On July 22, 2022, 19-year-old queer activist “Aws” was at Avenue Habib Bourguiba protesting against the referendum and the president’s draft constitution. When police used gas spray, he and others retreated, but Aws was caught by more than five officers, pushed to the ground, and taken to a police vehicle.

At the Bab Bahr detention center, an officer filmed him and forced him to repeat a humiliating phrase about his mother, slapping and abusing him each time he refused.