TUNISIA

COUNTRY INFO | TUNISIA

Population:
11,896,972 (2022 est.)

Religion: Muslim (official; Sunni) 99%, other (includes Christian, Jewish, Shia Muslim,
and Baha'i) <1%

Language: Arabic (official, one of the languages of commerce), French (commerce),
Berber (Tamazight); note -despite having no official status, French plays a major role in
the country and is spoken by about two thirds of the population

Currency:
Tunisian Dinar

Average temperature:
In Tunis, the summers are short, hot, humid, dry, and clear and the winters are long, cold,

windy, and partly cloudy. Over the course of the year, the temperature typically varies from
46°F to 94°F and is rarely below 40°F or above 102°F
Climate: temperate in north with mild, rainy winters and hot, dry summers; desert in south

Time change:
1 hours ahead Texas(+7)

More info:
Visit Lonelyplanet.com and check out the CIA World Factbook

Tunisia has been the nexus of many different colonizations including those of the Phoenicians (as early as the 12 century B.C.), the Carthaginians, Romans, Vandals, Byzantines, various Arab and Berber kingdoms, and the Ottomans

(16th to late 19th centuries). The French to recognizedTunisiaas an independent state in 1956. The country's first president, Habib BOURGUIBA, established a strict one-party state. He dominated the country for 31 years, repressing Islamic fundamentalism and establishing rights for women unmatched by any other Arab nation. In November 1987, BOURGUIBA was removed from office and replaced by Zine el Abidine BEN ALI in a bloodless coup. Street protests that began in Tunis in December 2010 over high unemployment, corruption, widespread poverty, and high food prices escalated in  January 2011, culminating in rioting that led to hundreds of deaths. On 14 January 2011, the same day BEN ALI dismissed the government, he fled the country, and by late January 2011, a "national unity government" was formed. Elections for the new Constituent Assembly wereheld in late October 2011, and in December, it elected human rights activist Moncef MARZOUKI as interim president. The Assembly began drafting a new constitution in February 2012 and, after several iterations and a months-long political crisis that stalled the transition, ratified the document in January 2014. Parliamentary and presidential elections for a permanent government were held at the end of 2014. Beji CAID ESSEBSI was elected as the first president under the country's new constitution. Following ESSEBSI’s death in office in July 2019, Tunisia moved its scheduled presidential election forward two months and after two rounds of voting, Kais SAIED was sworn in as president in October 2019. Tunisia also held legislative elections on schedule in October 2019. SAIED's term, as well as that of Tunisia's 21- member parliament, expires in 2024. On 25 July 2021, SAIED seized exceptionalpowers allowed under Tunisia's constitution to fire the prime minister and suspend the legislature.