By Leila Molana-Allen
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — Tunisians living in the U.S. have been feeling the reverberations of their native country's recent political upheaval.
Naima Remadi Nour, 58, is the director of Manhattan's Tunisian Cultural and Information Center, which she established in 2007. The center was funded by the now-toppled Tunisian government, headed by President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali.
Last week, Nour was informed by a representative from the Tunisian embassy that her center would be closed within the week, according to the New York Times. She was not given any official reason, but she told the Times she is convinced that she knows why: her center is associated with the ousted president's regime, and the new government wants to clear all traces of Ben Ali before moving forward.
"They want to sacrifice sheep, like in Eid," Nour, 58, said in an interview with Times. "They want to kill the smallest sheep, like me."
Nour asserted that neither she, nor her center, had any links with any ideological faction in Tunisian politics. While she said she was happy Ben Ali had been removed from power, she asserted that her organisation was simply concerned with spreading awareness about Tunisia's cultural diversity, and promoting tourism to the country.
Ali Khemili, however, who runs New York's Tunisian Community Center, told the Times that Nour's organisation had been little more than "a propaganda center" for the previous government.
Nour is determined to fight her center's closure for as long as possible, according to the Times. Despite receiving intimidating phone calls about her links to Ben Ali's administration, she has sent out an e-mail petition to forestall the embassy's decision, and was in contact with the ambassador. Nour said that while no date has yet been put in place for the closure of the center, she has been able to negotiate an extension of the deadline.
Responding to suggestions that her attempts may prove unsuccessful, Nour told the Times, "They can't do it...They'll have to walk on my dead body."
