The Phenomenon of "Trabrib" in Tunisia: How Did It Spread and Why? (personal theory)

Gather up, kids. It's time for a little personal theory to explain a wonderful Tunisian phenomenon: the "trabrib", otherwise known for some as "kofr".

As someone with great experience in verbal abuse from an early age (almost always being on the receiving end <3 ), I somehow unconsiously recorded the evolution of the ways Tunisians cursed and the way it varied from one place to another. And so, in the midst of all this, one particular phenomenon was most intriguing: the insertion of the Arabic equivalent of the word "God" into people's sentences to express anger, to curse, or sometimes even for the fun of it (in a funny situation, in the middle of telling an outrageous story, etc, etc...)

At first, as a kid, I considered it blasphemy. (Yes, I was one of those "HOW DARE YOU SPEAK THE LORD'S NAME IN VAIN" people, but a silent one. The silence itself not being particularly a choice. It's a violent world, and I had no wish to get beaten up.) However, upon further inspection, it appeared somewhat ridiculous. People moved from delivering direct curses towards "other people's God" or their God's religion to cursing every day items' God. Stumble upon a chair? Curse the god of chairs. His kid took too long to bring him a glass of water? "Bring the god of the water!", he would yell. Starting a fight? "What's wrong with your god?"

I do realize that my translation sounds ridiculous, but that's sort of the whole point. Sounds like a country of pagans with a god for everything (Greek mythology fans, where u at! <3 ), but I can almost promise you, a majority of those who say this sort of stuff would jump at any opportunity to call people infidels and threaten to murder them believing they are defending their monotheistic religion. (Ain't irony a bitch? :) )

But anyway, this phenomenon didn't become this widespread and overly used (to the point of becoming ridiculous) until the year 2011 (Disclaimer: according to what I noticed. No scientific research whatsoever to back my point. Just the traumatized memory of a random nobody, aka me.) So I tried to figure out why and the first thing to cross my mind was the Tunisian revolution of Freedom (hahaha) and Dignity (hahaha *2). Sure like following every revolution, the country was in a state of chaos, and law couldn't always be imposed ( a 25dinars fine for cursing God, heavily imposed during Ben Ali's reign -Je dis bien reign- and almost not imposed at all these days. ) But I highly doubted people would just do it for the sake of doing it. Just because it was possible and no one will come after you for saying it. We, as Tunisians aka the world experts in verbal abuse, always had quite the vocabulary for cursing. We'd go after people's moms, fathers, religion (religion is always fair play in Tunisian cursing.) We'd literally say deranged things to curse like "May you be sad." or "May you get a heat syncope" (no9ta), etc... But why the obsession over the word "God"?

And here I remembered a funny historical/theological figure: Pharaoh! aka the narcissistic diva of ancient egypt who tried to catch Moses and ended up drowning like a fool. (I promise, this is relevant) That guy really enjoyed playing the blasphemy card and going all high and mighty on people. And the good majority of modern day Tunisians are playing the narcissistic pharaoh's card, bringing this high metaphysical power we call God and cursing it day and night. But here is the funny thing about narcissism: it's much less about arrogance than it is about insecurity. (read that last sentence again and keep it in mind.)

A friend once told me "As Tunisians, we're second class citizens everywhere we go. Especially in our own country." I remember that sentence every time I hear people call what happened in 2011 a revolution of dignity. What dignity? Seriously, let me ask that again. WHAT DIGNITY? The dignity of the people from rural areas working in cheap labour who can barely afford to feed themselves while European companies make a shit ton of profit from all the exploitation? The dignity of the people with university diplomas they can't find any use for? The dignity of the people who get searched in airports under suspection for terrorism for having a green passport? The dignity of the people who watch white tourists/ expats for certain organizations and companies needing no visa to come be treated like gods and given priority in everything in this country? (I could go all day and all night, but I think I made my point here.)

And so we end up with a population filled with anger and spite they can't express to the people/ institutions/whatever that caused it. We end up with a population drenched in humiliation, desperate for any reason to feel like they have any type of power, value, force, esteem... call it whatever you want. We end up with... a bitter population that channels its anger towards a higher metaphysical power they believe in but assume wouldn't react or affect them (at least not instantly). And so the phenomenon of "trabrib" becomes some sort of temporary remedy for their hurt (or rather shattered) ego.

But what happens when so many people jump to the same remedy in a short period of time? It becomes a trend. Yes, "trabrib" is a trend in modern day Tunisia. It very much fits the definition if you think about it. And somehow it became normalized to a certain extent. (Some would choose to call it a plague.) The very same police officers meant to fine people for doing it are doing it. Nine year old kids in the streets are doing it. Self-appointed preachers who like to give religious lessons despite never actually studying the religion or reading the Quran (that's an even wider spread phenomenon than trabrib. I'll talk about it in another blog.) are doing it.

All of this being said, feel free to do it or not, just have some self-respect and don't do it when around people who don't share your particular taste in cursing.