Meherzia Labidi Maïza

Meherzia Labidi Maïza ( ar, محرزية العبيدي معيزة;17 December 1963 – 22 January 2021) was a Tunisian politician and professional translator and interpreter. She became the first deputy speaker of the Constituent Assembly of Tunisia.

Maïza was the most senior elected woman in the Middle East. She was proud of helping to include a clause to protect women's rights into Tunisia's post Arab Spring constitution.

Early life and education

Meherzia Labidi was born on 17 December 1963 in El Meziraâ in the town of Hammamet in Nabeul Governorate in North East Tunisia. She graduated from a mixed high school in the town of Grombalia in 1982 and then moved south to study at the Ecole Normale Superieure in the city of Sousse.

Labidi-Maïza married in 1986 and went to France with her husband, who is a telecommunications engineer,Isabelle Hanne, « Diaspora tunisienne. Un face à femmes », ''Libération'', 20 January 2012
Retrieved 8 December 2015 to study in the at the University of Paris III: Sorbonne Nouvelle. She earned a master's degree in economics and translation and a post-graduate degree in English literature and theatre studies in 1992.Meherzia Labidi Maïza
, The 9th Al Jazeera Forum, Retrieved 8 December 2015 She taught translation at the in St. Denis.

Career

In 2004 Labidi-Maïza co-authored ''Abraham, réveille-toi, ils sont devenus fous!'' (Abraham, Wake Up. They Are Going Crazy) with Laurent Klein. She gave lectures on education in multicultural societies, women, religion and society. From 2006, she was chair of the Global Women of Faith Network.

In 2009, Labidi-Maïza was a member of the European Council of religious leaders. She came to international notice when she supported a more moderate position over wearing the niqab. This was during the French debates that aimed to restrict it being worn in France. In 2015, she served as the honorary president of Religions for Peace, a New York-based NGO recognized at the UN.

Politics

On 23 October 2011, Labidi-Maïza was elected to the Tunisian Constituent Assembly as a representative of the Ennahda Movement for Tunisians living abroad. She noted that she benefited from a clause that required every other candidate to be a woman. On 22 November she became the First Deputy Speaker of the assembly after receiving 142 out of the 214 votes.Mehrezia Labidi-Maiza: The First Vice-President of the Assembly
, Tunisia Live, Retrieved 7 December 2015 In 2012 Labidi-Maïza was described as the "most senior elected woman in the Middle East".Mehdi Hasan talks to Tunisian politician Mehrezia Labidi on gender, democracy, and the Arab Spring
Mehdi Hasan, 18 April 2012, ''New Statesman'', Retrieved 8 December 2015

Labidi-Maïza organised the debates that gave birth to Tunisia's new constitution. She was proud of ensuring that women's rights were included in Article 45 of the constitution. She was identified by the ''Huffington Post'' as one of eight women who "made the world a better place" in 2014. The post Arab Spring constitution contained clauses that her own supporters did not like but she said, "It's like giving birth: painful, but in the end everyone is happy when the child arrives".8 Women Who Already Made The World A Better Place In 2014
Charlotte Alfred,'' Huffington Post'', Retrieved 8 December 2015

Labidi-Maïza was a French and a Tunisian citizen, daughter of a father of eight children who told them that they must all graduate before they could consider marriage. Her dual nationality was the subject of controversy to her critics. She was married and mother of two girls and a boy.

Labidi-Maïza was elected to the assembly of the representatives of the people in the Tunisian parliamentary election in October 2014, this time in the second level district of Nabeul in north-east Tunisia. In 2015 she was still a member of the Tunisian government and led its committee for women, family, children and the elderly.

Death

Labidi-Maïza was reported to have contracted COVID-19 in late 2020 and in mid-November moved to France to receive treatment. Her health deteriorated from early December and she died in early hours of 22 January 2021. The Tunisian Minister of Women's Affairs, Sihem Badi claimed that she had not been suffering from COVID-19. Labidi-Maïza's body was repatriated to Tunisia on 23 January and was buried at Grombalia cemetery, Nabeul on 24 January.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Labidi Maiza, Meherzia
1963 births
2021 deaths
Tunisian Muslims
Ennahda politicians
Tunisian non-fiction writers
Members of the Constituent Assembly of Tunisia
People from Nabeul Governorate
20th-century Tunisian women writers
20th-century Tunisian writers
21st-century Tunisian women writers
21st-century Tunisian writers
Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in France
21st-century Tunisian women politicians
21st-century Tunisian politicians