Mira Ben Salah
Mira Ben Salah is a trans woman human rights defender, queer activist, and the coordinator of the Southern office of the Tunisian Association for Justice and Equality (Damj) in Sfax, Tunisia. She has also been part of many human rights and social movement campaigns, calling for freedom of expression and socio-economic rights. Due to her human rights work, Mira ben Salah has been repeatedly harassed by the Tunisian authorities and has faced multiple smear campaigns.
Following the ousting of President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali as a result of the historic protests in 2011, the situation for human rights defenders (HRDs) in Tunisia began to improve substantially. In particular the lifting of legal impediments to the work of human rights defenders and progress in the adoption of human rights legislation have been significant. Numerous HRDs who had been persecuted by the Ben Ali's regime found opportunities for viable political participation including, notably, Moncef Marzouki who was elected interim President.
