Hanan Erdidi\u2019s husband has made a life-changing decision. The night before we meet in Tunisia\u2019s capital, Tunis, he told her he was leaving.<\/p>\n Smugglers have offered him a seat on a boat to Italy and he\u2019s decided to take the risk: he\u2019s had enough of being squeezed into a tiny, damp room in a former army barrack in Tunis with their two young children.<\/p>\n He wants better for his family and now he\u2019s seizing his chance.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes we both cry because our kids don\u2019t have toys to play with. Even the clothes they wear are second-hand, given to us by other people,\u201d Hanan tells me.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes we prefer to keep the kids at home and not take them to the market, because if we take them there, they will see fruit. We can\u2019t afford even things like apples or grapes. We keep them indoors, so they don\u2019t cry over seeing the things we can\u2019t buy for them.\u201d<\/p>\n Hanan is aware of the huge risk her husband is taking. They both desperately hope that it is worth it.<\/p>\n \u201cMy husband wants to leave to make our living conditions better. Either he improves our situation, or he dies at sea,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n For men like Hanan\u2019s husband, this is becoming a common choice.<\/p>\n Tunisia is in the grip of a cost-of-living crisis. The number of families in need has tripled since 2010, and now stands at almost one million.<\/p>\n Half of the country\u2019s population is living in poverty. Last year, unemployment stood at almost 20%.<\/p>\n This is the country that ignited the Arab Spring. It\u2019s long been considered one of the movement\u2019s very few success stories.<\/p>\n For many countries in North Africa and the Middle East, the uprisings more than a decade ago brought instability and chaos.<\/p>\n But Tunisia managed to claw its way towards democracy. Its president of 23 years \u2013 Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali \u2013 was deposed and a new constitution was carefully crafted, based on public will.<\/p>\n When thousands of chanting Tunisians first filled the streets at the end of 2010, marking the start of the Arab Spring, it was a visceral reaction to the death of a fruit and vegetable seller, Mohamed Bouazizi.<\/p>\n He set himself on fire outside a municipal building after having his cart confiscated by the authorities.<\/p>\n I wondered how fruit and vegetable sellers felt now, so I have gone to talk to them at one of Tunis\u2019 many street markets.<\/p>\n Among piles of shining red tomatoes and sun-plumped seasonal fruit, a theme emerges \u2013 these men are saving whatever money they can, and then spending it all on dangerous boat trips, believing they will be better off in Europe.<\/p>\n Italy is the nearest coast to aim for. People tell me that if they fail to reach their destination, they keep on trying.<\/p>\n They are unlikely to be deterred by a new right-wing government, which has promised a tough response to irregular migration, taking office following Sunday\u2019s election.<\/p>\n One of them, Seif Eddin Hassouine, details how he has already spent $4,000 (\u00a33,600) on two unsuccessful boat trips, each time intercepted by coastguards and sent back home. But he is about to do it again.<\/p>\n \u201cThis country has no jobs, no money, it\u2019s better to leave,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Rachid Ben Jaafar, selling watermelons from a nearby stall, agrees: \u201cPrices are high, life is very expensive, I can\u2019t afford it any more. There\u2019s no oil or sugar. Sometimes there\u2019s no bread. How can people live? What can people do? All ways are closed.\u201d<\/p>\n The original Arab Spring uprisings are branded deep into the memory of people here.<\/p>\n Walid Kassraoui sacrificed more than most. He was shot in the leg while demonstrating and it couldn\u2019t be saved. Now he\u2019s struggling to get a job, his prosthetic limb a daily reminder of what he\u2019s lost.<\/p>\n As we stand in the same street where he protested, he shows me a sign in the road. It lists the names of those who died there, including one of his closest friends.<\/p>\n \u201cDuring the revolution, the slogans were all about finding jobs, freedoms and national dignity,\u201d he remembers. \u201cUnfortunately, jobs and national dignity have not been achieved over the past 12 years. I\u2019m a dad of two kids who are growing, I was hoping to raise them in better conditions, but unfortunately I can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n But those hard-fought rights and freedoms are being eroded as people hope they can trade them for jobs and better economic prospects.<\/p>\n President Kais Saied, a constitutional law professor, along with a small group of hand-picked allies, wrote a new framework for the country\u2019s constitution, concentrating power in his own hands.<\/p>\n It was the culmination of a process which started in 2021, when he sacked the prime minister, dissolved the government and suspended parliament.<\/p>\n In July, a referendum put these changes to the people, but the result was always a foregone conclusion.<\/p>\n In just a few hours, Tunisia\u2019s constitutional landscape had rolled back more than a decade.<\/p>\n But for ordinary Tunisians, the focus now is on how to feed their families or find a job.<\/p>\n Left behind and desperately hoping the sea will spare her husband, Hanan sees a bleak future ahead of her.<\/p>\n \u201cMy mother and father are dead,\u201d she cries. \u201cI don\u2019t have brothers, or anybody else. He is my mum, dad, brother \u2013 he\u2019s everything to me. If he dies in the sea, I will be orphaned once again.\u201d<\/p>\n
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