Maya Jribi

Maya Jribi (2012)

Maya Jribi (born 1960 in Bou Arada) is a Tunisian politician. From 2006 to 2012, she was the leader of the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP).[1] Since the PDP merged into the Republican Party in April 2012, she has been the secretary-general of this centrist party.

Life and political career

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. On 9 April 2012, the PDP merged with other secularist parties to form the Republican Party and Maya Jribi became the leader of this party.[3]

Maya Jribi is an outspoken feminist.[1] She has labeled Israel as a "Zionist construct",[4] and proposed to disallow Israeli pilgrims to visit the El Ghriba synagogue on Djerba island.[5]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Parker, Emily (6 September 2011), Maya Jribi, tunisia-live.net, retrieved 21 Oct 2011
  2. ↑ Bollier, Sam (9 Oct 2011), Who are Tunisia's political parties?, Al Jazeera English, retrieved 21 Oct 2011
  3. ↑ Benzarti, Hichem (10 April 2012), "Un congrès unificateur des forces démocratiques centristes", La Presse de Tunisie
  4. ↑ Lerch, Wolfgang Günther (22 January 2011), "Maya Jribi: Eine Stimme der "Jasmin-Revolution" ('A Voice of the Jasmine Revolution')", Frankfurter Allgemeine (in German), retrieved 21 Oct 2011
  5. ↑ Dahmani, Frida (27 April 2010), Le pélerinage de Djerba placé sous haute surveillance ('The pilgrimage of Djerba put under high surveillance') (in French), Jeune Afrique, retrieved 22 Oct 2011

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