Hélé Béji ( ar, هالة الباجي; born 1 April 1948) is a

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

n writer.

Biography

The daughter of Tunisian politician , she was born in

Tunis ''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois , population_note = , population_urban = , population_metro = 2658816 , population_density_km2 = , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 ...

, passed her Agrégation de lettres modernes and went on to teach literature at the

University of Tunis Tunis University ( ar, جامعة تونس, french: link=no, Université de Tunis) is a university in Tunis, Tunisia. It was founded in 1960 on the basis of earlier educational establishments. The University of Tunis is a member of the Mediterr ...

. She later joined

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. In 1998, she founded the Collège international de Tunis. She has expressed a great admiration for the author

Marcel Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, critic, and essayist who wrote the monumental novel ''In Search of Lost Time'' (''À la recherche du temps perdu''; with the previous Eng ...

and his influence can be seen in her fiction. In 1983, she received the Prix de l’Afrique méditerranéenne awarded by the Association des écrivains de langue française. She has contributed to the magazines ''

Le Débat ''Le Débat'' was a bi-monthly French periodical that appeared from 1980 to 2020. Founded by Pierre Nora and Marcel Gauchet, and associated with French left-wing politics, it was characterised as the "single most influential intellectual periodica ...

'' and '' Esprit''. She is the sister of movie producer

Tarak Ben Ammar Tarak Ben Ammar ( ar, طارق بن عمّار; born June 12, 1949) is a Tunisian-French film producer and distributor; the owner of French production and distribution company Quinta Communications. He is famous for his interest in artistic movies ...

. Her niece Yasmine Torjeman-Besson married French politician

Éric Besson Éric Besson (born 2 April 1958 in Marrakesh) is a French politician and businessman. From 2009 to 2010, he was the Minister of Immigration, Integration, National Identity and Co-Development in the government of François Fillon. He left the So ...

Selected works

* ''Le Désenchantement national, essai sur la décolonisation'', political essay (1982) * ''L’oeil du jour'', novel (1985) * ''Itinéraire de Paris à Tunis'', satire (1992) * ''L'Art contre la culture'', essay (1992) * ''L’Imposture culturelle'', essay (1997) * ''Islam Pride'', essay (2011)

References

1948 births Living people Tunisian non-fiction writers Tunisian novelists Tunisian writers in French 20th-century Tunisian women writers 20th-century Tunisian writers 21st-century Tunisian women writers 21st-century Tunisian writers {{Tunisia-writer-stub