Mellassine (Arabic: الملاسين) is a popular residential

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

in the west of the capital

Tunis Tunis (, ') is the capital city, capital and largest city of Tunisia. The greater metropolitan area of Tunis, often referred to as "Grand Tunis", has about 2,700,000 inhabitants. , it is the third-largest city in the Maghreb region (after Casabl ...

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

. It is administrated by the Sijoumi Delegation,

Tunis Governorate Tunis Governorate ( ' ; ) is the smallest and most populated of the twenty-four governorates (provinces) of Tunisia. It covers an urban and suburban area on the Gulf of Tunis on the north-east coast covering and has a population of 1,075,306 ( ...

Strategical Place

It is proximate to many well-known places, such as 9 April 1938 Boulevard, the

Medina of Tunis The Medina of Tunis is the medina quarter of Tunis, the capital of Tunisia. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979. The Medina contains some 700 monuments, including palaces, mosques, mausoleums, madrasas and fountains dating from ...

, Charles-Nicolle Hospital, La Rabta Hospital, the Faculty of Medicine of Tunis, Sabkhet Sijoumi and the city of Le Bardo. It hosts Sijoumi Preparatory School as well for pupils from 7th to 9th primary years and is an exit to the route that connects the west of Tunis, thus the A3 Autoroute to the south of Tunis, thus the

A1 Autoroute The A1 Autoroutes of France, Autoroute, also autoroutes autoroute du Nord (the Northern Motorway), is the busiest of France's autoroutes and is part of an environmental zones.(See below) With a length of , it connects Paris with the northern c ...

Transportation

Access to this suburb is can be done via: *

Taxi A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a Driving, driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of thei ...

* Collective Taxi with sign number 32 * Collective Taxi with sign “Charles Nicole” where it stops * Train Line E ( Gare de Tunis–Bougatfa) at Ennajeh Station, stopping in Ennajeh Neighbourhood * Train Line D (Gare de Tunis–Goubaa), a train line under construction, planned to stop in the centre of Mellasine

Challenges

The Mellassine suburb experiences a tarnished

reputation The reputation or prestige of a social entity (a person, a social group, an organization, or a place) is an opinion about that entity – typically developed as a result of social evaluation on a set of criteria, such as behavior or performance. ...

, for issues like

poverty Poverty is a state or condition in which an individual lacks the financial resources and essentials for a basic standard of living. Poverty can have diverse Biophysical environmen ...

unemployment Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is the proportion of people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work du ...

crimes In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Can ...

and the spread of

drugs A drug is any chemical substance other than a nutrient or an essential dietary ingredient, which, when administered to a living organism, produces a biological effect. Consumption of drugs can be via inhalation, injection, smoking, ingestio ...

. People who do not reside there are usually warned to avoid going there or to proximate places due to petty crimes and riots. Several victims reported being mugged, pickpocketed, strangers trying to approach them and children throwing stones at people and cars. The local residents of Mellassine complain that the government neglects them, and especially neglects the poor neighbourhoods. Efforts by the local residents of Tunis, whether they live in Mellassine or not, are being done to challenge these stereotypes and help Mellassine evolve to be a better place.

References

{{reflist Populated places in Tunis Governorate