Sophie Bessis ( , 1947) is a Tunisian-born French historian, journalist, researcher, and feminist author. She has written numerous works in French, Spanish, and English on development in the
Maghreb
The Maghreb (; ar, الْمَغْرِب, al-Maghrib, lit=the west), also known as the Arab Maghreb ( ar, المغرب العربي) and Northwest Africa, is the western part of North Africa and the Arab world. The region includes Algeria, ...
and the Arab world, as well as the situation of women denouncing the identity imprisonment to which they are subjected. She is the recipient of the Paris Liège literary prize and was honored as Commandeur of the
Order of the Republic.
A history scholar and former editor-in-chief of the weekly magazine ''
Jeune Afrique
''Jeune Afrique'' (English: ''Young Africa'') is a French-language pan-African weekly news magazine, founded in 1960 in Tunis and subsequently published in Paris. It is the most widely read pan-African magazine. It is also a book publisher, unde ...
'', she is currently a research associate at the Institute for International and Strategic Relations (IRIS) in Paris and Deputy Secretary General of the International Federation of Rights Leagues (FIDH). She has taught the political economy of development at the Department of Political Science at the
Sorbonne
Sorbonne may refer to:
* Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities.
*the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970)
*one of its components or linked institution, ...
and in the
Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales
Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales ( en, National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations), abbreviated as INALCO, is a French university specializing in the teaching of languages and cultures from the world. ...
(INALCO). She is a consultant for
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 ...
and
UNICEF
UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Devel ...
, has carried out numerous missions in Africa.
Biography
Sophie Bessis was born in
Tunis
''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois
, population_note =
, population_urban =
, population_metro = 2658816
, population_density_km2 =
, timezone1 = CET
, utc_offset1 ...
, in 1947. Her family was part of the Jewish
upper middle class
In sociology, the upper middle class is the social group constituted by higher status members of the middle class. This is in contrast to the term ''lower middle class'', which is used for the group at the opposite end of the middle-class strat ...
. She is the daughter of
Juliette Bessis
Juliette Bessis (Arabic: جولييت بسيس) was born in 1925 in Gabès, Tunisia, and died 2017 in Paris, France. She was a contemporary Tunisian scholar and historian specializing in the Maghreb region of northern Africa.
Life
Born Juliette ...
, a historian, professor and researcher who specialized in the Maghreb and was a Communist militant; and Aldo Bessis, a trade unionist member of the
Union syndicale des travailleurs de Tunisie and an expert of the
U.N.
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...
Food and Agriculture Organization
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)french: link=no, Organisation des Nations unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture; it, Organizzazione delle Nazioni Unite per l'Alimentazione e l'Agricoltura is an intern ...
(FAO).
Bessis moved to France in 1975 where she studied history and worked for some time as a journalist. A history specialist, she is the former editor of the weekly, ''
Jeune Afrique
''Jeune Afrique'' (English: ''Young Africa'') is a French-language pan-African weekly news magazine, founded in 1960 in Tunis and subsequently published in Paris. It is the most widely read pan-African magazine. It is also a book publisher, unde ...
''. She has been professor of
political economy
Political economy is the study of how Macroeconomics, economic systems (e.g. Marketplace, markets and Economy, national economies) and Politics, political systems (e.g. law, Institution, institutions, government) are linked. Widely studied ph ...
of development in the department of political science at the
Sorbonne
Sorbonne may refer to:
* Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities.
*the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970)
*one of its components or linked institution, ...
and in INALCO. As a consultant for UNESCO and UNICEF, she has participated in numerous missions in Africa. She is the director of research at the Institute of International and Strategic Relations (IRIS) of Paris and deputy general secretary of the
International Federation for Human Rights
The International Federation for Human Rights (french: Fédération internationale des ligues des droits de l'homme; FIDH) is a non-governmental federation for human rights organizations. Founded in 1922, FIDH is the third oldest international h ...
(FIDH).
