I’m Finlay Phillips, a University of Exeter student who has spent the first term of my final year in Tunisia. During this time, I was fortunate to join Attalaki for an internship.
From the beginning of September until the middle of December 2023, I lived in Tunisia while studying Arabic at the Taa Marbouta language school. Alongside this, I worked with the Attalaki organisation as an intern. While the time I spent in Tunisia only amounted to a single semester, it was an incredibly fun and impactful experience which I hope to carry with me as I return to finish off my studies back home in the United Kingdom. I was able to get a fair amount done in spite of my short stay, from trips to a conference and from studying to relaxing.
Much of my time was taken up by classes, which ran in the mornings or afternoons from Monday until Friday, as well as the homework, which had to be completed in between. However, my friends and I found the time to explore the areas where we were living and studying (the coastal stretch from La Marsa to La Goulette) as well as going into central Tunis and figuring out what it had to offer. As it turns out, the capital city has loads of fun things to do from exploring the old medina and its markets to enjoying an evening in one of Lafayette’s bars. We also managed to away from the capital, visiting Kairouan, Bizerte, and Dougga among other places in the country. These were all beautiful and fascinating, each with their own rich history and unique contribution to Tunisia as a country.
Moving to my internship with Attalaki, which I was fortunately able to organise through Taa Marbouta, I was initially interested in their work to raise awareness of and protect the rights of religious minorities in Tunisia. Being someone who believes that human rights are pretty good, I was certainly intrigued, so combine that with my lack of knowledge about Tunisia’s religious makeup and how NGOs operate and my reasons for applying to be an intern at Attalaki becomes obvious. The internship represented an amazing opportunity for me to learn about working at an NGO among people whose speciality it is to discuss the religious landscape of their country.
During my time with Attalaki I was able to join in on some meetings, attend a conference, and research proper formatting and outlines for an important project. This felt like a good variety of tasks that allowed me to see a wide range of what the organisation’s work entails within a short period of time. This meant that I was able to learn more about how an NGO operates than I ever have before, as seeing it in practice is much more impactful than learning about it in theory.
Another amazing part of being an intern at Attalaki was being able to access some of their literature about the issue of religious freedom in Tunisia. I found their annual report from 2020 to be particularly interesting as it was the first time I’d been able to see accurate and up-to-date research about this issue. The report mentions multiple instances of Christians – especially women – being harassed and assaulted because of their faith and the lack of an official police response. Drawing attention to these issues is important to raise awareness about the real-world impact of not having societal sentiments in favour of religious equality. The discussion of interplay between religion, gender, sexual orientation, and age as factors in discrimination was illuminating. I was also previously unaware of Tunisia’s Jewish, Christian, Atheist, and Nonreligious populations as the general picture in my mind was one of a mainly homogenous Muslim nation. I had failed the appreciate the diversity of non-Muslims in the country.
Overall, I feel very lucky to have had the chance to visit Tunisia in spend some time in this wonderful country, learning so many new things and getting to know so many amazing people. The opportunity to be an intern with Attalaki was incredible and I feel that I’ve learned so much, I can only hope that I have been able to contribute to their work in some way.