Maya Jribi (born 1960 in Bou Arada) is a Tunisian politician. Since 2006, she has been the Secretary-General of the centre-left liberal Progressive Democratic Party (PDP).[1]
From 1979 to 1983 Maya Jribi studied biology at the University of Sfax. During that time, she became an active member of the student union UGET and the Tunisian League of Human Rights. She wrote for the independent weekly Erraï and later for the PDP-newspaper Al Mawkif.[1]
Together with Ahmed Najib Chebbi, Maya Jribi was a co-founder of the Progressive Socialist Rally, established in 1983, which was later renamed into Progressive Democratic Party (PDP). Since 1986 she has been a member of the party's executive. On 25 December 2006, Jribi was appointed Secretary-General of the PDP.[1] She has been the first woman to lead a political party in Tunisia.[2] From 1 to 20 October 2007, Jribi, together with Najib Chebbi, engaged in a hunger strike to protest against the forced move of the party's headquarters from Tunis, which caused serious health implications for her.[1]
Jribi headed the PDP’s electoral list in Ben Arous for the Constituent Assembly Elections in October, 2011[1]. The PDP list received one seat in Ben Arous according to preliminary election results.
Maya Jribi is an outspoken feminist.[1] She has been accused of being anti-Jewish for labelling Israel as a "Zionist construct",[3] and for her proposal to disallow Israeli pilgrims to visit the El Ghriba synagogue on Djerba island.[4][5]