That day, psychoanalyst Nedra Ben Smail cancelled all of her appointments. Her intuition was telling her to go to Habib Bourguiba Avenue, just like the thousands of other demonstrators on that day. 

She found herself with a handful of friends in front of the Carlton Hotel, which she owned. She describes these first moments of the demonstrations as celebratory, but also completely oblivious of what was to come. Protesting in front of the Ministry of the Interior seemed almost dreamlike to her. The funeral procession passed through the avenue and the festivities faded away to give way to unrest. A few minutes later, the police began their crackdown using batons and tear gas. More than a hundred people took refuge in the hotel, located just across from the Ministry of the Interior. 

Entire families were begging for help. Nedra tried to calm the situation by gathering everyone on the first floor of the hotel, thinking that the situation would only be temporary and that people would go home once things had calmed down.

She was not expecting the subsequent televised announcements: first of the curfew lasting until the following morning, then of the even less likely news, that of Ben Ali’s departure. Tensions were rising. Just as Nedra and the employees began to designate available rooms to the dozens of people who were stuck, the police forcibly broke into the hotel.

Panic set in. That evening, Nedra would be forced to deal with countless police intrusions and intimidation attempts, not only towards the people taking refuge in her hotel, but also towards the journalists who were staying there.

Torn between her fear of the unknown and her desire to help out and protect the others, Nedra started questioning her attitude towards violence, deeply impacting her to this very day. She recalls this momentous evening where she was both a witness and a protagonist in events that would mark both collective and individual upheaval. Here is an audio account of a night at the hotel.