Bessis is the author of numerous works including a biography of
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 ...
with
Souhayr Belhassen. In 2007, she published "''Los árabes, las mujeres y la libertad''" ("''Arabs, women and freedom"'') which reviews the inheritance of the Egyptian reformers of the early twentieth century, or the Bourguiba, that enacted in 1956 a law that freed the Tunisians and analyzes the changes of Arab societies and the disappointments of a badly undertaken modernization connected with the development of the Islamists and the return to an identity based solely on the religious norm. Bessis denounces the identity imprisonment to which women are subjected to in their country and in the Arab world. In 2017, she published ''Les Valeureuses ou Cinq Tunisiennes dans l’Histoire'',
in which she vindicates the story of key women in Tunisia, namely Elissa, the founding Phoenician princess of Carthage (also known as Didon), the singer and Jewish actress Habiba Msika who in the 1920s stood out for her transgressive look, Aïcha Sayida Manoubia, the "free saint" of the thirteenth century recognized by the Sufi tradition, Aziza Othmana, legendary Tunisian-Ottoman princess of the seventeenth century, and the feminist Habiba Menchari whose conference in January 1929 against the use of the veil shocked Habib Bourguiba.
In 2017, Bessis announced the donation of her parents' library, a collection of books and newspapers on the history of Tunisia and the Maghreb, to the National Library of Tunis.
Awards
* 2015, Paris Liège literary prize for ''La Double impasse : l'universel à l'épreuve des fondamentalismes religieux et marchand.''
* 2016, Commandeur de l’Ordre de la République.
Selected works
In French
* ''L’Arme alimentaire'', Paris, Maspero, 1979
()
* ''La Dernière Frontière : les tiers-mondes et la tentation de l'Occident,'' Paris, Jean-Claude Lattès, 1983
(notice BnF no FRBNF34725538)
* ''Femmes du Maghreb l'enjeu'', Paris, Jean-Claude Lattès, 1983
()
* ''Habib Bourguiba : biographie en deux volumes'', Paris, Jeune Afrique, 1988 ; réed. Elyzad, Tunis, 20124
* ''Mille et une bouches'', Paris, Autrement, 1995
()
* ''L’Occident et les Autres : histoire d’une suprématie'', Paris, La Découverte, 2003
()
* ''Les Arabes, les femmes, la liberté'', Paris, Albin Michel, 2007
* ''Dedans, dehors'', Tunis, Elyzad, 2010
()
* ''La Double impasse : l'universel à l'épreuve des fondamentalismes religieux et marchand'', Paris, La Découverte,
coll. " Cahiers libres ", 2014
()
* ''Les Valeureuses : cinq Tunisiennes dans l'histoire'', Tunis, Elyzad, 2017
()
In Spanish
* ''Mujeres del Magreb, lo que está en juego'' (1994) Editorial Horas y horas
* ''El hambre en el mundo'' (1994)
* ''Occidente y los otros: historia de una supremacía''. (2002) Alianza Editorial
* ''Las emergencias del mundo: economía, poder alteridad'' (2005) Nobel
* ''Los árabes, las mujeres, la libertad'' (2007) Alianza Editorial
* ''Mujer y familia en las sociedades árabes actuales''. (2010) Editorial Bellaterra
In English
* ''Equal inheritance for daughters is key to Tunisian women's empowerment''
*
''Western Supremacy: The Triumph of an Idea? Zed Books, 2003''[Bessis, Sophie (2003) ''Western Supremacy: The Triumph of an Idea''. Zed Books. ]
See also
*
Bochra Belhaj Hmida
References
External links
Página de Sophie Bessis en IRIS(French)
Conferencia clausura curso teoría feminista Centro de Estudios de Género y Feministas(Spanish)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bessis, Sophie
20th-century Tunisian historians
Women historians
Tunisian feminists
21st-century Tunisian historians
People from Tunis
20th-century Tunisian women writers
21st-century Tunisian women writers
Tunisian Jews
Women's studies academics
International Federation for Human Rights
1947 births
Living people
Tunisian emigrants to France