Tunisian Cafes

         Besides transportation, another one of my favorite subjects is café culture. Here in Tunisia, the café culture is quite fascinating with a big divide between two different styles of cafes that define the country.

            The first type of café is only for men. These cafes can be found in all Tunisian cities, but are far more popular in the interior regions of the countries. From the onset of the day until well into the night, these men of all ages sit and talk about their lives. Many of these men are unemployed and disappointed by the lack of economic progress in Tunisia after the revolution. Technically, these cafes are all supposed to be non-smoking, but the men inside freely smoke away. The café is typically quite run down with plastic chairs, a few tables, and maybe a small television to watch football matches. Overall, these cafes are numerous and honestly quite depressing places.

            The second type of café really surprised me here in Tunisia. In Tunis, Sousse, and Sfax, we have visited numerous very swank cafes. Almost of these cafes have installed Internet connections within the past year (many of the passwords end in 2011) since people can now use their computers in public with no fear of Ben Ali’s secret police. The crowd inside these cafes represents a wider array of Tunisian society than I would have expected. You see men and women engaging with each other quite naturally including women wearing the hijab. As a side note, I did not see any women wearing a nikab in these cafes, but I have seen a few of these women walking around in Tunis. The atmosphere inside these cafes is quite lively, and we have had a number of meetings at cafes like these. The furniture is mostly contemporary and many of these cafes are nicer than their American and European counterparts. These cafes also tend to enforce their smoking and non-smoking sections except for hookah, which seems to be everywhere.

            In both of these types of cafes, there are crowds at many hours of the day. However, the difference between these cafes shows the differences between the haves and the have-nots of Tunisian society. The Revolution was a success for most of the people in the swank cafes that can now live their lives more freely. But for the Revolution in Tunisia to be truly successful, the government and private businesses must satisfy some of the needs of men in the first type of café.