Remembering Feminist Activist Gisèle Halimi

On July 28, Gisèle Halimi (born Gisèle Élise Taïeb), a Franco-Tunisian feminist activist, lawyer, politician, and author of 15 books, passed away at the age of 93. Tunisia and France lost a prominent, inspiring figure who left her mark on France’s history.

Born in the 1920s to a conservative Jewish Tunisian family, Halimi wrote in her book La Cause des femmes (The Women’s Cause) about her father, Edouard, who was so ashamed of having a daughter that he didn’t announce her birth to his friends until many days after her birth. Halimi’s mother, she wrote, was a traditional woman and wanted to control her daughter’s behavior. However, Halimi was very stubborn and defied her conservative family by going on a hunger strike at the age of 10 just to read books her parents didn’t allow her to read. At 16, she refused an arranged marriage and instead pursued higher education at the prestigious Sorbonne-Panthéon college in Paris, where she studied law and philosophy.

While still a student, Halimi advocated for independence for her home country, Tunisia, which was under the French protectorate since 1881. In the few last years before independence in 1956, the French authorities in Tunisia suppressed civil liberties and resistance activities. However, in France, Tunisians like Halimi had more freedom to advocate by writing articles and essays or even mobilizing people for their cause.

After settling down in France (she married in 1956), Halimi advocated for the rights of Algerian convicts in French prisons and Algeria’s independence during the Algerian war, as did Jean-Paul Sartre, a French author and philosopher, and Simone de Beauvoir, a French feminist icon. In 1960, she legally defended a 22-year-old Algerian activist, Djamila Boupacha, who had been tortured and abused by French soldiers. Boupacha, who was first sentenced to death, was eventually released. The same year the trial took place, Halimi and de Beauvoir co-wrote and published Djamila Boupacha, a book that gathered testimonials regarding Boupacha’s case and which drew on Halimi’s records from the trial. This case was so well known in the country that it was eventually adapted into a TV movie.

In 1965, Halimi became one of the founders of “le Mouvement démocratique féminin” (the Democratic Feminine Movement), which was a political women’s organization affiliated with the “Fédération de la gauche démocrate et socialiste” (The Federation of the Democratic and Socialist Left). The goal of this organization was to unite feminism and socialism.

Six years later, in 1971, Halimi became one of the signatories of “La Manifeste des 343” (The Manifesto of the 343), a petition signed by 343 French women, stating that they had had abortions. At the time, it was a crime in France to have the procedure, so the women thus exposed themselves to criminal prosecution. This petition aimed to advocate for the legalization of abortion so women wouldn’t have to risk their lives while aborting clandestinely.

The next year, Halimi defended Marie-Claire, a 16-year-old French teen who was charged for obtaining an abortion, as was her mother for helping her do so. Halimi brought experts such as a professor of medicine and a devout Catholic, Dr. Paul Milliez, who defended the mother-daughter pair by saying, “ I can’t see why we Catholics would impose our morality on all French people.” Three years later, in 1975, Marie-Claire and her mother avoided jail time and the law on the voluntary termination of pregnancies advanced by Simone Veil (a French magistrate) was promulgated.

Halimi’s next legal battle was for the recognition of rape as a crime. In 1978, she took on the case of two young Belgian women who were pressing charges against their rapists. Despite facing public pushback, Halimi won the case and the accused were found guilty.

Halimi went on to have a political career as well. In 1981, she was elected as socialist representative of the fourth district of Isère in the French assembly and then occupied the position of French ambassador for UNESCO from 1985 to1986.

Gisèle Halimi’s influence has been felt not only in France, but all over the world. While she hasn’t gotten much recognition in her home country, Tunisia, she still inspired many Tunisian girls, including me, with her iron will, dedication, and perseverance. Halimi didn’t let the circumstances into which she was born stop her from pursuing her dreams. She put her heart and soul into her work of improving women’s living conditions and ensuring the next generations of women get the freedom of choice.