Faïza Kefi (born 1949) is a Tunisian jurist, politician and diplomat who has held various posts, including minister of environment and land development, member of the

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

and ambassador of Tunisia to France.

Early life and education

She was born in 1949. She attended

Tunis University Tunis University (, ) is a public 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 Mediterranean University Union (UNIMED) and of Agence univers ...

obtaining a degree in

public law Public law is the part of law that governs relations and affairs between legal persons and a government, between different institutions within a state, between different branches of governments, as well as relationships between persons that ...

. She also received in educational planning from the National Civil Services School. In addition, she holds a master's degree in law and a PhD from the University of Administrative Sciences.

Career and activities

Kefi worked at Ministry of National Education, Ministry of Women's Affairs and Ministry of Planning. She was part of the Tunisian delegation to the World Conference on Women held in Nairobi in 1985. She joined the ruling party

Democratic Constitutional Rally The Democratic Constitutional Rally or Democratic Constitutional Assembly ( ', , sometimes also called Constitutional Democratic Rally in English), also referred to by its French initials RCD, was a political party in Tunisia. Including its pred ...

the day after the Tunisian President

Zine El Abidine Ben Ali Zine El Abidine Ben Ali (Tunisian Arabic: , ; 3 September 1936 – 19 September 2019), commonly known as Ben Ali or Ezzine, was a Tunisian politician who served as the second President of Tunisia from 1987 to 2011. In that year, during the Tun ...

came to power in November 1987. Then she was elected as a deputy to the National Assembly in 1994. There she was the president of the Inter-Parliamentary Union Coordinating Committee of Women Parliamentarians. In 1993 she became the president of the Tunisian National Women's Union. She held the post until 1999. Then Kefi was appointed the minister of the environment and land development in April 1999, replacing Mohamed Mlika in the post, and became the second Tunisian woman holding a cabinet post. Kefi's next cabinet post was the minister of professional training and employment. Then she was named as the ambassador of Tunisia to France in May 2001 and held the post until 2003. She was appointed head of the Tunisian national audit office in March 2004. She remained in office until July 2011 when she was succeeded by M. Abdellatif Kharrat in the post. Kefi became the president of the Technical Committee for the Social Dialogue in 2013. She was elected as one of the ten members of the executive bureau of the

Nidaa Tounes Nidaa Tounes ( ', ; 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, the party won a plurality of seats in the October 2014 p ...

party in March 2015.

Personal life

Kefi is married and has three children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kefi, Faiza 20th-century Tunisian women politicians 20th-century diplomats 1949 births Living people Ambassadors of Tunisia to France Tunisian women ambassadors Women government ministers of Tunisia Environment ministers of Tunisia Tunis University alumni Democratic Constitutional Rally politicians Nidaa Tounes politicians Legislative deputy speakers in Tunisia