Left-wing activist Salem Ben Yahia died on Saturday December 20, 2025. The news was announced by his comrades, who saluted the memory of a man deeply committed, progressive and faithful, throughout his life, to the ideals of emancipation, social justice and democracy.
Salem Ben Yahia was, in the 1960s, one of the members of the Perspectives group, an intellectual and political movement which remains a major reference in the history of student struggles and critical thought in Tunisia. In an era marked by authoritarianism and the stifling of dissenting voices, Perspectives spoke freely, demandingly and resolutely turned towards the future.
The late 1960s and early 1970s, however, were synonymous with repression. Many perspective activists were arrested, prosecuted and imprisoned, in a context of hardening of Habib Bourguiba’s regime towards youth and left-wing movements. Salem Ben Yahia was one of them. He appears during the political trial of 1973 alongside Noureddine Ben Khedher, Aicha Ben Abed and Gilbert Naccache.
He was then sentenced to one year in prison for having introduced the newspaper into Tunisia The Tunisian Workerorgan of Perspectives, and for accusations, in particular, of defamation against the head of state. A political condemnation among many others, emblematic of a period where commitment was paid at the price of confinement.
A university teacher, Salem Ben Yahia never stopped being present in social and political struggles after his release. Without seeking enlightenment, he remained constant in his convictions, attached to a progressive, democratic Tunisia that respected freedoms. His journey bears witness to a generation for which commitment was neither a posture nor a slogan, but an assumed responsibility.
With the disappearance of Salem Ben Yahia, the Tunisian left loses one of its honest, discreet and tenacious activists. His name is inscribed in this collective memory made of struggles, sacrifices and hope, which continues to illuminate the struggles of the present.
The family of the deceased specified that the burial will take place on Sunday December 21, 2025 at the Djellaz cemetery.
May he rest in peace
