Rapper Mohamed Ali Ayari, who is from a poor part of Tunisia where unemployed kids are using art forms like music, cinema, and photography to express themselves, stated, "We're fed up with being labelled as thugs.
Locals complain that because the state has long ignored and offered poor services to the working-class sections of the Tunisian capital, they are unable to find jobs.
Ayari, a local of the densely populated Douar Hicher neighbourhood, said: "Our lives are undoubtedly hampered by this disrespect and these biases.
The 23-year-old works as a security guard during the day and moonlights as a popular rapper.
"I want to come out into the light," he raps in a new video clip, developed with the cooperation of peace-building group International Alert.
Young people from four impoverished Tunisian areas were urged to express themselves through music, movies, or photography with an emphasis on violence as part of a recent International Alert competition, and Ayari was one of the winners.
People frequently come into contact with violence, according to Houcem Ayari of International Alert. Although some individuals take part in it, others become victims. We took the choice to add that into cultural events.
Rapper Ayari uses backup vocals from adjacent neighbours to record his most recent song in a small room that has been converted into a studio in a dull Douar Hicher building.
According to Ayari and his friends, the absence of cultural venues makes it easy for people to become involved in crime.
According to Wassim Tayachi, 22, he and his friends "chose music to talk about ourselves and our lives, the lost youth and those of us who want to achieve, the police who physically and verbally abuse us, the state which neglects us, and society which stigmatises us."
He asserted that it was more challenging to get job or obtain official documents when one lived in a less wealthy neighbourhood.
"A state that doesn't listen to its young people can't give them with anything," Tayachi concluded.
Ayari expressed his intention to become a successful rapper.
But, he is unsure if he would be able to accomplish his objectives in North Africa, where a lengthy socioeconomic crisis has prompted several young people to attempt to go to Europe, particularly by boarding dangerous and crowded inflatable boats across the Mediterranean.
Rap, according to him, acts as "therapy against grief and illegal temptations" in the meantime.
A documentary on the Fouchana neighborhood's social and economic inequities, sexual harassment, subpar public transit, and high absence rates was another competition winner.
Mariem Chourabi, who became a certified public accountant at the age of 24 and established a facility to offer children extra academic help, is deeply committed to addressing these issues.