Poet and opposition leader Chaima Issa has become a central symbol of Tunisia’s shrinking civic space. Arrested on 29 November while joining a women’s rights protest in Tunis, she is now serving a 20‑year sentence in the politically driven “Conspiracy Case” and has launched a hunger strike from Manouba Prison, turning her body into a final form of protest against President Kais Saied’s escalating repression.