on the occasion of an appeal hearing scheduled for 20 August 2024 (subsequently postponed), to a full body search while being transferred to attend the hearing. The prison administration refused to allow her to wear her shoes, and she was required to wear a “sefsari” (traditional veil) as a condition for entering the courtroom, which she was forced to accept despite her objection in principle. She was also informed by the prison director that she would not be able to go to the courtroom on the pretext that the permitted time had been exceeded, even though her lawyer stated that the hearing had begun at 12:30 p.m., and she was asked to sign papers stating that she was unable to attend, which she refused. In addition, in March 2025 she began an open-ended hunger strike in protest against being deprived of her right to family visits and against inhuman treatment in prison.