Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

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Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

2nd President of Tunisia
Incumbent
Assumed office November 7, 1987
Preceded by	Habib Bourguiba
Succeeded by	Incumbent

Born	September 9, 1936 Hammam-Sousse, Tunisia
Political party	Democratic Constitutional Rally

General Zine El Abidine Ben Ali (زين العابدين بن علي; born in Hammam-Sousse on September 3, 1936) is the President of the Tunisian Republic since November 7, 1987 and only the second one since its independence from France on March 20, 1956.

1 Government appointment
2 Work as President
3 Suppression of Muslim dress
4 References

[edit] Government appointment

He was appointed to establish and manage the Defense Ministry's Military Security in 1964, which he ran until 1974. General Ben Ali was promoted to director-general of National Security at the Ministry of the Interior in 1977 after serving as military attaché to the Kingdom of Morocco. He returned from four years as Ambassador to Poland to become once again head of National Security at the Ministry of the Interior but this time with Cabinet rank. Many disappearances deaths and torture cases were reported to the human rights organisations.For his success in dealing with the political opponents and their threat to the regime he was promoted to Minister of the Interior, and retained this position until he was appointed Prime Minister.

Ben Ali was appointed Prime Minister and constitutional successor by President Habib Bourguiba on October 1, 1987. Five weeks after becoming head of the government, he had President Bourguiba declared medically unfit for the duties of the office and assumed the presidency on November 7, 1987. The constitutional destitution of President Bourguiba was popular and legitimately based on Article 57, that allowed the procedure; the political life of the country having been deadlocked in an unending presidential succession debate and political crisis, cronyism and economic stagnation.

He then retained his predecessor's pro-western foreign policy and supported the economy which has been growing since the early 1990s. Growth in 2002 slowed to a 15-year low of 1.9% due to drought and lackluster tourism. Better conditions after 2003 have helped push growth to about 5% of GDP. Privatization, increasing foreign investment, improvements in government efficiency and reduction of the trade deficit are challenges for the future [1].

[edit] Work as President

Ben Ali's Democratic Constitutional Rally (formerly Neo-Destour party) continues to dominate the national politics. In 1999, although two unknown alternative candidates were permitted for the first time to stand in the presidential elections, Ben Ali was reelected with 99.66% of the vote. He was again reelected on October 24, 2004, officially taking 94.48% of the vote, after a controversial constitutional referendum in 2002 which allowed him to seek reelection.

In March 2002 Ben Ali called for the United Nations to setup a 'World Solidarity Fund' [2] modelled on Tunisia's own solidarity fund [3].

Freedom of the press is officially guaranteed and condoned. However, human rights organization Reporters Sans Frontieres states that no "Tunisians have no access to independent news in the local media and the press, radio, TV and the Internet is under the president’s control. Journalists and media are actively discouraged from being more independent by means of bureaucratic harassment, advertising boycotts and police violence." [4].

Many political prisoners remain in jails or in exile in and out of the country. Many disappearances, deaths and torture cases were reported to the human rights organisations. Many arrests are a result of indiviuals venturing into the internet to bypass government propaganda and controlled press.[5] Ben Ali introduced a law that exhaunerate him from future prosecution and thus gave himself an amnesty. Ben Ali was first married to Naima Kefi, the daughter of General Kefi, Tunisia's first Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and had three daughters (Ghazwa, Dorsaf and Cyrine); he divorced her in 1992 and married Leila Trabelsi, whom he met when he was President Habib Bourguiba's minister of the Interior. With her, he has two daughters (Nessrine and Halima) and a son (Mohamed Zine El Abidine) (source: Encyclopedia of the Orient at [6]).

[edit] Suppression of Muslim dress

Tunisia banned Muslim women from wearing headscarves in public places. Recently, this ban has been intensified: police started to stop women on streets, asking them to remove the headscarf and sign an affidavit stating that they will never wear it again [7].