Tunisia’s First Female Prime Minister and the Power of Symbols

In October 2021, Tunisian President Kaïs Saïed named Najla Bouden as Tunisia’s first female prime minister. In the video announcing Bouden’s nomination, the Tunisian president stressed the unprecedented nature of Bouden’s appointment: She is the country’s first female prime minister and the first female leader in the Arab world. He described her appointment as “a historic moment, an honor for Tunisia and for Tunisian women,” while also alluding to Tunisia’s status as a long-time leader in the MENA region on issues of gender equality (Tunisian women were granted the right to vote only one year after the country’s independence, and in 1973 Tunisia became the first Arab and Muslim country to legalize abortion).

Bouden’s appointment was undoubtedly inspiring, especially given the limited number of female leaders across the world; fewer than a third of United Nations member states have ever had a woman leader. Today, however, the initial excitement for Bouden’s nomination has diminished, and critics see her as not having significantly improved life for Tunisian women. While there may be truth to that criticism, the example that she has set cannot be overlooked; Bouden’s appointment is highly symbolic and has profoundly impacted how Tunisians assess female leadership.

Najla Bouden is not a career politician. Born in 1958 in the Tunisian city of Kairouan, two years after the country’s independence from France, Bouden followed an educational path typical of the post-independence Tunisian elite. She received degrees from some of the most prestigious schools in France and later returned to Tunisia, where she became a professor of geoscience in Tunis, the capital. Starting in 2011 and up until her political appointment, she worked as the director general in charge of quality at the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research.

According to Hela Soufsi, a professor of sociology at Paris Dauphine University and the author of several books on Tunisian social movements, Bouden’s status as a political outsider convinced Saïed to appoint her because Bouden’s appointment was “consistent with the Tunisian people’s complete crisis of faith in the political class.” Many Tunisians appreciated her perspective as an outsider, while others worried about her lack of experience hindering her ability to enact change.

And perhaps those who worried were right to, as many in Tunisia fear that Bouden is merely a pawn of an antifeminist and autocratic president. To be fair, though, Bouden may not have had a choice but to be anything but, given Saïed’s actions during his presidency. Namely, mere weeks before he nominated Bouden, Saïed won a referendum (with extremely low voter turnout) to reform the constitution and increase his purview. Elliot Abrams, a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, an American foreign policy think tank, described this move as similar to those of many aspiring autocrats, stating that this consolidation of power was “reminiscent of Nicolás Maduro’s Venezuela, Daniel Ortega’s Nicaragua, and dozens of other creeping dictatorships over the decades.” Saïed’s new constitution, Abrams added, “simply allows him to rule as he sees fit: He holds all executive and legislative power.”

Now, Saïed mostly governs on his own, using decrees, targeting the free press, and going after basic freedoms. Consequently, Bouden has not been seen as a transformative leader — at best, she is a symbol, and at worst, she is the accomplice of an aspiring autocrat. Hatem Nafti, a Franco-Tunisian writer and author of several books on Tunisian politics, described the situation as such: Saïed “decides” and Bouden “just executes.”

And yet, though Bouden’s appointment has not resulted in any substantial policy that has helped women or gender equality, it has still profoundly impacted how Tunisians think of female leadership. A 2022 BBC/Arab Barometer survey found that Tunisians are now less likely to believe that “in general, men are better at political leadership than women,” reporting a 16-point drop in respondents who agree with that statement, from 56% to 40%. According to Amaney Jamal, the co-founder of Arab Barometer and dean at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, these numbers are directly related to Bouden. “We didn’t see a drastic shift in public opinion on women’s rights prior to [Bouden’s] appointment,” Jamal told the BBC.

These figures suggest that Bouden’s mere presence in one of the highest political offices in Tunisia has led to a genuine shift in national attitudes about women leaders, and that must not be overlooked. Political scientists have established clear links between the representation of women in politics and women’s and girls’ political participation. This so-called “role model effect” encourages women and girls to care about politics and consider running for office. In a country with a long history of female political activism, there is hope, therefore, that Bouden will inspire the next generation of young women to step up and fight for gender equality, in Tunisia and across North Africa and the Middle East.