Mohsen Marzouk ( ar, محسن مرزوق; born July 1965) 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 politician. He holds a degree in

political sociology Political sociology is an interdisciplinary field of study concerned with exploring how governance and society interact and influence one another at the micro to macro levels of analysis. Interested in the social causes and consequences of how ...

and

International Relations International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities between states—such a ...

from the

International Studies Association The International Studies Association (ISA) is a US-based professional association for scholars and practitioners in the field of international studies. Founded in 1959, ISA has been headquartered at the University of Connecticut in Storrs sin ...

in Tunis.

Early life

Mohsen Marzouk was born in July 1965 and raised in a poor working-class neighborhood in the city of

Sfax Sfax (; ar, صفاقس, Ṣafāqis ) is a city in Tunisia, located southeast of Tunis. The city, founded in AD849 on the ruins of Berber Taparura, is the capital of the Sfax Governorate (about 955,421 inhabitants in 2014), and a Mediterrane ...

. At fourteen, he was expelled from school for his oppositional political activities. He managed to re-enter and finish high school in Sfax. 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 ...

, Marzouk was a leading student activist. In 1987, while still enrolled, he was arrested by Tunisia's secret police. He was interrogated and tortured for many days before being sent to a labor camp in the southern desert. When he was allowed to return, Marzouk remained politically active. He worked towards reinstating the General Union of Tunisian Students (UGET) which after Ben Ali's rise to power became deeply divided over its further political course. Marzouk was appointed to the UGET's executive bureau while at the same time, he was conspiratively active for the outlawed leftist movement El Amal Ettounsi.

Career

From 1989 on, he worked as a coordinator for the newly founded

Arab Institute for Human Rights The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, No ...

. Since 2008 he has been secretary-general of the non-governmental

Arab Democracy Foundation The Arab Democracy Foundation (ADF) is an independent international Arab civil society organization advocating democracy as a culture, a way of life, and the best system for good governance. ADF was established on May 27, 2007, at the initiative o ...

and member of the International Steering Committee of the Community of Democracies. Marzouk is one of the founders of

Nidaa Tounes Nidaa Tounes ( ar, حركة نداء تونس ', french: Appel de la Tunisie; usually translated as "Call of Tunisia", "Call for Tunisia", or "Tunisia's Call") is a big tent secularist political party in Tunisia. After being founded in 2012 ...

and was member of the party's Executive Committee. As Beji Caid Essebsi's campaign manager in the 2014 presidential election he announced Essebsi's victory in the runoff vote on 21 December, stating that Tunisians were now turning the page of the transitional phase and that Tunisia was now a stable democracy. Marzouk’s faction within Nidaa Tounes supported a more assertive, secularist government. Marzouk left the party in early January 2016 and later became part of

Machrouu Tounes Machrouu Tounes ( ar, مشروع تونس; french: Projet de la Tunisie; en, Project Tunisia) is a big tent secularist Tunisian political party founded on 20 March 2016 by Mohsen Marzouk as a breakaway from Nidaa Tounes, the then ruling party. ...

Publications and working papers

* Marzouk, M. (1997): ''The Associative Phenomenon in the Arab World: engine of democratisation or witness to the crisis?'' in: David Hulme and Michael Edwards (ed.): "NGOs, States and Donors. Too close for comfort?" New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997. Republished: London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, . * Marzouk, M. (2003): ''Social Movements in Tunisia: Searching for the Absent''. Arab Research Center, 2003. * Marzouk, M. (2005): ''Social Movements in Tunisia and the Democratization Process''. Santiago: Community of Democracies, 2005.
archived

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marzouk, Mohsen 1965 births Living people Tunisian activists Nidaa Tounes politicians Members of the International Steering Committee of the Community of Democracies People from Sfax People named in the Pandora Papers Candidates for President of Tunisia