Dorra Bouzid ( ar, درة بوزيد; 1933 – 24 September 2023) was a Tunisian journalist, art critic, and feminist.

Life

Dorra Bouzid was born in Sfax in 1933. After her father died, her mother Cherifa defied family expectation by moving to

Nabeul Nabeul (; ar, نابل ,Tamazight: ⵏⴰⴱⴻⵍ), is a coastal town located in northeastern Tunisia, on the south coast of the Cape Bon peninsula and surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea on both sides. It is the first seaside resort in Tunisia. ...

in the early 1930s, riding a bicycle, teaching primary school and marrying the writer

Mahmoud Messadi Mahmoud Messadi ( aeb, محمود المسعدي; 28 January 1911– 16 December 2004) was a Tunisian author and intellectual who also served as Minister of Education and Minister of Culture. He is one of the most prominent Tunisian novelists of t ...

. Dorra and her sister were educated at a French

lycée In France, secondary education is in two stages: * ''Collèges'' () cater for the first four years of secondary education from the ages of 11 to 15. * ''Lycées'' () provide a three-year course of further secondary education for children between ...

. In the late 1940s Bouzid studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Tunis. However, her mother insisted she study

pharmacy Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it links heal ...

to be self-sufficient, and so she enrolled at the Faculty of Pharmacy in Paris in 1951. There she joined the North African Muslim Students Association, and helped organize a newspaper combining nationalism and syndicalism, before returning to Tunis to practice pharmacy. The editor of the nationalist newspaper ''

L'Action ''L'Action Tunisienne'' (sometimes abbreviated to L'Action) is a former Tunisian Francophone newspaper founded by Habib Bourguiba and published from November 1, 1932 to March 19, 1988. Working for the Destour party, at first, it later became pa ...

'' recruited Bouzid to write a women's column, which became a full page entitled "Feminine Action'. In 1955 she published there a 'Call for Emancipation Law' demanding full rights for women. The following year

Habib Bourguiba Habib Bourguiba (; ar, الحبيب بورقيبة, al-Ḥabīb Būrqībah; 3 August 19036 April 2000) was a Tunisian lawyer, nationalist leader and statesman who led the country from 1956 to 1957 as the prime minister of the Kingdom of T ...

promulgated the Code of Personal Status, modernizing the law with regard to women. In 1959 Bouzid co-founded with Safia Farhet and became the head editor of the feminist magazine ''

Faiza Faiza () is a female Arabic name meaning "successful, victorious, beneficial". Variants include: Faizah, Faiza, Fayzah, Fayza, Faeyza, Faeyzah, Faihza, Faaiza, Faaizah, Fiza, Faisa, Fayeza, Fayiza, Faeeza.; and related to the male names Faiz, Fa ...

'', the first African Arab feminist magazine. In the early 1960s Dorra was sent by Bourguiba on an informal diplomatic mission to Morocco. Bouzid was the subject of a 2012 documentary by Walid Tayaa, ''Dorra Bouzid, une Tunisienne, un combat''.

Death

Dorra Bouzid died in La Marsa on 24 September 2023, at the age of 90.

Works

* ''Ecole de Tunis: Un âge d'or de la peinture tunisienne'', 1995

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bouzid, Dorra 1933 births 2023 deaths Tunisian pharmacists Tunisian journalists Tunisian feminists Art historians Women art historians Women pharmacists People from Sfax 20th-century Tunisian women writers 20th-century journalists 20th-century Tunisian historians 20th-century pharmacists